The College Hill Commoner

6 Traveling on:

Local publishers of of newspaper, Kansas Traveler, are moving on.

8 Piece by piece:

Owners of Aviary top off cottage with a peak piece, but all is not done around the house.

15 A photographic look at the old neighborhood’s Fourth of July parades.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER Vol. 2 No. 8

COLLEGE HILL

• CROWN HEIGHTS • UPTOWN • SLEEPY HOLLOW

JULY 2009

The night that the theatre almost went dark.

Staff rallies to keep the doors open.

Manager steps up to buy the business & vows to keep it open for the next generation.

A Commoner exclusive page 4

2

LETTERS

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

BOOKS 4 SALE A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

W

e don’t buy the lemonade from the corner stand because it tastes good. We buy the lemonade from the corner stand because the sign is crooked and the kids are cute. We’re charmed by the scene and want to reward those young entrepreneurs for their gumption. We know we could get a better deal at the shop down the street (really, kid, a dollar a cup?) but we buy it up anyway because this is America, where everyone is entitled to earn a buck and the sooner we can encourage our kids to do that on their own, the better.

School is out, which was apparent last month by the number of tiny salespersons we saw out peddling their wares in the neighborhood. Lemonade stands on Clifton and Circle Drive, a car washing crew on Holyoke and Rutan that went door to door with bucket and rags in hand, the popcorn dealer on Second Street who waved his sign at the passing traffic. Then there was the little hustler in our house. He had been hatching one scheme after another for weeks to earn a little folding money from the neighbors before he was finally visited with inspiration. He rushed up to his room with a pen and pad and returned 45 minutes later with chapter 1 of My Life, an autobiography. He is seven years old.

“You think I could sell it?” he asked God bless that child, and America, too.

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 CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS: Spot an error? Please let us know. It is the policy of The College Hill Commoner to print corrections and clarifications.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER VOLUME 2 ISSUE 8 JULY 2009

PUBLISHER

J ESSICA F REY O WENS

EDITOR

B ARRY

OWENS

CONTRIBUTORS

K ATIE G ORDON , D AVE K NADLER , MARK PENDERGRASS , 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 ❚ JULY 2009

OP-ED

3

The Fast Lane Runs Through It

W

ho among us has not been speeding west along Second Street, or east along First, only to look in the rear-view mirror to see some jerk in a Dodge Durango trying to slide by on the right?

It is one of the great mysteries of life in this part of town: Are First and Second streets supposed to be three lanes?

Two lanes? A single wide lane except for when you get to an Or DAVE KNADLER intersection? are they really just two sides of the same tree-lined racetrack? And if that’s the case, when the hell is the city going to take out the traffic lights and install banked turns on Edgemoor and Hillside?

Anyone who’s followed me down Second knows my views on the subject: Since cars may be parked on either side during most hours of the day, a prudent driver stays to the center, driving at a speed deemed safe according to conditions. For me, that’s about 85 miles per hour, although I’m always careful to slow

it down to around 60 at those yellow parking a block away.

I’ve lived and driven in a number lights where the foolish and timid of different cities, and in all of them sometimes wait to cross. I realize people like to complain that the other that’s too slow for some of you, but if you don’t like it, try getting out the drivers there are the worst in world.

In Philadelphia, it was true. But in door a little earlier. That way, you’ll Philadelphia, the be in front of me and I’ll be the one cursing and It’s a sad fact of life sheer number of cars on the road meant veering from side to side in Wichita that if trying get around. you don’t arrive at you’d spend a good part of your commute Some may question your destination in just sitting there on whether it’s really safe record time, you the Schuylkill to be passing a lot of might not be able to Expressway. It didn’t cars and exchanging find a parking matter whether you obscene gestures with space directly were in a gleaming other drivers in a resiBMW or a beat-up dential neighborhood outside the door.

Buick; rich and poor that traverses a number alike were forced to of school zones. Of crank up the AC and course it isn’t. But we put the road rage on who drive these streets simmer. It’s one thing to flip somehave urgent business: a take-out body off at 75, quite another when order at Great Wall, for example, or he’s parked right next to you. a craft show at Century II. Maybe Here in Wichita, there’s never a another mind-numbing shift at work, traffic jam to impose perspective or the need to get home before the or the camaraderie of a shared dog decides he doesn’t need to go outside after all. In any case, time is of ordeal. And if there were, a quick alternate route is always just a the essence. It’s a sad fact of life in block or so away. What Wichita Wichita that if you don’t arrive at your lacks in scenery it makes up for in destination in record time, you might alternate routes. People here just not be able to find a parking space aren’t used to needless delays, directly outside the door. Safety is all some old geezer crawling along at well and good, but but not if it means

only 5 mph above the speed limit with his left blinker permanently on.

Then there’s Eastborough.

