The College Hill Commoner by Barry Owens

4 Where does the 15 A peek inside the garden grow? Perhaps behind the picket fence on North Bluff.

former Player Piano building and preview of the premier issue of The Downtowner.

8 Tea time at St.

James Episcopal Church where hats and gloves never go out of style.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER Vol. 2 No. 6

COLLEGE HILL

• CROWN HEIGHTS • UPTOWN • SLEEPY HOLLOW

MAY 2009

NEIGHBORHOOD NATIVES A look back at when the hill was less home than hunting ground for the area’s earliest residents, the Osage. PAGE 10

Members of the Ponca tribe of Native Americans photographed on a rise circa 1900. It was the Osage tribe that first layed claim on College Hill. Every chain of title of every home and building in the neighborhood starts with a first purchase out of Osage Indian trust lands.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEFF ROTH

2 WEB SITE WAS EASY TO READ. NOW IT IS NOT. TO THE EDITOR:

With regards to the letter “Web site? What web site” in the May edition; I was willing to let this issue go when the editor printed the reasons for not promoting the Commoner Web site. It is his paper to distribute any way he sees fit. I do however take exception to people who write in and imply that those who would use the Web version are less intelligent than those who prefer print. Let’s put this issue into perspective and set the record straight. When the Commoner first appeared on the Web it was in a very readable format and it was easy to peruse online on whatever device you had. It was also convenient to send to friends and family who have moved away from Wichita but still feel connected to the College Hill area. If you didn’t think to look for a Web site, you probably won’t know what I’m talking about but it wasn’t until the new “Issuu.com” multimedia format came out that the “complaints” (we like to call them suggestions) went to the editor because it is difficult to read. The request simply was to go back to the original format. Whether in print or in electronic format, the Commoner is a great asset to the area. It’s unfortunate however that there are Luddites out there that believe they are more intelligent because they refuse to embrace the digital age. JUSTIN FREMIN

LETTERS

FOR MOTHER’S DAY, A REMEMBRANCE

Anna Valusek was born in June of 1892 in a small village in Czechoslovakia. For some months prior to Mother’s Day, 1965, her health had been failing. Not knowing how much longer she might live, her son John Valusek, a Crown Heights resident, wrote and sent her this remembrance. She died in February, 1966. John shared these verses at her funeral, and this month , in honor of Mother’s Day, he shares them with us. A Mother’s Day Remembrance Earth is mother to all growing things. How wonderful! Rich with life to give, Earth nestles seedlings, nurtures them, And gives of herself so they may live, And grow and serve their purpose for all life. And Earth brings forth And bears her task with dignity. And you, my Mother, are much like Earth, For you also are the mother of growing things. How wonderful! And through you, richness of life Was given to us, your children. You nestled us as little seedlings, Nurtured us and gave of yourself, So that we might live and grow And serve our purpose for all life. And you accepted your task With dignity and with love. Just as Earth has give to the plants And received from them, So, too, have you given and received from us. Yet, perhaps, you have given Much more than you ever recieved. Therefore, on this Monther’s Day, Receive from me this expression Of love and gratitude For having you as my mother. And know this — the plant owes Its very existence to mother Earth, And nothing will ever change the fact That Earth was and is the mother. And nothing—neither time, nor distance, Nor sickness nor death—will ever change The fact of your being my Mother And of my being your son. Nor can any of these erase the memories Of the love which you granted to each of us, Your children. I pray for your recovery, That you may be with us For yet a longer time, And that my children may yet have Time to come to know you as I do. Remember too, that although we are apart, Yet, you are with me And I with you— For each of us has our memories. Your loving and grateful son,

