7 The Hillcrest,
where the wind is always at your back—and your front.
The Commoner guide to holiday shopping in the old neighborhood and just beyond.
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12 At St. James,
an afterschool program where creativity counts.
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER Vol. 2 No. 1
COLLEGE HILL
• CROWN HEIGHTS • UPTOWN • SLEEPY HOLLOW
DECEMBER 2008
THE END OF THE LINE
A LOOK BACK AT THE STREET CARS THAT CONNECTED COLLEGE HILL TO THE CITY.
A pair of College Hill summer (open) trolleys circa 1890 on an unpaved Douglas Avenue near Washington. The street car line ran until 1935.
COURTESY PHOTO: JEFF ROTH
LETTERS
2 DEMOCRACY WORKS; THANKS FOR THE EFFORT
LOUIS G. LINN
read recycle
STUMPED A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
TO THE EDITOR:
We voted in October (a week early), and it was very pleasing to be able to do that with lots of other people. I was reminded of the “Four Freedoms,” especially the Freedom of Speech, remembering the posters of the man standing in the New England town hall meeting. Last night it happened again, at the College Hill Neighborhood Association meeting. More than 80 people took time to listen to the presentations and discussion, and many spoke or asked questions. What a great freedom! Many thanks to Celia Gorlich, Beth King, and the others who keep working to make this happen.
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
F CROWN HEIGHTS SIDEWALK HAS GONE TO THE DOGS TO THE EDITOR:
I would like to talk about dog poop. We live on Pinecrest and Waterman next to what I like to refer to as “dog poop alley.” That is the stretch of sidewalk just north of the V.A., one of the few stretches of sidewalk this side of Oliver. I walk my three big dogs every morning and always clean up their business; there are also many people that clean up after their dogs, but there are also many more that let their dogs do their business and leave it for somenone else. Just because this sidewalk is not in front of someone’s house people think that it is okay for their dogs to do what ever and then ignore it. That is just gross. So I say it is time to be procative. If you see someone not pick up after their pet stop and tell them that is not acceptable. Eventually, they will get the picture. If you are not picking up after your pet, you better start because I will hound you and so should anyone else who sees you leave your poop behind. TIM IRWIN
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER
or reasons that only he understands, our twoyear-old removed the thermometer hanging from the nail on our back porch and tossed it into the driveway. Perhaps he wanted to see if it would bounce. It did not. This happened over the summer when we were in no hurry to replace the thing. No matter what the gage read, the atmosphere in the backyard never changed. It was perpetually warm and buggy. We didn’t need science to tell us that. But November is a volatile month and the wind around here will sneak up on you. It is not enough to look out the window, see the sunshine, and assume it is safe to step out in stocking feet. A little science might have saved us a trip or two back inside from the woodpile last month, where some days the gathering was good for a short time but not a long time in pajamas. There was no practical reason to be hauling in wood and feeding the fireplace anyway. The thermometer would have told us that, too. But then, it is doubtful we would have listened. What is the good of a working fireplace if you don’t put it to work? So we did just that last month, feeding it log after log at night and scooping out warm ashes in the morning. Never mind that it barely dipped below freezing in November. When we moved into the place we inherited a great pile of wood, nearly as tall as the fence, and we are determined to use it. Trouble is, it is only December now and we have the whole winter before us and that pile of wood is dwindling down to the stumps—literally. What remains on the pile are pieces too large to burn whole. They will need to be split, which is a problem. It’s not the labor that frightens me about chopping wood, it’s the tools required. I’m handy enough with a hammer, but an ax is a whole other matter. One slip in my stocking feet, and this paper does not get delivered. Besides, I’m not keen on having that sort of weapon hanging around the house. That two year old just turned three and he’s got a strong arm. BARRY OWENS EDITOR
VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1 DECEMBER 2008
PUBLISHER
J ESSICA F REY O WENS
EDITOR
B ARRY
OWENS
CONTRIBUTERS J EFF R OTH
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR J ESSICA F REY O WENS
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 Unsolicited material should include a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. Care will be taken, but The Commoner assumes no responsibility for its return.