People warned us about that the first day we arrived. Here’s this tasteful little enclave for the semiaffluent with a whole police force dedicated to a single task: nailing those who slightly exceed the 20mph speed limit. They’re good at it too. That same avenging angel in the Dodge Durango, who’s going to pass you in College Hill even if it means driving on the sidewalk, becomes a quiet little lamb when he approaches the lions of Eastborough.

Maybe Eastborough has it right.

You wonder, idling along those leafy streets, what a strictlyenforced 20-mph speed limit would mean for Crown Heights and College Hill. For starters, it might mean that a single lane would suffice. Then again, the extra five minutes needed to get downtown would quite likely destroy our quality of life. So let’s forget about that. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

Writer Dave Knadler lives in Crown Heights.

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4

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

Theatre Manager Buys Crown Uptown Business

BY BARRY OWENS The Crown Uptown Theatre will finish this season, open the next, and hopefully remain open long enough for his great grandchildren to buy tickets, new owner Robert Brinkley says.

Brinkley, general manager of the theatre, is the new owner of the business. He stepped in to buy the business and save it from closure last month after Karen Morris, widow of the late Ted Morris, decided to retire. She and her husband, who died last year, were partners in the theatre they opened 32 years ago.

“It was just time,” Morris said.

Morris had initially intended to close the theatre and announced on June 17 that the weekend’s performances of “Disney’s High School Musical” would be the theatre’s last.

The first that most employees heard about it was in the next morning’s paper or on the local news. Or, from the grim phone calls that came from Brinkley.

He called employees the following morning not only to inform them that the theatre was closing, but to ask them to come in that night even if they were not scheduled. The phone was ringing off the hook, he explained. The show was sold out. Over sold, actually. People wanted one last chance to catch a show at the Crown. The theatre needed every single employee to be there that night. Every

PHOTO: BARRY OWENS

Robert Brinkley, general manager and new owner of the Crown Uptown Theatre.

single employee said yes.

“They came here knowing that they didn’t have jobs on Monday,” said Brinkley. “What other company out there can say that? We laid our people off on Friday and they still came to work the weekend. It is because we are family here.”

That night, ticket holders were lined up in the lobby and outside and more than one photographer stood across the street snapping shots of the neon sign and

marquee out front. “I wanted to get a shot while the lights were still on,” one of them said.

Inside, Karen Morris seated guests and said goodbye to old friends. In the lobby, one local family, the Starbirds, presented her with a card thanking her for her all the shows they had seen there and to say they were sorry it was closing.

“Well, thank you,” Morris said. “But I think there may be a way that we can find to keep it open,” she said.

Behind close doors, she and Brinkley were talking. First, the plan was to keep theatre open at least another weekend to allow ticket holders a chance to see “High School Musical.” Then there was talk of keeping it open through the end of the season. By the time Brinkley took the stage to introduce the show, he seemed confident he would find a way to keep the theatre open indefinitely.

“It’s ironic timing,” Brinkley told the crowd. “But we just got the rights the other day to do Chicago. And you know something, we’re going to do it.”

There was a gasp from the crowd, and then wild applause.

“A lot of people have the impression that we are just trying to get through the season,” Brinkley said a week later in his office. “Our plan is to move forward with the 33rd season here at the Crown.”

But there will be a few changes, start-

ing with the name. It is now Crown Uptown Theatre.

“We took the dinner theatre part out because we want to emphasis that we are a venue,” Brinkley said. “We are open to do business for whatever the community needs,” he said, listing weddings, receptions, business meetings, even church services for a congregation in need of space.

That doesn’t mean there will be fewer shows. Brinkley said the next season will feature a full slate of shows, for which casting on some of them is already complete. Among other shows, the season includes the hit “Chicago,” and “Basement Ladies 2: Second Helping” a sequel to the “biggest show that we ever did,” Brinkley said.

Brinkley has been the general manager, a position he will retain, at the theatre for six years. The Morris family will continue to own the building, but Brinkley now owns and operates the business.

“There is a lot of need out there for the arts in society, and closing a business like this would diminish that—not to mention that we have close to 35 regular salaried and hourly employees that work here,” Brinkley said. “Right now, the economy can’t afford to have another 35 unemployed people out there. I just felt compelled not to let that happen.”

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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

Resident, Property Manager, College Hill Caretaker

BY BARRY OWENS There is a good deal more than a dime’s worth of difference between the property values in College Hill and some other, less well-kempt neighborhoods in the city.

Homeowners around here can credit some of that to pride of place and the extra effort and equity that homeowners put into their properties. That the homes are old and fine to begin with helps. But arguably the biggest difference is that the rental properties—and there are more in the neighborhood that you may have noticed—are better maintained.

Shabby rentals bring shabby rents and tenants, which make for shabby blocks.

So it is that College Hill resident and rental property owner Bill Hess keeps a close eye on his neighborhood properties and is on the lookout for more to maintain.