JOHN VALUSEK

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ MAY 2009

STOP, THIEF! A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

t was on or about an early morning in April, 2009, when the perpetrator, some jerk, took criminal possession of my bicycle. The rascal sneaked it off my porch. I imagine the thief tip-toeing up the stairs, a creeping villain, careful not to rattle the flower pots. A real pro. He had probably spied his prize sometime during the day and made a note to return in the night with his satchel and mask. Plans were drawn up and supplies were packed. He would need a tube of grease to ease the kickstand and avoid squeakage, a pump for the flat tire, a garter to keeps his trouser leg out of the chain during the getaway, and just in case things went horribly wrong, a bicycle helmet. Safety first. That is the way I prefer to think that the whole thing went down. It was a professional job, executed with competence and grace, by a gentlemen burglar who may or may not have needed a bicycle, but welcomed the challenge. The more likely scenario is that some low life was in need of a ride, took the unlocked bike and never looked back. But I don’t like to think that those sort of people walk on my block. And certainly not on my porch. There is a third scenario, and I confess, it is the one that keeps me up at night. As it would happen, I had gotten that bicycle only a week before. It had turned up in my mother’s yard out west about a year ago, apparently ditched by some other joy riding thief. There was no license or other identifying mark, and after keeping the bicycle left unlocked and next to the garage (easily fetched by anyone that recognized it) my mother offered it to me. I can’t help thinking that perhaps the rightful owner of that bicycle lives here in College Hill, spied his long lost two-wheeler on my porch, reclaimed it, and rode off wondering why that nice man from the newspaper had stolen his bike. 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: We made an error last month

on this page while thanking volunteers for delivering The Commoner. Ben, Joshua, Samuel and Olivia Drouhard are deserving of our thanks and should have been listed among the volunteers. We regret the omission. 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 ❚ MAY 2009

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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ MAY 2009

Where Does the Community Garden Grow? Perhaps here, just beyond the white picket fence on North Bluff in College Hill BY BARRY OWENS Trees we’ve got. A park? Check. But backyards? Not so much. Most of the green space in College Hill can be found in front of the houses, often on sloping lawns, rather than around back where a driveway usually leads to a tiny garage in the shade. For every house on the block with enough space and sunlight in the backyard to support a garden, there are probably four without. To be sure, this is no crisis. But it can be a drag to live in the shady old neighborhood if you were born with a green thumb. So it is that residents Marilyn and Steve Houser, 448 N. Bluff, are offering a sizeable section of their backyard to be used as community garden. (Anyone interested in planting there should call the Housers, 6831972.) The plot, cordoned off from the rest of the yard by a white picket fence, is spacious, open and gets direct sunlight. “As my husband says, we’ve sure been able to grow dandelions back here,” Marilyn said the other day while offering a visitor a tour. She walked the lot, measuring it at about 40 x 12 feet, and pointed out the garden hose and the easy access from the gate at the top of the driveway. “They will have to do the work, it will need to be tilled, but I think it would be great to have it back here. It would be good to have people coming and going. It could stimulate a little community involvement in the neighborhood,” she said. Sounds novel, but it is actually the sort of things that neighbors in urban centers around the country are doing more of these days. There is a Web site, sharingbackyards.com, devoted to the “sharecropping” movement. In Wichita, there are a number of community gardens, but none in the College Hill area. Last month a Commoner reporter visited a community garden in Delano as the neighbors

A section of backyard, just beyond a picket fence, could be the site of a community garden, property owners Marilyn and Steve Houser say.

PHOTOS: BARRY OWENS

Marilyn Houser, above and at left, in her backyard that she says College Hill residents are welcome to use as garden space.

gathered for the first planting of the season. The garden was founded by Susan Schoket through her organization, Infinite Growth Opportunities, a local non-profit devoted to community gardens. She arrived in her pickup truck with a rototiller in the back and picnic dinner in the cab. After the planting—onions, carrots, turnips, spinach, to begin with—the neighbors gathered to eat and chat.

K.D. Davis, who lives in Midtown, said he was lured to Delano by the promise of garden space. “I was thinking one day that I needed to grow me some grub,” Davis said. “I went out and bought some seeds, bought some potting soil, bought some peat moss and then I got back to my apartment and thought ‘Where am I going to put all this stuff?’” Houser said gardeners could plant

what they like in her backyard, and come harvest, decide what to do with the grub. “Maybe some people will want to keep the vegetables, or maybe be humanitarian and donate them to a food bank,” she said. “Whatever they want to do, is fine with me.” As she walked the space, she began to imagine the possibilities. “I can see a lot of tomatoes here,” she said.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ MAY 2009