WRITE THE EDITOR: We welcome your letters. No subject is out of bounds, so long as it is local. Letters should be limited to 300 words, or fewer, 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.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
The Delicate Business of Lighting a Landmark Decking the arches, carefully, as holiday light tour approaches. BY BARRY OWENS The arches that bookend Belmont Place at Central and at Douglas look sturdy enough from the street. But closer inspection reveals crumbling masonry and the sort of cracks here and there that don’t look to be easy fixes. It is no secret that the arches need work. Last month, a representative from the Kansas Historical Society was out one afternoon to snap photos of the arches, which were built in 1925 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places last year. The arches are significant to the city’s history in part because who designed and built them—architect Charles Ellis and builder George Siedhoff. Both were prominent in their fields. But the primary reason the arches were nominated is that the structures represent the entrance to the city’s first residential “White Way.” Belmont Place was one of the first residential streets to be fully lit by electric lights. So it made sense on this afternoon that shortly after the photos were snapped by the Historical Society,
A Christmas light bulb illuminates a crack in the footing of the Belmont arch on Douglas.
Marshall Hoberecht, owner of an awning cleaning and Christmas decoration mounting business, hangs a wreath last month on the Belmont Place arch at Central and Belmont streets.
PHOTOS: BARRY OWENS
Marshall Hoberecht pulled up in his pick-up truck full of ladders and electric lights. Hoberecht is the man responsible for stringing the arches with Christmas lights and hanging the wreaths each year. It is not his toughest job, he says. Hoberecht, owner of an awning cleaning business, makes a tidy living during the holiday season hanging Christmas lights and decorations, some of which require that he climb 30-feet up a tree. The arches only require a climb of a few feet, and
the promise that he won’t do any further damage to them. “I wish they would let me drill holes in it for an anchor,” he said while wiring a wreath to one of the stone piers. “But they won’t.” Instead, the wreath is held in place by bailing wire wrapped carefully around the wrought iron. The Christmas lights, strung in the wrought iron arches that span the street, were installed by Hoberecht four years ago when he first
got the contract. No need to fuss with them today, he said. But occasionally he will have to come out and replace a bulb. “Kids, I think,” he said of the culprits that sometimes twist out or smash the bulbs. In all, the job took him about an hour. But he was not satisfied that it was his best work. “I usually try to hide the (electric) wires,” he said of the extension cord hanging a bit too obviously from a wreath. At other sites, he might tuck and staple the cords into the trim, he said, or maybe tuck them inside a hollow. “But here, there is no where to hide them.” See the arch lights, as well as dozens of other displays in the neighborhood, by trolley during the College Hill Neighborhood Trolley Tour on Dec. 14, 5:30-9pm at East Heights United Methodist Church. Tickets are $6 and go on sale Dec. 8 at Traditions.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
Saving a Wooden Steeple One Board at a Time BY BARRY OWENS There are more than a half dozen churches in the old neighborhood— six of them on Douglas Avenue alone—but there is only one wooden steeple. It belongs to the picturesque, white chapel at 4501 E. Douglas, home to the Second Church of Christ Scientist. Last month, it was possible to find pieces of the old steeple tossed in a scrap pile in the back parking lot. Workers, dispatched aloft to salvage what was left, were busy tapping in replacement boards. The church, designed by the architects Overend and Boucher and built in 1953, might have lost its steeple had contractors not been sent up for a closer look two years ago. “The trim was looking bad, we had a lot of paint peeling in different areas. We assumed that we would find just the same type of case on the steeple, that it just needed to be repainted and caulked. It was not that way,” said Teresa Neal-Cline, a church board member. The church had a few options, it was explained by contractors. One was to remove the steeple and rebuild it on the ground. Another among them was to removed the steeple and replace it with a fiberglass model (a
Workers on a lift replace rotted wood, shown at above right, in the steeple atop the church at 4501 E. Douglas. At right, Teresa Neal-Cline climbs a ladder inside the steeple. “It gives you a whole different perspective,” she says of the view. PHOTOS: BARRY OWENS
catalog was provided). In the end, the church opted to send workers up to pry out and replace the rotten wood with composite materials and rebuild the steeple in place. “I tried to talk them in to taking it down and starting over,” said contrac-
tor Ron Messner, “but they were really attached to it.” Most of the work was completed last month. “It has the same character,” NealCline said. “I think the original architects would have approved. I hope so.