This month Hess launches a property management business, College Hill Property Management, with the goal of managing his current properties and acquiring contracts to manage other rentals, exclusively within College Hill.

Hess is a lifelong College Hill resident and co-owner and manager of the recently sold Inn at the Park Hotel and Venue. He currently co-owns and manages Belmont Place, The Belmont Apartments and several other apart-

Bill Hess, a lifelong resident of College Hill, outside Belmont Place apartments. Hess manages the apartments, as well as several others in the neighborhood. This month he launches College Hill Property Management, with the hope of adding more.

PHOTO: BARRY OWENS

ments and duplexes in the neighborhood.

“I want to provide the kind of management that really cares about the area,” Hess said. “I know nothing about the south side or the west side, but I know all there is to know about College Hill.”

Hess and his wife, Judy, are both active members of the College Hill Home Owners Association. Both are life long residents of the neighborhood and attended College Hill grade schools

and East High School.

Hess is currently vice president and land manager of McCoy Petroleum Corporation.

“As I ramp down in the oil business, I’m ramping up in the property management business,” he said. “I’ve got a critical mass of properties that I have ownership of myself. Now I want to add properties [outside of those he owns] to manage.”

Late last month, Hess made an office for himself in a ground floor

apartment in The Belmont, a 1915 Chicago-style apartment building at 115 S. Belmont.

The apartments, which feature murphy beds and a rooftop garden, have held up well over the years. So too have the apartments just across the way, Belmont Place. Both are fully occupied and Hess said there is a waiting list of tenants eager to move in to either building.

“I specialize in College Hill rentals because I know the area, the people that live here and, most importantly, I know what it takes to manage historic and generally older properties,” he said.

“My maintenance manager has been with me since 1999 and knows the properties better than I do.”

Starting this month, Hess is cutting back to three days a week in the oil business and will spend the remaining work days in his office at The Belmont.

From there he will handle the management, accounting, and the assignment of maintenance for his properties and the others he hopes to pick up. (He can be reached at 304-5444).

While it is hardly retirement, the work will keep him closer to home. And he is insistent on only taking on additional properties in College Hill.

“They have to be close enough that I can hit to them with a three iron,” he said.

6

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER â?š JULY 2009

Susan and John Howell, publishers of Kansas Traveler, celebrate the first year of the publication with cake. Now five years later, the next issue will be their last.

SHANNON LITTLEJOHN

Traveling On Local publishers of Kansas Traveler moving on

BY BARRY OWENS Every quarter for the past six years Kansas Traveler has hit the news racks and mailboxes from Wichita to Wamego and all points in between. The regional publication features stories about Kansas attractions, small town getaways, good day trip destinations and events of interest for the Kansas tourist.

But the summer issue, which hit the streets last month, contained a little something new. There, on the front page, was a letter from the publishers: “This Kansas Traveler is the second-to-last one from us, John and Susan Howell,� it read in part.

The Howells, who live in College Hill, are stepping away from the publication they created and publish out of their home on Dellrose. “What really gets me motivated are two things: deadlines and creating something new,� Susan Howell told The Commoner last month. “I think I am at the place where I want to do something different.�

The couple started the paper in 2004, and at that time, it was definitely a different venture for them.

John and Susan, both retired, are computer programmers by trade (John worked for N.C.R and Boeing; Susan worked for N.C.R. and The Wichita Eagle, where she developed computer systems for the paper).

They were early adapters on the Internet and as early as 1995 were building Web sites for small towns in Kansas, and eventually all 105 of the state’s counties. “When John was at Boeing he would run into people from Seattle and they would come to Kansas and say, ‘There is nothing to do here.’ We were determined to prove them wrong. So we started to put up Web sites about little towns and little

places. Every weekend we were on the road.�

But a Web site is not easy to peruse on the road. In 2003, Susan had a revelation—the printing press. “I went from what was at that time fairly new technology back to about 1,000 year old technology. The whole idea was to give a publication to people that would entice them to get on the road and see some things in Kansas. We knew people in Wichita who had never ventured beyond the city limits,� she said.

The result was Kansas Traveler, a full color, quarter-folded tabloid newspaper packed with articles and ads about Kansas destinations. It is available by subscription and on news stands. You will find copies locally at Watermark Books. “I didn’t want to do a glossy publication because I wanted people to feel comfortable picking it up, folding it up, and putting it in their pocket. And I’ve seen people do it over and over again,� she said.

But the next issue, which publishes in the fall, will be the last issue that travelers can pick up and find the Howells names printed inside.

Susan said there have been suitors interested in purchasing the paper and she is hopeful that it will continue. “It is time for somebody else to take it to the next level. I am getting to the point where I want to do something different and I don’t have the energy to keep doing it,� she said. “At first, I thought, I’m just going to kill it, I’m just going to shut her down. But then I thought, you know, I’m going to miss having this paper to read. I wouldn’t have the Kansas Traveler to find out when and where the events are.�

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7

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

COMMUNITY CALENDAR Fair Volunteers Needed The College Neighborhood Assoc-iation is seeking volunteers to help with the Family Fun Fair in August at College Hill Park.The annual fair features family games, such as an egg toss, and cakewalk, and other summer time fun events.

