The College Hill Commoner_June 2010 by Barry Owens

4 Recalling “Ally

Pally.” Late friend memorialized at Hyde Elementary.

8 How does your

garden grow? A preview of this month’s garden & architecture tour.

15 Bike day on

Douglas puts riders in the driver’s seat.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER Vol. 4 No. 6

COLLEGE HILL

• CROWN HEIGHTS • UPTOWN • SLEEPY HOLLOW

JUNE 2010

‘GOOD EVENING COLLEGE HILL AND ALL THE SHIPS AT SEA’ The remarkably strong signal and lasting legacy of neighborhood radio station WAAP. PAGE 12

LETTERS

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JUNE 2010

WRITER’S BLOCK A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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here’s plenty to do in College Hill Park and I prefer lying down in the grass and doing next to nothing. There is usually a sandwich involved and maybe a blanket, but not much else. I don’t have a favorite spot as just about any shady patch will do. But the kids, well, they have ideas concerning recreation. They prefer climbing and falling, and I tend to let them so long as they hit the ground close by. Me? I’m a reader. So it is that one afternoon last month I wandered over to the footbridge after my nap in search of a few choice words. I found them carved in stone. They were left there by our College Hill ancestors. I wouldn’t call them profound words, but they seemed deeply felt. “I LOVE JIM” must have been cut into the stone by some poor heart-sick girl over and over again, so deep are the grooves. Other markings signal their stone age creators’ devotions to rock ‘n roll and hallucinogens. “ON LSD” one message helpfully notes, as if we couldn’t tell from the penmanship. Names of the bands Rush, UFO, and Husker Dü are more lovingly rendered. “The Clash” is carved so finely that it could grace a tombstone. Now, I’m no geologist, but I know rock music, and those bands are mostly of a late 1970s early ‘80s vintage. And some of the names left behind by our vain ancestors seem straight out of the class ‘65 yearbook. It’s not an important finding; it’s graffiti. I wouldn’t bother making a rubbing. But it’s difficult not to be at least a little taken with the courage of the creators’ convictions, their craftsmanship, their patience. Their names make good, quiet company, too. I sat there for a long while with STEVE, DEBBY, JANET and PAM, mutely watching the strollers and dog walkers pass by and wondering about JIM. I hope he married that girl. BARRY OWENS EDITOR

WRITE THE EDITOR:

We welcome your letters. No subject is out of bounds, so long as it is local. Letters should not exceed 300 words and may be edited for clarity and length.

E-MAIL US: editor@collegehillcommoner.com WRITE US: 337 N. Holyoke, Wichita, KS, 67208 CALL US: 689-8474 ADVERTISE: jessica@collegehillcommoner.com, or 689-8474 THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER VOLUME 4 ISSUE 6 JUNE 2010

PUBLISHER

J ESSICA F REY O WENS

EDITOR

B ARRY

OWENS

CONTRIBUTORS

D AVE K NADLER , B UD N ORMAN , S TEVE R ASMUSSEN , J EFF R OTH

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER

Published monthly by The College Hill Commoner 337 N. Holyoke Wichita, K.S. 67208 316-689-8474 editor@collegehillcommoner.com www.collegehillcommoner.com

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JUNE 2010

OP-ED

Praise the Lord and pass the Triscuits

s a five-year resident of Kansas, I know just what to do when I hear the tornado sirens: Go outside and stand around rubbernecking in the rain for a glimpse of the funnel. Then, time permitting, I may wander down to the basement for awhile. But it’s kind of musty smelling down and the DAVE KNADLER there big TV is upstairs and I might risk a trip or two to the kitchen to retrieve that box of Triscuits and perhaps a bottle of wine. And by then the guys on the radio have gotten sick of repeating themselves and life proceeds as before. There was a big storm a few weeks ago where the sky turned greenish before it turned black as night. For awhile there, I was convinced that my comfortable little house would soon be reduced to a pile of bricks and kindling. I huddled in the basement, alternately