There was still the matter of the asbestos shingles, which are original to the steeple and impossible to replace. “The shingles, we’re just going to paint them white,” Neal-Cline said.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
How Windy is that Corner? The Tale of the Tape BY BARRY OWENS The American flag in the courtyard of the Hillcrest apartment building makes for a poor windsock. One afternoon last month as a north wind ripped through the neighborhood at gusts up to 30 mph, (according to the radio weatherman), the flag waved into it. But not all afternoon. It would wave to the west for a time, then shift to the south. More than once it snapped so suddenly to the east that it wrapped itself around the mast. All the while, leaves swirled in a gyre from the grounds to the rooftop of the building ten stories above. Welcome to the Hillcrest, where the wind seems to come from every direction, seemingly every day. “It’s always, ALWAYS windy,” said resident Skip Brasted, who had to put a little extra ooomph in his push on a north-facing door on this afternoon. He was hauling in a piece of furniture from his vehicle parked on Douglas. “It’s the worst on the south side,” he said of the breeze. “Except when there is a north wind.” Then he excused himself to chase down a moving blanket that was picked up by the wind from out of the back of his car and tossed across the street. “See,” he said, and went after it.
Winds are almost always swirling in the courtyard of the Hillcrest apartments. The severity of the winds are difficult to capture on camera (do note the windswept hair and slacks) and as the Commoner found out last month, measure with elementary school-level science.
BARRY OWENS
Around back of the building, where a tunneled driveway leads to the garage, the wind is more concentrated. “It is a wind tunnel,” said John Shay, who operates the buildings freight elevator. “It’s like a Venturi tube,” resident Don Enoch explained, getting a bit more technical. “It has to do with compression,” he said. Enoch is a retired aeronautical
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engineer and former Wichita City Mayor. Bottom line, he said, sensing a reporter’s confusion,“It will take your hat off.” De Christman, owner of a salon inside the building, long ago came up with a solution for her customers. “I have scarves for any of the ladies that have to go outside of the building,” she said.
It doesn’t take much of a scientific mind to understand why it is so windy around the building. It is a tall building in a prairie town. But the Commoner did set out last month to make a measure of just how windy the grounds around the building are in comparison to the rest of the neighborhood. This involved a bit of science, including the use of a homemade anemometer and an egg timer. The anemometer, a propelling gage used to measure wind speed, was constructed using instructions found on the Internet. Four paper cups, four drinking straws, a push pin and pencil. Piece it together with tape, stick it out in the wind, and count how many times the cups go round in a minute. At College Hill Park, from atop the playground equipment, the cups wobbled around in a full revolution an average of 6 times per minute. Results were similar at other locations, including on the neighborhood’s north end in the vast parking lots behind the drugstore and strip mall near Central. No measure could be taken from outside the Hillcrest, however. The anemoter was blown off its mooring and into the street in under 30 seconds. It could not be repaired with Scotch Tape.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
Storefront Santa
The Kitchen & Bath Gallery storefront at 2823 E. Douglas got a holiday makeover last month, courtesy of owner Mark Combs, but no thanks to his partner, Ray Anderson. “He’s kind of a Scrooge,” Combs said. “He just rolled his eyes and walked away.” Combs trimmed the window in hopes or raising spirits. “This year is kind of a gloom and doom for everybody, and I'm kind of tired of hearing all the gloom and doom,” he said. “If someone can enjoy it for a few minutes, that is what it is all about
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE WHERE TO FIND GREAT HOLIDAY GIFTS & SUPPLIES IN COLLEGE HILL AND BEYOND. ARCHITECTURAL ARTIFACTS 5424 E. Central, 683-8900 HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE, Sat. Dec 6, 11am-5pm. Ornaments, framed Santas, jewelry and artwork by local and national artists. Custom framing also available. ARTIFACTS features Amy Herd Photography from photo cards to matted and framed photographs of the U.S., Europe and Canada. 10% TO 40% SALE ON MANY GIFT ITEMS AND ANTIQUES. CREATIVE CATERING & CAFE 3238 E. Douglas, 942-0175 Let Creative Catering & Cafe take the stress out of your holidays. We can help with everything from a last minute tray of appetizers or cookies to fully catered dinner parties. Be sure to bring out of town guests to the Café for lunch, dinner, Sunday Brunch or our Gevalia coffee and espresso drinks. BEST OF TIMES 6452 E. Central, 634-3805 bestoftimesgifts.com The card and gift shop that’s been making Wichitans smile since 1981 is now close to your College Hill home. Featuring Recycled Paper cards; Vera Bradley; Elf on the Shelf; the Phubby wrist cell-phone holder; Barefoot Contessa food products; Lolita wine, martini and beer glasses; Woodwicks candles; 2009 calendars and Webkinz. EIGHTH DAY BOOKS 2838 E. Douglas, 683-9446 eighthdaybooks.com Offering a rather extraordinary collection of classics in religion, history, the arts, and children’s literature. This holiday season give a gift of enduring worth. From award winning literature to philosophical classics, Eighth Day Books has the perfect
gift. Not quite sure what’s on their reading list? Gift certificates are available! Selling books worldwide, and in your neighborhood. Come enjoy a cup of coffee and browse your way through your Christmas list!