The association needs volunteers to show up and lend a hand. No date for the August fair has yet been set.

To volunteer, call Judy Hess, 681-2841, or Laura Allen, 6872676.

Men’s Chorus Fundraiser The Heart of America Men’s Chorus will perform Voices from the Heart, an 11-man ensemble this month at College Hill United Methodist Church, 2930 E. First Street.

The concert, billed as Summer Reverberations, will include spirituals, Broadway music, country, comedy and inspirational numbers. The concert will also feature local vocalist Jennifer King, who is a soloist at St. James Episcopal Church.

King will perform several

familiar songs, including Somewhere Over the Rainbow and a sacred medley of Sandi Patty songs.

The concert is July 12 at 6 p.m.

A reception will follow with homemade desserts and drinks.

Tickets are $20 at the door or may be purchased in advance by calling 316-263-0808.

Proceeds will be used to offset the cost of the ensemble's trip to Ohio, where they have been asked to perform at a national music conference.

Lincoln Heights Party Set Lincoln Heights Village, at Douglas and Oliver, turns 60 years old this month, and the merchants plan to celebrate with a party in the parking lot on Aug. 8 from 6-8 p.m.

The whole neighborhood is invited.

The event will feature live music, food, classic cars, contests— best decorated kids bicycle and tricycle—drawings for gift baskets, and a chance to win a diamond valued at $3,000 (register at any Lincoln Heights Village merchant beginning July 6 for a chance to win).

EXPIRES 7/31/09

AUG. 5

8

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

Above: Roofers haul up an ornamental peak piece last month to top off the 1887 Aviary, a cottage on Cirlce Drive near Roosevelt being restored by current homeowners Alan and Kathleen Pearce. Top row: The balcony as it was being restored; Alan with the remade porch rail, and the original and replicated ornamental pieces side by side. Center: The house today.

Inset: The house in 1985.

PIECE BY PAINSTAKING PIECE Restoring Aviary a labor of love and test of patience for College Hill couple.

BY BARRY OWENS It is hard to miss the Victorian cottage at the edge of the park on Circle Drive near Roosevelt. Aviary, as the house is called—the name is inscribed in stone on the chiminey, a pun on the name of its builder and original resident George Bird (of the architectural team of Proudfoot and Bird)—is colorful and cute as gingerbread.

It is also historically accurate. From the cedar shingles to the stone steps, the exterior has been restored to what it must have looked like when Bird first crossed the threshold in 1887.

Bird, and his partner Willis Proudfoot, designed the cottage in 1887 as a model home in College Hill. It went up at the same time as another model home just around the way on Circle Drive, Hillside Cottage, also designed by the architects, which for a time housed the Wichita Country Club. The homes were among the first built in College Hill, meant to lure other builders and homeowners to the neighborhood.

Current owners Alan and Kathleen Pearce moved in almost 100 years later, in 1985, and have been at work ever

Aviary, a cottage on Circle Drive near Roosevelt, was built in 1887. Current owners Alan and Kathleen Pearce worked from this photo and others to restore the home to original condition.

COURTESY PHOTO

since restoring the place to its original condition.

“It’s like detective work,” said Kathleen.

The couple employed a magnifying glass and old photographs to puzzle out the design of the original wooden porch railing (it had been replaced with wrought iron).

When photos weren’t readily avail-

able, they dug deeper. They excavated parts of the yard and found the original foundation of the porte cochere. The original stone steps to the porch were unearthed, as well.

And last month, roofers were sent aloft to install a replica of the original ornamental peak piece. The original still exists, but has deteriorated and was removed and stored in the garage when

the roof was replaced. A tin replica was created by Tennison Brothers.

The homeowners watched from safely below as the roofers hauled the ornament up the steep roof and wiggled it into place.

“Is it level?” Alan shouted to the men above.

“It’s level,” they shouted back.

“But does it look straight?” Kathleen wanted to know. She circled the house, taking it in from nearly all sides, before giving the go ahead to screw the piece into place.

It would be pleasant to report here that the installation meant that the house was topped off, and the Pearces could step inside, rest a spell, and enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done. But Kathleen said that there remain a few nagging details: the western balcony, long ago walled up and shagged over with carpet, needs work, a wooden arch is missing from the porch, and the brick chimney near the back of the house was originally made of stone.

“Will we get around to all of that? I don’t know,” said Kathleen. “But if you wanted it to be absolutely accurate, you would need to have those things done.”

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9

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

Falling Rocks Photos by BARRY OWENS

Last month restoration workers dismantled one of the piers of the Belmont Place arches on Douglas.