Kindness of Strangers: A Good (and Stylish) Deed Frame stylist wins award for seeing a problem, solving it. BY BARRY OWENS Dee Schmidt—College Hill resident, wearer of eyeglasses, devoted reader of newspapers—was scanning the front page of the local daily not so very long ago when she saw something that gave her pause. It was a photograph of a crime victim, a woman. The details of the crime were frightening, but the victim survived and no injuries were apparent in the photo [The victim’s name and nature of the crime are not published here out of respect for her privacy]. What caught Schmidt’s eye was the condition of the woman’s eyeglasses. “Heavy. Unflattering. Disheveled,” Schmidt said of the glasses. “It looked like she might even have been using tape to hold them together.” So Schmidt, who is a frame stylist at Myoptix Fashion Eyewear at Douglas and Oliver, put down the paper and picked up the phone. “I called her and asked her whether she would like a new pair of glasses,” Schmidt said. “And she

COURTESY PHOTO

College Hill resident Dee Schmidt, a frame stylist at Myoptix Fashion Eyewear at Douglas and Oliver. Schmidt was recently recognized for her charitable contribution to a crime victim.

told me that she hadn’t had an eye exam in 10 years.” She made a few more calls. Arrangements were made to have an exam donated, same with the lenses, and Schmidt spoke to her boss, shop owner Jim Herrscher, about donating the frames (“he was easily persuaded. He didn’t even skip a beat”.)

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But Schmidt didn’t stop there. She went to neighboring shops— Aspen Boutique, Frank & Margaret, Susan’s Floral— and asked if they would be willing to donate merchandise to the victim, as well. Each of them did. As for the glasses, Schmidt set the victim up with a pair of Italian

(Menizzi) frames. “She had been through a lot, I thought she needed a pick me up,” Schmidt said about her motivation. “It really was just a woman to woman thing and nothing broader than that. I didn’t have any wheels turning other than the thought that this woman needed glasses.” But a few weeks back, word of Schmidt’s good deed caught the attention of a trade association, the Women and Minorities Optical Association. The group made Schmidt the recipient of its first award. “Dee Schmidt’s kindness really stood out. She took the initiative to meet the eyecare needs of someone whom no one else thought to approach,” Wendy Schnieder, president of the association, said in a statement. The award, which included a cash prize with a matching amount sent on to a charity of Schmidt’s choice (the Remote Area Medical Foundation’s Rural America Project), also included on offer to be flown to New York to accept the award in person. Schmidt declined. Too busy, she said, minding the store, where if you happen to visit, you will almost always find her. Along with a stack of newspapers.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ MAY 2009

Spring Weather Keeps Spring Market Indoors BY BARRY OWENS It was a gray day early this month and low clouds rolled in over the park. Surely it would rain. So at the College Hill Spring Market, where landscaping tips could be had, tools sharpened and flowers and plants purchased, the festivities remained indoors at Blessed Sacrament. In one corner of the old gym there was a table overrun with perennials, part of an exchange program. “If you bring a perennial, you can take one,” explained Babs Boertsler. But it wasn’t a hard and fast rule. The perennials, all locally donated from neighborhood yards, seemed to be for the taking for anyone that asked. “What is great about it is that they can take the plant back to their house, wherever they live, and call it their College Hill plant,” said Boertsler. Not far off was a sample box of compost, ripe with orange peels, scraps of newspaper and worms. You know, for kids. “To see worms, open cover and dig down to bottom. They hate lights so cover back up with newspaper and make it quick,” a sign instructed. Nearby, children hammered together birdhouses and created stepping stones using concrete and pie pans. In another corner, experts offered gardening, lawn and landscaping advice. Just outside the door, one could get their

Plant vendor Sara Sherman, at left, helps Tahnee Maples to select a plant during the College Hill Spring Market early this month at Blessed Sacrament Church. More photos from the event can be view or purchased online at hfphoto.synthasite.com. Click on Commoner photos.