asking: “Don’t you feeling foolish and worry about the torimagining the newspa- Fact is, we like nadoes?” The usual per photograph of me our severe response is to shrug wandering half-naked weather around through the debris, here — as long as and tell them no. Really, it’s not clutching a cheese grater and the few it’s not every day, Tornado Alley so much as Tornado fridge magnets I’d man- and as long as Nature Trail, where aged to recover. our homes large storms wander It’s times like that remain by for a bit of exerwhen you realize what’s cise before moving important in life. It’s undamaged. on to smash mobiletimes like that when you home parks in more realize that your Emerobscure communigency Tornado Kit conties. At least that’s sists of one can of tuna my perspective. Then and half a jug of cranberagain, I did drive ry juice left over from through Greensburg Thanksgiving. Next trip not too long after the to Dillon’s, you think, it might be prudent to lay in a stock of big one hit there, so I realize there ramen and jerky. And some batteries, may be other points of view on this. Fact is, we like our severe weathand some Band-Aids. Maybe a chainer around here – as long as it’s not saw and a shotgun too. But the next day dawns cool and every day, and as long as our homes undamaged. Around clear, and those things have a way of remain settling right back at the bottom of Wichita, the only real scenery is the the to-do list. What’s important in sky. When those mountainous life goes back to being the same as clouds appear in the southwest and most other days: lawn maintenance rumble forward threatening fistand meals and the next episode of sized hail, it’s no wonder some of us ignore the sensible warnings to seek Dancing With the Stars. When you live in the Midwest, shelter. We step outside when we people from elsewhere are always should be going downstairs. Hey,

it’s a tornado watch, right? So we’re watching. We want to see this. They probably felt that way in Poland the morning the Wehrmacht came rolling through. Never mind that the greatest danger is always in what you don’t see. During tornado alerts in Crown Heights, the only view I’ve ever had is very close clouds behind wildly swaying elms. I’m pretty sure that by the time I realized there was a funnel in there, I’d be winging my way towards Andover along with the siding and shingles that used to be my house. And experiencing a certain amount of regret. It’s all about the adventure, isn’t it? It makes no sense, but there’s something ennobling about riding out a storm. It requires no effort – and in my case, no planning – but when it’s over you feel you’ve somehow bested something far larger than yourself. You survey the fallen branches on the sodden lawn, the tomato plants and petunias pureed by hail, and think: “That all you got?” But unless you’re really foolish, you don’t think it very loud. Writer Dave Knadler lives in Crown Heights.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JUNE 2010

Alison Goodwin, highlighted in the second row, attended Hyde Elementary as a kindergartner more than 50 years ago. Her friends have not forgotten her. Alison, who went missing from her Maryland apartment in 2000, was memorialized last month by friends and family at the school and a donation to the library was made in her name.

RECALLING ‘ALLY PALLY’ Friends honor late friend Alison Goodwin Thresher with gift to Hyde library. BY BUD NORMAN More than 50 years have passed by since a cute kindergartner named Alison Goodwin first delighted in the library of Hyde Elementary School, but her love of reading is still in evidence there as a result of her friends’ effort to bring about some good from tragedy. The next crop of young readers to attend what is now Hyde International Studies and Communications Magnet Elementary School will have 87 brand new books to pore through, each donated in memory of the smiling and friendly little girl who grew up to become Alison Goodwin Thresher. The new books, as well as a plaque honoring the memory of Thresher, who went missing from her Maryland apartment in 2000 in a case that police later declared a homicide, were officially added to the library on May 14

Alison’s mother, Francis Goodwin, center, and Alison’s daughter, Sarah, at right, react during the emotional ceremony May 14 at Hyde Elementary School.

STEVE RASMUSSEN

during a school assembly. After an elaborate presentation by several students on the country of Nicaragua and some enthusiastic

group singing, a rapt audience of schoolchildren watched pictures of Thresher’s girlhood flash across a screen and listened quietly as her

friend Scott Oatsdean recalled her love of school and reading. He told of how she used to walk to school from her home on the 200 block of North Pershing, “skipping on the same sidewalks as you,” greeting friends who knew her as “Ally Pally.” Recalling that Thresher’s greatest passions were reading and writing, he explained how she became editor of the Hyde Highlighter and then the school newspaper at Robinson Junior High, first stops on a journalism career that culminated in a job as copy editor at the Washington Post. “I hope this will cause you to reflect on the life of this girl,” Oatsdean said. Although Thresher left Wichita for the Washington, D.C., area shortly after finishing ninth grade at Robinson Junior High, a result of her father CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JUNE 2010