ing rooms, and a friendly staff make Foggy Bottom the very best place to find prom, pageant, and evening wear. Cute unique casual clothes, jackets, purses, and jewelry fill the main floor. Save 25% off in stock gowns in December with this ad.
EXTRAORDINAIRE SALON & BOUTIQUE 4715 E Douglas, 263-4600 salonextraordinaire.com Holiday Open House, Dec. 6, 10am5pm. Enjoy 10% off all store merchandise, and 25% off all holiday ornaments and hair products. Register to win manicures, pedicures and massage services to be given away throughout the day. Shop our boutique for hats, bags, purses, jewelry, scarves, T-shirts and wallets—all on sale.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT 2929 E. Central Ave, 683-6078 Check out our fun & festive gift ideas! Featuring laugh-out-loud gifts, custom blended aromatherapy products, unique gifts for children, kitchen gadgets galore, gourmet food, soy candles, yoga items & over 300 teas. Can’t decide? Gift cards are available! For your entertaining needs, our store is brimming with delicious and healthy food! Stop in today and discover our hidden delights!
THE FLYING PIG BOUTIQUE 2320 E. Douglas, 871-6025 dani-creations.com Make us your one-stop for holiday gifts this season! We offer a unique assortment of USA-handcrafted items, including pottery & dinnerware, exquisite glass jewelry, rustic barnwood holiday & home decor, and a HUGE local favorite -handmade natural bath & beauty care products by Dani's Creations. We're now offering our bath & body gift basket assortmentsjust in time for the holidays! Mention this ad to receive 35% off any handmade bath & beauty product during the month of December. Complimentary refreshments will also be provided during the 3rd Thursday Crawls, 5:30-8:00.
FRANK & MARGARET 4730 E Douglas, 201-6049 frankandmargarethome.com It’s the thought that counts, and sometimes gift presentation is almost as important as the gift itself. A beautifully wrapped present makes anyone feel special. Enter Frank & Margaret. For a flat fee of $25, we’ll provide unlimited access to our cache of ribbon, wrapping paper, and basic supplies, as well as a kit of embellishments and other frivolities. Get all of your wrapping done at once and out of the way of curious family members while enjoying complimentary snacks and Irish coffee (wrappers are welcome to byob). Bring a friend or two and you have a real "wrap" party. Store elves will troubleshoot your wrapping emergencies to a mega-mix of holiday “wrap” music. Wrap-a-thon dates: Dec. 7, 1 - 8 p.m.; Dec. 15, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Dec. 21: 1 - 8 p.m. Attend one or all of the Wrap-a-Thon events for the $25 fee.
FOGGY BOTTOM 3234 E Douglas, 681-1960 fgybtm.com Foggy Bottom is a ladies boutique. Spacious display areas, large dress-
SKIN ESSENTIALS AT CLIFTON SQUARE 3700 E. Douglas, No. 85, 250-0287 skinessentialswichita.com Have loved ones on your list left to buy for? Give the gift of great skin and relaxation! During December get a gift certificate for 50% off! Skin Essentials is a skincare spa offering facial treatments, eyebrow design, eyelash extensions and superior skincare products and free consultations. Call to reserve your half-off gift certificate today. *Some restrictions apply. Offer expires Dec. 31. Visit us during the Clifton Square open house on Saturday, Dec. 6, 10am5:30pm. THE SPICE MERCHANT 1308 E. Douglas, 263-4121 spicemerchant.com Explore our wonderful array of merchandise: Amish spools, aprons, chocolates, candles, canisters, coffee beans, coffee grinders, cookie jars, cookies, cooking accessories, dishes, essential oils, flavor syrups, gifts, gourmet and private label foods, greeting cards, herbs, lotions, mugs, pastas, salt & pepper grinders, sauces, soaps, soup mixes, spice jars, tea pots, tea towels, teas, trays, whimsie, wind chimes, wooden utensils. All of our coffee beans are fresh roasted in our store. Store hours are Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm; Sat, 9am-5pm. Open Sundays 12-5 from Thanksgiving to Christmas. SPRINGPARK GALLERY 3700 E. Douglas, No. 60, 295-7771 Offering fine art prints by artists past and present. We’re open 10am - 4pm on Thu- Sat, and until 8pm for the monthly Final Friday Art Crawl. Join us for our Holiday Open House for refreshments and printmaking demonstrations from 10am - 5:30pm on Saturday, December 6.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE HILLSIDE
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ARTS
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A student creates a bowl from leftover clay.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
Teaching artist Susan de Wit, at right, offers drawing tips.