PHOTOS: KATIE GORDON

shovels sharpened. And in the newer gym, the entire basketball court was filled with vendors. There it was possible to sample a little smoked salmon or buy a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets on spring, or load up on flowers. Sara Sherman, a plant vendor, set up shop just outside the door, where it was still possible to grab cover if the clouds burst. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I’ve found the plants that you can’t kill,”

she explained to a customer. “Oh, that’s what I need,” replied Tahnee Maples, who was eyeing the Banzai trees. “About a half a cup of water a week, it’s just the easiest thing in the world,” said Sherman. Sold. The rain never fell in earnest, but it was gloomy enough to be dispiriting. “We thought it was going to rain,” sighed Jeny Mash, who helped to coordi-

Gretchen Postiglione helps a little one to build a birdhouse. Kids activities also included creating concrete stepping stones, decorated with beads, in pie pans.

nated the event for the church. Mash said that the hope is that the market will become an annual event, and that next year the weather will be better. “We definitely want it to be outside and want it to be a neighborhood event,” she said. Meanwhile, back inside, the vendors made the best of a gray day. “Two-for one specials” vendor Sarah Stevens announced to all those that passed by her table, handing out a card that advertised “sunless tanning.”

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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ MAY 2009 Photos by KATIE GORDON

This month ladies and gentlemen alike gathered at St. James Episcopal Church for the annual Old English Tea. Below: Gladys Alley gets a hand from Andrew Aitken during the fashion show. Above center: McKenzie Mitchell, 4, samples the refreshments. Above right: Betty Shaw has a laugh while preparing cucumber sandwiches. Below right: Lilla King was among the many Red Hat society members to attend the tea. For more photos, go to hfphoto.synthasite.com.

TEA TIME AT ST. JAMES Cucumber sandwiches and a spot of tea. It is an 80 -year tradition.

BY BARRY OWENS

t takes a certain sensibility to really get into the cucumber sandwiches, the Gershwin music, the dainty things that were put out for sale early this month during the Old English Tea at St. James Episcopal Church. It helps to be British. But a hat and gloves will often do. The church held its annual tea this month and hundreds of people turned out. There were a sea of hats in the hall. Proceeds from the event,

now in its 80th year, go to charity. “Some of you are the daughters, granddaughters and great granddaughters of the women who worked on this tea long ago,” said Jerry Malone, who addressed the audience just before the fashion show. “I think we have conservatively estimated that over the years the tea has raised $750,000 for charity.”

The event is popular beyond the church. Lilla King was making her first visit as part of the Red Hat society. “Impressive,” said King. “I was happy to put my hat on for this.” The tea is put on by a crew of volunteers from the church who make the sandwiches and hors d’oeuvres, tea, coffee and even the floral centerpieces for the tables.

“We’ve had so much rain that the grass on the lawn was getting tall. Some of us thought that was very English and we should just leave it,” said volunteer Robin Milne. That didn’t happen, but the churches’ Guild Hall was transformed by the event all the same. Everywhere there seemed to be flowers and gleaming tea service. As Milne said, in a soft New Zealand accent that on this day could be easily mistaken for British: “It’s lovely, isn’t it?”

KATIE GORDON

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HISTORY

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ MAY 2009

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEFF ROTH

Neighborhood Natives

Osage had earliest claim on today’s College Hill.

BY JEFF A. ROTH

t is hard to imagine College Hill as square mile of arid desert. Yet the first explorers depicted this region on their maps as the Great American Desert. The word “desert” to them meant treeless and barren as opposed to sandy. Never mind that native tribes such as the Wichita Indians had been thriving in the area for centuries. This notion of uninhabitability persisted, that is, until America’s expanding eastern population needed more land for farming to their west. They were hindered, however, by the presence of indigenous Indian tribes east of the Mississippi. To make room for this Anglo-American push, the U.S. Congress designated the so-called western desert, including College Hill, to become a new residence for soon to be displaced immigrant Indian tribes. This vast Indian Territory stretched from north of Texas towards the Dakotas, and west to the Rockies. More than twenty tribes from the Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley were moved to reservations in the Kansas River region west of the Missouri border. These tribes included today’s modern casino hosts, the Prairie Band Potawatomi. In 1825 western Missouri’s Osage Indians were persuaded by treaty to move over the border to a rectangular slice of the new Indian Territory. The Osage would now possess a reserve that stretched from the future sites of Independence to Dodge City. Its southern border was to later define the