RECALLING ‘ALLY PALLY’ CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

accepting a job as a high-ranking attorney in the U.S. Justice Department, she somehow continued her close friendships with her old classmates, frequently calling her old friends and occasionally flying to her old hometown for visits. Asked what it was about Thresher that allowed her to maintain such close friendships even through decades of living half a continent away, Oatsdean struggled to describe her infectious smile, her caring attitudes and zest for life, but he finally shrugged and said “You had to know her.” Connie Kendall, another of her friends in attendance at the dedication, remembered a nine-months-pregnant Thresher coming back for a junior high school reunion, and said that Thresher helped keep her circle of Wichita friends together throughout her life. Thresher’s death brought that circle of friends together again about two years ago, Oatsdean said, when they met to establish a memorial in her name. As Oatsdean explained, “We’d reached that point where we couldn’t be in denial anymore, and decided it was time.” The group raised $1,400 for the Alison Goodwin Thresher Memorial Fund, and decided the best way to honor their friend with the

Above: Martha Lueck, left, and Francis Goodwin, right, view old photographs and new books on a library table. The books were purchased with a donation to the school through the Alison Goodwin Thresher Memorial Fund. Above right: Hyde students attended the ceremony. Alison used to skip “on the same sidewalks as you,” Scott Oatsdean (at right) told them.

PHOTOS: STEVE RASMUSSEN

money was by adding a few new books to the library she once frequented. The school’s librarian, Marilee Mayo, acquired a diverse selection of titles with the donation and was grateful for the opportunity. “We’re usually limited in our purchases because of all the budget cuts,” Mayo said. “I’m thrilled and excited, because I was able to get some books that are fun.”

Thresher’s sister, Sarah Goodwin Thomas, attended the dedication with her mother, Frances Goodwin, and said she was grateful for the memorial. “I heard about it a year ago, and was so touched they’d thought about this,” Thomas said. “She had a lovely childhood here, as did I, and I think it was perfect to remember her with a literary gift.” Watching as Hyde’s remarkably well-behaved students marched in an

orderly fashion out of the school, all wearing red t-shirts to proclaim their “Hyde Pride,” Thomas said she was much impressed by her alma mater and wished that her own son could have attended there. She admitted that she also sometimes wished that her family had never left Wichita and its happy home on North Pershing, and expressed a desire to come back more often for visits. In the meantime, she was happy to know that some other girl skipping to Hyde would have a few extra books to read because of her sister.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JUNE 2010

GARDEN TOUR STOPS

300 S. Clifton

A Trident Maple tree, planted last month in College HIll park. Sharon O’Neill in her garden swing in the backyard of her home at 400 S. Roosevelt, one of five home and gardens included on the June 22 College Hill Garden and Architectural Tour.

BARRY OWENS

How Does Your Garden Grow?

400 S. Roosevelt

Enviably green gardens selected for June 12 College Hill Architectural & Garden Tour By Barry Owens

“We literally drove up and down every street in College Hill,” said Kathleen Snyder, one of the organizers of this month’s College Hill Architectural & Garden Tour, set for June 12. “We came up with a list two pages long.” Ultimately, Snyder and her neighbor, Judy Webber, settled on five homes to include in the tour. The pair volunteered to select the locations and help organize the event for the College Hill Neighborhood Association. The tour is a fundraiser for the Association. “It was kind of hard to tell in March what the gardens might evolve to be, but it turns out that we made some great choices,” said Webber. Among them is the handsome home surrounded by flowers and foliage at 400 S. Roosevelt. “I’m the ground cover queen,” said Sharon O’Neill, who lives there with her husband Bill McKeighan.