Stones were removed one by one, including one that had recently been tagged with “love,” cleaned numbered and stored in a locker until reassembly, which is expected to be completed this month.

HISTORY

10

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

A 1912 photo showing the J. F. Rogers farm at Douglas and Broadview (the house and barn can be seen at right), one of the earliest farms in College Hill.

The High Ground Early farmers first to put down roots on the Hill

BY JEFF A. ROTH

D

uring Wichita’s early years, travel was usually across the open prairie by horse, buggy or ox wagon, the latter euphemistically called the prairie schooner. On fair weather days as many as 20 to 30 ox-drawn wagons could be seen on Main Street, having hauled in lumber from Emporia’s Neosho and Cottonwood river This is the final v a l l e y s . T h e y were supplying installment in a the young town’s four-part series building needs. about the The town soon earliest residents boasted an assortment of hardof the old neighborhood. ware stores, drug stores, harness and wagon shops, restaurants, three hotels, two saloons, “and too many law offices to count.” By far the largest demographic group in the 1870s was single men in their twenties, attracted to the frontier’s adventures and opportunities.

These early Wichitans included spur jingling Texas drovers and foreign sounding store keeps, grangers to gamblers, bankers to bar keeps, plus a flock of soiled doves who fluttered about them.

Some of the young men were lucky in land early on; they were the land speculators who turned a smart profit by purchasing recently opened government land and selling it to later arriving immigrant farmers. One such newly arrived farmer was Solomon S. Ridle. He was a 31-year-old Pennsylvania farmer who spoke with a German accent. He came to

Kansas in 1871 with his wife Mary and their two children Bertha and Guy having left behind the occupied, high priced farmland back home. He was intent on starting a farm in affordable and verdant Kansas, formerly mischaracterized as a desert, previously considered fit only for Indians.

Go East, Young Man New arrivals to Wichita in the 1870s were quick to buy a newspaper and read the real estate ads. They would seek out a local agent to learn of available acreage. This newly offered public land they would either preempt from the government (occupy and buy), or purchase outright from an existing landowner.

Advice was freely given, such as “Buy to the east and avoid crossing the river when you bring your crops to market.” A bridge across the Arkansas would be built by 1872, but to cross it would cost a toll each way. This detriment west of the river would foster the earliest recorded example of east siders’ notions of superiority.

Mr. Ridle was soon introduced to Civil War veteran E.F. Staley who had just started a farm with a shack, water well, and plans for springtime plantings.

He was on 160 acres out east in the country, up on the hill. You could almost see his place from town. The two struck a deal and recorded Staley’s deed on April 5, 1871. Ridle paid Staley $600 for the north east quarter of College Hill’s Section 23.

The Ridles needed a larger farmhouse. In addition to Bertha and Guy they needed to provide shelter for their

“hired man” Perry, a 19 year old from England. If their farm house followed convention it would have been set back from the road 50 to 100 yards. The “road” north of their place was not much more than a trail worn from Augusta to Wichita. “Augusta Road,” as it was called, was eventually renamed “Central Avenue.” In town it represented the dividing line between real estate additions platted by competing town founders—William Greiffenstein and Darius Munger. As seen from the road the Ridle house probably featured a stoop over the front door and shade trees to the west. Mary Ridle may have gazed out to her flower patch through a bay window. Two such farmhouses still exist in the area, if you know where to look.

One sets slightly back from Central and the other back from Kellogg, (more on that later).

Hard Row to Hoe Farming on College Hill was not originally considered a sure bet. Those who bought in the valley knew from earlier Indian days that crops would thrive in the rich valley soil. They weren’t as certain about the upland areas.

Nonetheless, hill pioneers such as Soloman Ridle began breaking the sod for crops, trees and hedge fences, as did Ridle’s neighbor to the west, M. R. Moser. Moser was a wagon manufacturer whose farm occupied much of the northwest quadrant of today’s College Hill. The farm was prominent enough to eventually have a Moser Avenue, that is, until a president’s popularity fostered a name change to Roosevelt Street.

Moser established his farm through a series of land purchases in the early 1870s. His activities such as wheat threshing and orchard planting were often mentioned in the newspaper.

Mention was especially made of the fine

WICHITA-SEDGWICK COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM

brick home he built in 1873, east of town on Augusta Road. In a few short years, however, his wagon factory was turning out seven wagons a week and occupying more and more of his time. By 1874 Moser desired to turn his farming operations over to someone else to handle. In 2009 a lease of Moser’s farm turned up in a neighborhood real estate abstract. It reveals details about the farming activities actually going on in College Hill. M. R. Moser and tenant farmer W.U. Cox agreed to lease to Cox and his family possession of the brick house and adjacent farm buildings, except the “main stable” that Moser needed to retain for his driving horse, until livery arrangements could be made in town. Moser agreed to bore a well and erect a windmill if sufficient water were produced.