southern border of Kansas. Its northern border was only a few miles north of future Wichita – a geographic feature that would cause problems for town-builders years later. The Osage established their primary village on the Neosho River near their southern boundary. Each spring they planted crops of corn, beans and pumpkins. In early summer they would leave their crops and gardens to trek the Great Osage Trail westward to access the buffalo hunting grounds just beyond the Arkansas River. Their trail was worn so well by horses’ hooves, Indian moccasins, and dog hauled travois that it was visible to pioneers for years. It crossed the upper Verdigris at Fall River, the Walnut at Eldorado, then crossed the Whitewater at Towanda, and arrived about six miles north of the fork of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers. Today’s Kansas Highway 254 follows the last twenty five miles of the trail. One of the earliest white men to follow the trail was trapper and buffalo hunter James R. Mead, who wrote: “There was nothing of interest to be seen along the trail, the buffalo ranging at that time farther to the west, until we reached the bluffs overlooking the Arkansas River. Here a vision of beauty and interest greeted our eyes, such perhaps as no other spot on the plains could furnish. A level valley spread out before us as far as the eye could reach. The fresh

MAP ILLUSTRATION: PARKER ROTH

Indian Territory in this 1846 map (including the Osage Indian Reservation), preceded 1854 Kansas Territory and 1861 Statehood.

green grass, cropped close by the buffalo and bordered by belts of timber resembled a well kept park.” Mead’s 1863 vantage point is generally regarded to have been where Wichita State University stands today. Had he arrived at College Hill instead, the view would have been largely the same, from Roosevelt and Central to Roosevelt and Lewis. When Mead descended the valley he observed along the Little Arkansas, “in the timber,” the Osage’s hunting lodges consisting of buffalo hide covered teepees. He reported these as being arched like the Wichita Indians’ grass huts as opposed to conical shaped like the teepees of the plains Indians. The Osage lived a cyclical lifestyle. After their summer hunt they returned to their village on the Neosho to harvest their crops. They feasted on the season’s grains, fruits and vegetables along with the dried buffalo meat brought back from the plains. Any surplus food they cached in bell shaped underground storage holes prior to their second annual hike to the hunting

village on the Arkansas, for the fall buffalo hunt each year. Winter was spent back on the Neosho, living off the cached food and buffalo meat until spring returned. The Osage undoubtedly considered themselves property owners of the land, especially since the 1825 treaty stated that it was reserved for them, “…so long as they choose to occupy the same…” But 30 years later their expectations were once again in conflict with new settlement pressures, and new politicians. In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act established Kansas Territory and opened it for settlement on its public, non-reserved, lands. But the incoming settlers coveted not only the open land for farming, but also the Indian lands as well. As to the Osage Reservation they argued that rather than having the majority of it left idle, except for bi-annual buffalo hunts, it should be opened for the white man’s farming and improvement. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER â?&#x161; MAY 2009

HISTORY

NEIGHBORHOOD NATIVES CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Washington acceded and in 1865 negotiated to purchase the Osage Lands from the tribe. It offered to pay $300,000 outright for an eastern portion and $3.2 million more for the rectangle shaped reservation over time, â&#x20AC;&#x153;owner carryâ&#x20AC;? as it were. The negotiations and treaty making continued through 1870. The Osage dispossession was historically unique. While other open land across the young nation could be obtained almost for free by homesteading (successfully maintaining a farmstead over a five year period and paying a ten dollar fee to acquire title from the government), the Osage Lands had to be improved and purchased with cash. The price was $1.25 per acre ($200 for a quarter section) and the U.S. Treasury held the proceeds in trust for the Osage Tribe. These funds would enable them to purchase a last and final reservation in Oklahomaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Indian Territory. The requirements also applied to the land which would eventually become College Hill. Every chain of title, for every home and building in the neighborhood, starts with a first purchase out of the Osage Indian Trust Lands. For the Osage, giving up ownership and leaving the reserve in Kansas was not without sadness, â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;Śthe air was filled with the cries of the old people, especial-