Program director Courtney Howard lays out paintings to dry.
ART FOR KIDS’ SAKE AT ST. JAMES, AN AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM WHERE CREATIVITY COUNTS
BY BARRY OWENS he 13 students from Lincoln Elementary School in St. James Afterschool Program, which places a heavy emphasis on the arts, were given a choice last month. Artist Susan de Wit would provide the clay and the tools and over three sessions the students would provide the sculpture. The finished pieces could be one of the following, for which she provided examples: a reindeer bell, a cross, a mask, a leaf, or the eye of God, rendered in what she called her “contemporary mosaic technique.” The sample eye she showed, which the class eventually selected as their project by a show of hands, was mounted on a pyramid shape, not unlike you would find on the back of a dollar bill. Student Manuel Parga said he wasn’t so sure he could pull that off. “Most of things that I do are small,” he said. In the end, he went another way and carved out a cartoon character familiar from the Spongebob Squarepants television series—Plankton. “He only has one eye,” Parga said. And so it goes four days a week on the second floor of St. James Episcopal Church, where in the afterschool program the students are encouraged to make choices, so long as they are creative. The afterschool program began four and half years ago as an effort to enrich the lives of children who live at or below the poverty line and may not get the exposure to the arts, or the attention they need, in public schools.
Manuel Parga lifts the tracing paper away from his clay slate to reveal the shape of his sculpture. PHOTOS: BARRY OWENS
“Somewhere in the inner city, there could be a child who is the next Mozart,” said the Rev. Kate Moorehead, who is rector of St. James. “If we don’t provide them with some kind of method by which they can express their gifts, they may never know that. We’re hoping to give them an opportunity to fall in love, [with art] and hopefully lift them out of poverty.” Last month a fundraiser for the program at the church, which featured jazz, wine and a silent art auction with pieces contributed by local artists, also featured works created by the students. Those pieces sold better than you might expect. “They’re just very striking,”said Teresa Weninger, who purchased two student paintings. She was drawn to them, she said, because they moved her. “Kind of like... ‘bam.’” Back in the classroom a few days later, the students were taking in the lessons from de Wit, one of the rotating line up of artists brought in by the church through Arts Partners. Aside from the art of scoring, sculpting, firing and glazing, she explained the elemental origins of clay. “How do you know so much?” one of the students wanted to know. “I’m an artist,” replied de Wit. “I want to be an artist when I grow up,” Parga said aloud to no one in particular.
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
COMMUNITY CALENDAR Chamber Chorale Performs
Holiday Home Tour
The Wichita Chamber Chorale, which features a number of College Hill residents, will peform holiday concerts this month. The chamber chorale will perform “Sounding Joy,” on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 7:30 pm at West Heights United Methodist Church, 745 N Westlink, and Sunday, Dec. 14 at 4pm at Plymouth Congregational Church, 202 N Clifton. “Sounding Joy” includes works by Schuetz, Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn, Vierne, and Vaughan Williams. The program also features familiar and favorite carols and hymns. Tickets are $15, $12 for seniors, and $8 for students. Tickets are available at Senseney Music Co., online at www.wichitachamberchorale.com , and at the door. For more information, 316 267-2796.
The Blessed Sacrament Holiday Home Tour, a fundraiser for the church’s Altar Society, is set for Dec. 6, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The tour features neighborhood homes decorated for the holidays by parishioners (Sorry. No children under 14 allowed on the tour). College Hill homes on the tour this year include the O’Malley residence at 137 N. Belmont and the Herzig residence at 204 N. Belmont. Tickets for the tour are $12 and are available at the Blessed Sacrament Parish Office, 124 N. Roosevelt, Watermark Books, 4701 E Douglas, and at Maxine’s, 5400 E. Central. Tickets are also available on the day of the tour. For more information, call the parish office, 6824557.