A master gardener and obsessive weed puller (she yanked a few during a recent visit), O’Neill was only half joking. “Being a master gardener doesn’t mean you’re an expert, it just means that your passionate about it. Other people have hobbies, like flying. I garden. That’s my hobby,” she said. The June 12 garden tour is set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $5 and are available at any of the locations on the day of the tour, or at Watermark Books beginning June 1. Printed guides including information on the home, homeowners and gardens along the tour, will be provided. O’Neill said she is eager to welcome guests to her garden. Already, she’s getting visitors. Last month, a statue of St. Francis arrived, followed by flocks of birds that have discovered the seed dish, perpetually full, in his hands. “They’ve been telling their friends,” she said.

335 S. Crestway

328 N. Pershing

237 N. Crestway

A Tour Through the Trees BY BARRY OWENS There’s a new tree in the neighborhood. It lives in College Hill Park. The Trident Maple was planted late last month by Justin Combs, City of Wichita Arborist. The College Hill Neighborhood Association paid for the tree. You’ll find it on the sloping grounds just north of the tennis courts. (Look for the stakes). Combs said he selected the Trident Maple, so called for its three-pronged leave, because it is unique. The new maple is likely to be part of the June 12 tour of the park. Combs, along with Tim McDonnell, who is with the Kansas Forest Service, will be offering 45 tours of the park as part of that day’s College Hill Architectural & Garden Tour. “I honestly could talk for about an hour on any single tree,” Combs said. “I’ve got at least 18 or 19 different species I want to show. I’m going to have to be careful.”

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JUNE 2010

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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JUNE 2010

HISTORY

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JUNE 2010

PHOTO COURTESY OF ORIN FRIESEN

Left: WAAP at its later home in Milford, Kansas. The station first broadcast from a small shack and twin towers on Roosevelt in College Hill (shown below, center). The original station, which was sold and moved to Milford in 1923, was launched a year earlier in College Hill by S.W. Cooper, president of United Electric Company, and operated by sons S.W. “Wilbur” Cooper, Jr. and youngest son Donald Cooper. Wilbur, shown below, was the station’s promoter.

WICHITA-SEDGWICK COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM

‘Live from College Hill, it’s WAAP Radio’ Radio station on Roosevelt is long gone but signal still loud and clear. JEFF A. ROTH “Dear Sirs, we must lodge a complaint regarding your radio transmissions. Your radio broadcasts from socalled ‘College Hill’ are interfering with our ship-to-shore communications. We can no longer tolerate your entertainment programs interrupting our Gulf Coast operations. If your power is not curtailed forthwith we will be compelled to file a complaint with the Department of Commerce in Washington.” According to the late William G. Pierpont, a local radio historian, a letter of protest, perhaps along the lines of the above, was received in Wichita from a New Orleans shipping concern. This documented problem with radio interference in 1922 attested to the transmitting power of WAAP, a radio station broadcasting from an alfalfa field, on College Hill. That field, formerly the M.R. Moser farm, had been platted by nurseryman and blacksmith Moser in 1884 as the Brooklyn Heights Addition to Wichita. In the recovery following the 1880’s collapse of Wichita’s real estate market,

The radio tower is only faintly visible in this early photo of the original WAAP on Roosevelt in College Hill.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WILLIAM G. PIERPONT ESTATE

Samuel “S.W.” Cooper bought three large lots in the addition along Moser Avenue and in 1894 built a large country home at Third and Moser, today’s 403 N. Roosevelt. Today the home features a

Join us for our Vacation Bible Camp June 28 - July 2.

move from experimental to commercial use, requiring the government to license the use of the airwaves. In a rush that started in January of 1921, various businesses applied for a broadcast license: newspapers, automobile dealers, furniture stores, colleges and others. One such applicant was the Wichita wholesale elecPHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN HYDE trical supply house, United The Cooper home, circa 1900. It has since been remodeled Electric Company, operated but still stands at 403 N. Roosevelt. The radio station, at by President S.W. Cooper, left, was built in an alfafa field north of the house. son S.W. “Wilbur” Cooper, Jr. and youngest son Donald Colonial appearance as a result of Cooper. The Coopers, owning real estate remodeling efforts in 1924 by S.W.’s ideally situated on the hill, were granted daughter Rebecca (Cooper) Rounds. a broadcast license on April 25, 1922. In 1921 however, radio was “all the This enabled them to construct a radio buzz.” Up to then “wireless” had been station in the family’s alfalfa field north the province of amateur “hams” — the of their house on the west side of geeks of yesteryear. They broadcast in Roosevelt. United Electric would own Morse code and later voice, although the station and the Wichita Eagle would rarely over 100 miles distance due to lack provide content for its broadcasts. The of power. With the advent of improved CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE technology after WW I, radio would