ly the women, who lamented over the graves of their children, which they were about to leave forever by proceeding to a reservationâ&#x20AC;? [Wichita Vidette, October 13, 1870]. The 1865 treaty, however, was honored and not breached as so many had been before. By 1870 millions of dollars were raised by the land sales. This included $800 from College Hillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s four quarter sections. The trust funds enabled the Osage to purchase a large reservation in Oklahoma Indian Territory, located at the southern end of the Flint Hills prairie. To this day the boundaries of their reservation still run from the Kansas border through Bartlesville, Okla., to Tulsa, and back to Ponca City via the Arkansas River. Oil men will no doubt agree that it was quite savvy of the Osage to hold on to the mineral rights that came with the land. This proved fortuitous when they struck oil near Bartlesville on April 19, 1897. History proved kind to the Osage who became one of the richest Indian tribes in the nation. The departure of the Osage from Kansas was not without interference. Before their removal there were infiltrating â&#x20AC;&#x153;soonersâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; land grabbing squatters

who jumped the gun before having a legal right to occupy the land. These men were of two breeds, land speculators or earnest farmers with families; both however were prematurely and illegally occupying land in the Osage reservation. Their numbers were estimated to be as high as 15,000 by 1868. For a traditional account of the 1860s immigrant settler experience in Kansas read Laura Ingalls Wilderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Little House on the Prairie, Harper Collins, 1935, 1953, 1981, where Lauraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Paâ&#x20AC;? industriously hand builds their cabin and breaks the prairie sod for cropsâ&#x20AC;Ś11 miles inside the Osageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s border. Ironically the founding of the town of Wichita was also guilty of jumping the gun. The fork in the Arkansas River, the initial site of Wichita, lay within the trust landâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s northern boundary. Darius S. Munger (whose original cottonwood log house is located today in Wichitaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Old Cowtown Museum) applied in Topeka on behalf of a group of town founders for incorporation papers in 1869. They were unsuccessful partly due to the illegality of their effort, their timing occurring a year before the Osage Treaty was officially ratified.

The Osage undoubtedly considered themselves property owners of the land ...

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When the Osage lands were officially opened for settlement in 1870 a tide of land speculators and immigrant farmers began to pour into southern Kansas, including into newly established Sedgwick County. Purchasing 160 acres for $200 around Wichita wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as attractive as homesteading just a few miles north of the Osage Trust Landâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boundary line, such as in Sedgwick, Halstead or Newton, Kansas. There one could homestead the same 160 acres farm for the $10 fee. Local real estate records show that despite this disadvantage the pace of Sedgwick County land sales quickened nonetheless. The land comprising College Hill was sold to a handful of young men in the winter of 1870-1871. These entrepreneurs had staked their claims earlier that summer and paid the requisite $200 a quarter section for a piece of future College Hill. The Osage Indian Tribe certainly intended to stay on their Kansas reservation for a permanent or extended period of time, the definition of residency, but as far as College Hill is concerned, they used this area more for seasonal hunting than permanent residency. Prior to the settlement activity of 1870 no one, red or white, paused on the hill longer than to picket a horse and retrieve felled game or just take a breezy view into the valley.

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GAMES OF CHANCE & CARNIVAL FARE AT HYDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Photos and text by BARRY OWENS

t is a long way from the hallowed halls of Hyde Elementary to the chaos of Coney Island, but one night last month the primary school found a way to bridge the gap. It was the school’s annual carnival, a fund raiser put on by the P.T.O., and everywhere you looked little ones bobbed by with hair sprayed red, blue or green. There were long lines at the temporary tattoo parlor. The Bingo hall was full. Great puffs of cotton candy floated past. The “fish” were biting at the pier and everyone seemed to pull up a prize. And along the midway, where games of chance could be had for a punch of the ticket, the savviest among the students learned the trick to defying the odds of sinking a ping pong ball into a goldfish bowl— just step closer. A lot closer.

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SCHOOL NIGHT FEVER

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ MAY 2009

Best moves, worst clothes on disco night at College Hill elementary.

Photos and text by BARRY OWENS

etween tracks the other night at College Hill Elementary School, the DJ asked for a show of hands from the dance floor from those that “were around” during the disco craze. It was like one of those moments in a cartoon when a record scratches and the party screeches to a halt. Not a one of the young dancers on the floor was even old enough to remember the 1990s. But it was 1970s day at the school and this was a spirited young bunch decked out for the occasion in polyester and afros. The hands shot up. And with that, the DJ dispensed with the bunny hop and cued the Bay City Rollers. Disco night at the elementary school was under way. “The kids had a lot of fun with it,” principal Kathy Styber said of the day, which saw several students show up to school wearing clothing that was probably well out of fashion when their parents were in school—fringe jackets, bell bottoms, biker bandannas. “I was afraid some of the students would be distracted, but they seemed just as focused as if they were in their College Hill Cougar shirts,” Styber said.