Mr. Cox, for his part, agreed to plant 40 to 60 acres of the farm in wheat, rye, oats, barley, or buckwheat and pay rent based on one third of the proceeds from the farm’s grain, fruit and vegetable sales at market. Moser would additionally provide grape vines and blackberry plants for Cox to grow. Moser, renown for his arborist skills, also provided scores of tree seedlings for Cox to plant and keep cleared of weeds. Cox was also expected to keep the front yard sown in bluegrass, all this according to the 1874 lease.

Within a few short years the newspaper reported favorably on the success of these activities on “Moser Hill” with its “fine brick house” and “the big orchard.”

As an example: “Moser set out a thousand forest trees on his place last week and says he hasn’t hardly made a commencement,” the Eagle reported in April of 1876. The newspaper also reported that the farm had 7,000 pounds of grapes to sell. The entire hillside became a source of admiration for those in town.

“This elevation is fast becoming dotted CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

HISTORY

11

THE HIGH GROUND stands the Mount St. Mary’s Convent of The Sisters of St. Joseph’s.

The Charles C. Fees’ farm house commanded a beautiful view into the valley. His house stood alone on the hill for decades before development in the late 1920s surrounded it. The house, later adorned with square columns and a second floor gallery, still stands at 3805 Longview – another aptly named street on the hill. In an Eagle newspaper article in 1927, it was reported that when Charles Fees arrived in Wichita in 1870 he carried in his trunk a sack of

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with homes and ornamented with growing trees, orchards and hedge lines, while the interspersed wheat fields lend to the whole, as seen from town, a delightful charm,” the paper declared.

Although the brick house is gone and any other evidence of the Moser farm is buried below the yards of College Hill’s M. R. Moser’s Subdivision: Clifton to Yale, south of Central. However, a period farm house built by a neighbor diagonally to the north, still exists. The John T. and Emma Woodford house, built at 3430 E. Central, served as the home for their modest farm which stretched from Central to Murdock. Maps through the 1930s show Sleepy Hollow Park to have been named Woodfords Park. Today his former farmhouse is a private residence which has housed small businesses over the years.

The Magic City Evidence exists of another turn of the century College Hill farm, the J. F. Rogers place on Douglas Avenue.

During the construction of a home on east Douglas in 1912 a photographic image of the Rogers’ farmstead was unwittingly captured. A sequence of eight photographs were shot over a few week’s time to document the construction progress of D. L. Hammond’s new home at 3912 E. Douglas. In the earliest of the eight photographs, before the soon-to-be finished structure blocked the view to the east, the Rogers’ Italianatestyle farmhouse and its barn to the north were photographed where they stood at the northwest corner of Douglas and Broadview. Similar to the Moser Subdivision, today’s homes in the Rogers Addition to College Hill have taken the place of the former farm buildings. According to neighborhood legend, 111 N. Broadview occupies the footprint of the former J. F. Roger’s barn, which seems consistent with the photographic evidence available.

One 19th century home that time has not erased, however, is that of nearby farmer and noted Wichita pioneer, Charles C. Fees. In 1870 this 27 year old former Pennsylvania teacher and Union soldier was exploring eastern Kansas for

Charles C. Fees, an early neighborhood farmer and Wichita pioneer, built this farmhouse in 1881. It still stands today at 3805 Longview, south of Kellogg. Inset: Wichita University, built on land (today a convent on Lincoln) donated by Fees.

ABOVE PHOTO: JEFF ROTH. INSET: WICHITA-SEDGWICK COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM.

the prospect of homesteading. He kept a diary throughout that year. An entry dated June 6, 1870 mentioned leaving Emporia, hitching a ride on a lumber wagon bound for Wichita, and paying $2.50 for the privilege. The conversation through the Flint Hills may have languished somewhat since Fees described his wagoner as being an ex-Rebel soldier.

On June 10 Fees jotted down his first impressions of Wichita, as seen from the hill east of town: “Arrived at Wichita, the wonder of the world, at sunset.” “This valley, the Arkansas, is truly beautiful.”

In closing that evening he wrote, “Emigration is coming in fast and Wichita is springing up as if by magic.”

Fees happened to hit upon one of the early monikers of old time Wichita—The Magic City.

National Archive records indicate that Charles Fees bought a quarter section of land south of Merriman Park (College Hill Park) only six days after his arrival, a tribute to the hustle and effort of the realtors of his day.

Smart Cows Charles and Mrs. Fees, after their first few years of successful farming on the hill, built their farmhouse and moved there in 1881. It was set back to the south of the section line that was

eventually graded into Kellogg Avenue. Their farming activities of milking cows and growing wheat, corn, oats and hay are revealed by Mrs. Fees’ 1902 family income and expense ledger now archived at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum. With her weekly milk and egg income and seasonal fruit, vegetable and crop income she was able to afford groceries, medicine, dry goods, (trolley) car tickets, piano lessons for Clara, and even her husband’s $7 annual golf dues at the Wichita Country Club, which had opened its 9 hole course just two years earlier in Merriman Park.