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JUNE 2010

HISTORY

‘LIVE FROM COLLEGE HILL, IT’S WAAP RADIO’ CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

call letters they chose were WAAP (before the government switched to call signs beginning with a W if east of the Mississippi River or with K if west of there). Work on the station was begun early in the spring of 1922 with a goal to broadcast by July 4 that year. A one-room cottage was hauled to the site to house the equipment and serve as the “studio.” Their transmitter was a behemoth for its time – 500 watts. The newspaper reported “Wichita is to have the most powerful radio broadcasting station between Pittsburgh, Pa., and the Pacific coast.” It was predicted that its range would be 1,000 miles, a fact soon confirmed by sea captains in the Gulf of Mexico. The station’s range was a result of not only its RCA vacuum radio tubes, built as big as Coke bottles, but also its aerial suspended 120 feet in the air. Called a cage-antenna, the aerial was a horizontal cage of wires running lengthwise over six foot diameter hoops, stretched between two poles set about 150 feet apart. To the neighbors it looked like a 150 foot skinless zeppelin hovering overhead. The manner of setting the two support poles bears mention for the technically curious. Close to Central Avenue the first footing was dug and a pipe cemented into the ground to receive the towering mast. Above it a temporary wooden derrick, similar to oil field derricks of the era, was built above the footing. Borrowing block and tackle techniques from the oil patch, the workmen raised six 20 foot sections of 2-inch tubing into the air (as opposed to lowering sections of pipe into the ground), bolting the pipe sections together as it went up. The growing tower was stabilized with multiple sets of guy wires. The erection process was then repeated for the south tower closer to the Cooper home. Herb Roll, one of the youngest workmen, was hoisted to the top of each mast and painted it as he was lowered down. The two towers were raised without a hitch. However, a day or so after the second one was finished a Kansas windstorm blew into town testing the design. As luck would have it the north tower blew down, folding over onto itself. The weak link turned out to be a glass insulator called a “Johnny-ball” that had failed under the strain. To correct the problem additional insulators were added to the new tower’s guy wires to spread out the load. Regrettably during the hoisting aloft of the cage-antenna the south mast

Doctor John R. Brinkley, the infamous Kansas goat-gland doctor, prepares for a questionable procedure (transplanting a goat’s testicular gland into a male patient’s scrotum). Brinkley purchased WAAP from the Coopers to use the air waves to promote his cure for impotence

KANSASMEMORY.ORG

also failed. The culprit was another Johnny-ball failure. According to Pierpont, after the collapse of the original two towers it took more than a little bit of talking to convince young Herb Roll to go back up and paint the new ones. The station was nonetheless ready to air its first broadcast on Tuesday July 4, 1922. The fare for the evening was a champion wrestling match being held downtown at the Forum Auditorium, Century II’s predecessor. The match featured Ed “the Strangler” Lewis of Fort Worth and local favorite Alan Eustace, “the Kansas wrestling farmer.” Despite Lewis winning 2 out of 3 “falls” the broadcast was deemed a huge success — loud and clear. Quoting A.V. Davis of 315 S. Holyoke, “Reports came in perfectly and the broadcasting was perfectly modulated.” Later that week the city at large was invited out to the hill for a live broadcast, billed as the station’s grand opening. Promoter Wilbur Cooper took out newspaper ads showing the Roosevelt Street “radio plant” and offering an evening’s entertainment in a picnic-like setting. Curiously, the ad on page 5 of the July 7, 1922 Eagle no longer touted the station as being the largest this side of Pittsburg, the claim was now… “this side of Chicago.” Receiving sets (radios with megaphones) were placed at intervals around the field. Parking on Roosevelt and Central allowed patrons to sit in their automobiles within hearing distance of the broadcast. Those wanting a closer experience, to actually see the performers, were invited to set chairs near the