The dance, held that evening, included a costume parade, hula-hoop contest, and lots of Saturday Night Fever-style vamping. By the end of the night, the young disco dancers seemed to have found their groove. When a certain song by the Village People rolled around to the refrain, hundreds of hands shot up again—this time in the shapes of Y, M, C and A.

ETC.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER â?&#x161; MAY 2009

Clean-up Crew Photos by LESLIE HARVEY

One morning last month in Uptown, the neighbors got together to help tidy up. Old tires, mattresses, sofas and assorted other debris left out by the curb was hauled off by the neighborhood cleaning crew. Below left, volunteers pick up the change that had fallen out of old couch cushions.

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ETC.

15 Last month over a single lunch hour, photographers descended into the Player Piano Co. building on Douglas Avenue where they found more subject material than they could possibly shoot in an hour. “Every floor was full of stuff. Pianos, organs, boxes and boxes of music rolls,” said photographer Amy Delamaide, who coordinated the tour. “It was good that we had so many eyes on it, there was just so much stuff.” The building was recently sold and is to be converted to lofts and office space. DARRIN HACKNEY

DARRIN HACKNEY

TY NIGHSWONGER

THROUGH THE KEYHOLE

DARRIN HACKNEY

Photographers get a peek inside the ‘vacant’ Player Player Co. building. Editor’s note: This month the publishers of The College Hill Commoner launched a second publication, The Downtowner. Look for it Downtown. In the meantime, here is a sneak peek.

BY BARRY OWENS

he old brick building, hard against the train tracks on Douglas Avenue, has long seemed a relic. Like other vestiges of old Downtown— the haunting Sam Zellman’s Clothing store with its faded fedoras still hanging in the window, the barren one time bookstore, The Town Crier, where the newspaper racks inside stand empty, the ghost sign for the long gone Rosen Brothers shop— the Player Piano Co. building reminds passersby that there was a time when Downtown was the commercial heart of the city. And that time was decades ago, when people still bought hats, newspapers and player piano music. Last month, shortly after the building was purchased by Downtown developer Dave Burk (it is to be converted to residential lofts and office space) a group of photographers begged entrance. Surely

TY NIGHSWONGER

there were a few artifacts left inside worth shooting. “That may be an understatement,” said Ty Nighswonger, one of the seven photographers who took part in the photo tour. “We walked onto our first floor of the tour and it was really kind of one of those awe inspiring moments when you

say ‘Holy cow, look at all this.’ ” Ancient pianos and organs by the dozens, thousands of player piano music rolls, vintage office equipment, decades old detritus, tools, and natural light cast through dusty panes. “It was challenging to find something to concentrate on,” Nighswonger said. “It was a target rich environment. Typically, in this sort of situation, I would have spent all day.” The photographers had one hour. “About 10 minutes per floor,” said Amy Delamaide, who coordinated the tour with her photographer friends. “It was good that we had so many eyes on it, there was just so much stuff.” The group often conducts such tours and post the resulting work on Flickr, a

photo sharing Web site. “I think Wichita has a lot of great old stuff and I am interested in photographing it before it gets torn down,” Delamaide said. Burk said the building will remain intact, though renovated inside. Another player piano company purchased the business and soon will come to clear out the merchandise. Burk said he doesn’t intend to change the name. “I think it should always be called the Player Piano Building,” he said. Photographer Darrin Hackney, who is general manager at nearby Heroes, said the shoot was too good to pass up. “It is one of those buildings that you drive by and look at and you wonder what is going on in there,” he said. Apparently, not a lot over the past few decades. One of Hackney’s favorite shots shows a piano covered in a patina of dust. Scrawled into the dust is a symbol from the cover of a Led Zeppelin album that was released almost 30 years ago—on vinyl. In the old building, next to the train tracks, that used to house player pianos, even the graffiti is outdated.