Both Charles and Helen Fees had been educators and in 1886 they donated 20 acres from the south end of their farm for a college that was opened on College Hill in 1888, up the hill from the end of Lincoln Street. It was named Wichita University but it only operated until 1893 when the economic recession at that time doomed it. The building stood vacant and it was reported that Mrs. Fees’ milk cows found it to be a satisfactory shelter. It was purchased for the Sisters of St. Joseph for use as a convent and orphanage, but the building burned down in 1913. In its place

black walnuts. These he planted as improvements to his land during those early settlement days. For decades thereafter the house was described as being shaded in the oldest and tallest grove of walnut trees in Wichita. To this day, 140 years later, one lone survivor still stands in the back yard, shading 3805 Longview’s southern exposure.

The activity and settlement efforts of these nineteenth century Kansas farmers: Ridle, Moser, Woodford, Rogers, Fees and others, attest to the drive and work ethic of the people who first worked with the land of College Hill. They coaxed crops from the upland ground unlike the nomadic hunters and Indian valley dwellers before them. The Anglo-immigrants who arrived only months before them, the real estate profiteers, planted only temporary boundary stakes, not real roots. The farmers of College Hill proved up more than land preemption improvements, they proved an intention to live on the hill. By definition, they deserve to be considered the first true residents of College Hill.

Bundtlettes Available at Dillons Bakery.

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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

‘VILLAGE’ MALL TURNS 60 Lincoln Heights Village turns 60 this month, and the merchants are celebrating.

Lincoln Heights Village, at Douglas and Oliver, turns 60 years old this month, and the merchants plan to celebrate with a party in the parking lot on Aug. 8 from 6-8 p.m.

The whole neighborhood is invited.

The event will feature live music, food, classic cars, contests— best decorated kids bicycle and tricycle—drawings for gift baskets, and a chance to win a diamond valued at $3,000 (register at any Lincoln Heights Village merchant beginning July 6 for a chance to win).

It is hard to imagine Wichita without strip malls squatting on nearly every other corner, but Lincoln Heights Village was one of a kind in its day.

Even today, it remains unique in the city. There is a broad sidewalk, newspaper boxes, outdoor cafe seating, classic storefronts, a parking lot built to human scale. It seems like an inviting public place in the neighborhood, rather than a walled off commercial center only safely accessible by vehicle.

Top: Lincoln Heights Village, circa 1949. The shopping center turns 60 years old this month.

Above: A painter applies a fresh coat to theVillage’s 50-foot tall sign tower.

Developer Walter Morris considered the village shopping center to be the heart of the neighborhood, and the crowning jewel of his long development career, which included Lincoln Heights, the upscale housing development in College Hill that he built 20 years earlier, Crown Heights and Sleepy Hollow.

“It is not merely the best in the Middle West,” Morris, then 90years-old, said during the opening of the mall in 1949. “It is the nicest shopping center in the world.”

There was certainly nothing else like it in Wichita. Until then, most shopping was done downtown, a far more bustling and cramped destina-

tion than it is today.

But here was a gleaming “village” on the city’s east side where local residents could not only park, but walk to, for necessities. And it was air conditioned “for your comfort,” as one advertisement noted.

The account from the opening ceremonies was breathless.

“Just like Coney Island,” wrote an Eagle correspondent, “there were throngs of people, a big searchlight, a band and music—everybody milling around and streaming in and out of the brightly-lighted shops along the L-shaped ‘midway.’

Certainly much has changed in the decades since the shopping center opened to render some of its innovations quaint.

The parking lot, for instance, was considered “huge” at the time. There were 67 spaces.

But in a city with no shortage of new strip malls built upon vast asphalt moats of parking lots, quaint seems good. By definition, villages are not the sort of places where vehicles are supposed to live.

ETC.

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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

Buongiorno, Bonjour, Hola ... College Hill Last month College Hill resident Art Davis and son Will set out for Europe.

While they are touring, Art is blogging and tweeting about the experience. You can find the blog and follow along at traditionshome.blogspot.com. The following are excerpts from the blog.

The Road to Segovia The drive from San Sebastian to Segovia takes four and a half hours on the Autovia 1 norte.

To get an idea of the landscape, take a large tablecloth, shake it, and toss it on a table. Nearest to you, push the folds of the cloth high and close. This is the landscape of the Cantabrian coast, which compares to Hawaii in that there are steep mountains leading down into the sea and verdant vegetation because of the daily mists. Piercing the steep folds are tunnels that vary in length from a few hundred meters to several kilometers.

Now begin to shorten the folds and space them a little further apart. The landscape changes to something more like that of the foothills of Colorado or midway through Kansas when one enters the Smokey Hills. The rain fall is reduced and the vegetation is still green, but not as thick as the coast line. Next, take the cloth and smooth into undulating flows like that of the Flint Hills of Kansas.