studio-shack without fear of electrical shock, “as everything is doubly, triply and more insulated” (ever since the addition of extra Johnny-balls following the first mishaps). Thousands of distant listeners tuned in. The program included the Boy Scouts’ flag raising ceremony; Edison music played into a telephone microphone; remarks by Eagle publisher Marshall Murdock; a live performance by the Symphony Quartet; solos by Mrs. L.A. Heckard, and a concluding bedtime story read over the air at 10 p.m. WAAP was never much of a financial success for United Electric. The station was expensive to operate and after the novelty of the broadcasts wore off, Wichita merchants became less active in supporting it with advertising revenue. Some even had qualms about advertising on the radio in the first place, thinking it unethical to use this new medium for commercial advantage. The Coopers turned off the power on June 1, 1923. They had found, however, a buyer for College Hill’s WAAP and its impressive equipment, someone who had no need for outside advertising but who needed plenty of transmitter power for the reach it would bring. That buyer would be none other than the master of self-promotion and quackery, Doctor John R. Brinkley, the infamous Kansas goat-gland doctor. John R. Brinkley is best known for offering a $750 surgical procedure to men whose libido was drooping – he would transplant a goat’s testicular gland into the male patient’s scrotum in an effort to turn the hapless man, according to one of his ads, “into the ram that am with every lamb.” During a visit and

gland operation on the Los Angeles founder of the Times-Mirror fortune, Harry Chandler, Brinkley toured KHJ, a radio station Chandler owned. Brinkley immediately saw the promise a broadcasting station would hold for promoting his peculiar cure. Back in Kansas he made a deal with United Electric to buy WAAP for $10,000. He had the station reconstructed in Milford, Kansas and renamed it KFKB, standing for “Kansas First, Kansas Best.” On the air Brinkley would speak for hours on end promoting his goat gland treatment. He variously cajoled, shamed and appealed to his listener’s egos and their desire to be more sexually active. Between his spells of hucksterism he would fill the airwaves with an eclectic mix of story telling, astrological forecasts, French lessons, and music including military band, dance orchestra, gospel revival and country western. In addition to running afoul of the American Medical Association and having his medical license revoked, he also drew the ire of the Federal Radio Commission who refused to renew his radio license in 1930. He sold KFKB and pioneered the use of high powered radio transmitters just across the border of Mexico, “border blasters,” where for a time he continued to practice his quackery in nearby Del Rio, Texas. College Hill’s WAAP radio station eventually returned to Wichita in a sense. Before moving his operations down south, Brinkley sold the station to The Farmers and Bankers Life Insurance Company of Wichita, who changed its name to KFBI. The station broadcast from Abilene (with remote a studio in Salina where for a time Paul Harvey was employed as its station manager). Farmers and Bankers brought the station home to Wichita in 1940 after its decade spent in Abilene. KFBI’s studio was set up on the fifth floor of the Farmers & Bankers building at 1st and Market. Its recording facilities were state-of-the-art and played host, for instance, to jazz great Charlie Parker who’s Wichita recordings there were thought lost but discovered in 1959 and released in1974. Another notable visitor was Hollywood star Ronald Reagan who stopped by to affirm broadcast industry ties. KFBI’s powerful 254 foot, 5,000 watt tower was located at 42nd and North Broadway. If the tower’s location sounds vaguely familiar it may be because today the address is home to KFDI radio – the current holder of the WAAP, KFKB, KFBI, KFDI legacy.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JUNE 2010

Pedal Power Photos by BARRY OWENS

From Delano to College Hill, bicyclists could be found up and down the avenue during “I Bike Douglas,” an event organized last month to raise bicycle awareness and safety. At the Red Cross, hundreds turned out for maintenance and safety courses. “He just got his training wheels off,” said one parent. “So we thought we’d bring him here.”

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meet the teachers TINA THOMAS is a certified art teacher who holds a BFA with an emphasis on ceramics and art education. She volunteers her time with the Ulrich Museum. JOHN Q is a well known local artist who specializes in spray painting. He has held numerous shows around Wichita. You can view his work in Old Town.