As Will and I enter these rolling hills, it begins to rain and, naturally, one hums, “the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain,” a song from My Fair Lady, that I assume is not to be taken literally. These plains are covered in wheat fields as far as the eye can see. We have come to the city of Vitorio and the end of the Basque region. Now we are entering CastilleLeon, the home of King Ferdinand and Spain’s most conservative region.

The table cloth is again ruffled and the further away from the coast we travel, the drier it becomes. Now the landscape looks a little like Arkansas with the juniper trees dotting the hills. Only a little further south are the mountains from which the water comes that fills the aqueduct that services Segovia. The closer we get to Segovia, the more hills appear.

Again, as in Arkansas the roads twist and

Art Davis and son, Will, at Casa Botin , the world's oldest continuously running restaurant, in Madrid. The pair are traveling Europe this summer. Art is blogging about the experience.

COURTESY PHOTO

turn. rise and fall.

Suddenly, there is Segovia. From a distance one can see the aqueduct that Segovia is famous for. What has been preserved and restored rises or rather descends from the mountains to the south and empty into the city center.

We are here.

The Nasty Bits Anthony Bourdain is chef, raconteur, TV host, and author of the book The Nasty Bits, a wonderful collection of odds and ends about the restaurant business. The nasty bits in the restaurant trade are the left overs, the odd bits that you don’t serve your best guest, but sometimes, contain great flavor and taste.

I am tired of hearing that the French are the nasty bits of European culture.

They are not the left overs and remnants of the finer cuts of meat. If they are a little aloof and distant from Americans, perhaps it is because we, in turn, are aloof and distant. Try a little culture, speak the language, even if in trying to speak French, one commits cultural linguistic genocide.

I am in Saint Emilion, near Bordeaux, and trying to order mussels, so I ask the pretty young waitress for “moule.” She is embarrassed and runs to

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get another pretty young waitress who speaks English, and when I repeat myself saying, “Moule, you know mussels,” she smiles and informs me that in French I am asking for “ass.”

Try a little kindness. A smile and a little self-deprecating humor goes a long way.

Bellagio Everyone I met in Italy said that Bellagio was the prettiest place they had ever been or the one place they had to get to. But I am here, it is raining and when it is raining, it is not so pretty. It is just wet. I have seen wet a lot of times and a lot of places, and it all looks pretty much the same, wet.

Wet is nice if you are a farmer on the western plains of Kansas. I suppose it is nice if you are a duck, even if I don’t understand why people say that, and wet is good if you simply want to sit in your room and read a good book while listening to the steady patter of the rain drops.

But, I am on vacation, and Bellagio doesn’t look good in the rain, just another soggy rain soaked Kansas town.

Tuscany Even when it rains in Tuscany, there is something to do. A short drive from

San Cascione brought us to one of the many small towns that dot the hillside of Tuscany.

As it was raining, we took refuge in this small restaurant run by Marco, a waitress who always wore sunglasses, and a cook who looked to be Marco’s mother, who toiled over a traditional Italian oven.

The surprise is sometimes the food, which is excellent; sometimes the setting, which is old or beautiful; and sometimes the staff, who are humanly wonderful.

Our waiter, Marco, was as gracious as could be imagined. The restaurant held no more than four tables in the one room that was open, and Marco was proud to serve his limited but delicious fare. A peek in the kitchen revealed a traditional Italian grill where the food was lovingly prepared by one cook, Mama.

Eventually, the rain lets up and it is picture perfect again.

Out of Order Three days in Monterossa, the largest and prettiest town in Cinque Terre, left me disconnected and out of touch with the word. The disconnect was refreshing. All there is to do is enjoy the sea, the people, friends and the food.

Being disconnected is not terribly disconcerting. It reminds you that there was a time, not terribly long ago, that we lived in relative isolation. News did not travel at the speed of light. If a celebrity, such as Michael Jackson, died, it was often days, weeks, or months before you learned of it. Distance separated us, it created other worlds where culture and religion, and the old ways were preserved and maintained. Not so any more.

I love gelato, and I feel that the Internet is, in a sense, taking all the flavors and stirring them up into one big and bland mixture. Forget sorting it all out. The tourists, the locals, the Internet, the television, cell phones and such have brought us all together for good and bad —good because its nice to be connected in a vast global village. Bad because I like strawberry gelato.

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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ JULY 2009

Photos by KATIE GORDON and MARK PENDERGRASS

We Love a Parade On the Fourth of July in Crown Heights and College Hill, the neighbors turned out for parades on Old Manor Road and Belmont Place.

KATIE GORDON

KATIE GORDON

KATIE GORDON MARK PENDERGRASS

MARK PENDERGRASS

KATIE GORDON

MARK PENDERGRASS

More photos can be found at photographer Katie Gordon’s Web site: hfphoto.synthasite.com

MARK PENDERGRASS