Open House at Clifton Sq.
Compeer Fundraiser
The merchants of Clifton Square, 3700 E. Douglas, will host an open house on Saturday, Dec. 6, from 10am5:30pm. Aside from shopping, merchants will offer refreshments and drawings. Participating merchants include Garden Reflections, Bay Leaf Cafe, JacQues’ Design, Classic Alterations, Springpark Gallery, Skin Essentials, Angela’s Floral & Gifts and Barcelona Hair Salon.
Compeer mentoring, a non-profit program of the Mental Health Association of South Central Kansas, will host a fundraiser on Dec. 11 from 5-8 p.m. at Beyond Beads & Boutique, 6488 E. Central. During the event, 20 percent of all sales will benefit Compeer mentoring. For more information, call Patty Gnefkow, Director of Compeer, 6851821, ext. 497.
Photography by Randolph Guapo & Kelly Lindsay
316.686.9748 2300 E. Douglas Avenue
randolphkellyphotography.com
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
Christmas Giving
A shopper at the Alternative Market checks the price on a nativity set last month during a one day sale at Grace Presbyterian Church in Crown Heights.
PHOTOS: BARRY OWENS
At Grace Presbyterian Church last month, a holiday shopping market like no other. BY BARRY OWENS There were lines of holiday shoppers, but not the competitive sort that would elbow you out of the way for a discounted flat-screen TV. These were the sort of shoppers on their way to purchase a yak (a share for $24 or the whole animal for $253) for the impoverished youth of Tibet, or maybe a hospital bed, or perhaps contribute to lowincome families in Appalachia. It was the Alternative Market at Grace Presbyterian Church, where last month shoppers could purchase goods created in the Third World, or donate to causes anywhere in the world. Usually, those donations are made in another’s name and presented as an alternative gift on Christmas. “We feel like the market is bringing in a lot of new shoppers,” said Lea McCloud, president of
Yak ornaments on display at the market.
A young shopper checks out a baby doll display, part of a neo-natal training booth.
Alternative Gifts International, the parent organization of the market, who was on hand to greet customers. “It’s feeling busy and it’s buzzing,” she said of the mood on
the sales floor. “I think a good indicator was that before noon, we ran out of potato soup.” Laura McFall, who helped to
organize the annual market at the church, later said that more than $26,000 was raised during the one day sale. Miss it? It’s still possible to shop for items at the organizations’ Web site: www.alternativegifts.org “Instead of buying another tie, instead of buying another materialistic gift, this is a chance to help support people who are in need,” said Eleise Holt, a market board member.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
WICHITA PUBLIC LIBRARY
Workers construct a trolley track bridge alongside the Douglas Avenue bridge in this undated photo. That is Delano in the background. The trolley lines connected the city’s suburbs, including up and coming College Hill to the east.
END OF THE LINE A look back at the street car line that connected College Hill to the rest of the city. BY JEFF A. ROTH ittle physical evidence remains of the College Hill street car line that began service to the hill in 1887 (although a patch of concrete on Circle Drive near Douglas bears mention later). The street cars used to carry residents of the hill to town and out to the factories and colleges. What started out as a device to promote real estate development in Riverside and the suburbs of Fairmount and College Hill, became an integral means of travel throughout the city for the next 50 years. Not all the travel was pleasant; a bumpy ride was in store for some. The first street cars were pulled by mules that would trot the short cars out to the suburbs. Due to the short length of these cars the ride could be jaunty. One rider complained in the Wichita Eagle in 1893 that the ‘bob-tail fellow” that scoots up the track “jerks a fellow’s innards out to ride ‘em.” One operator reminiscing in the paper in 1932 recalled with amusement the day that the fat lady from the visiting circus sat in the back row and caused the front
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A pair of College Hill summer (open) trolleys circa 1890 on an unpaved Douglas Avenue.
JEFF ROTH
wheels to raise up and come off the track. At the height of the mule car service there were 235 mules housed in five stables located in different parts of the city; the system had 47 cars and 81 men to keep the operation on schedule. Wichita was one of the first cities to experiment with electric street cars and by 1889 the technology was dependable enough to begin to retire the mules and convert the cars to
electric motor power. The gauge of the track was widened slightly and the overhead electric lines were strung. With the arrival of the electric lines, lantern-looking street lights were hung at the intersections. College Hill got the upgraded service in the spring of 1890. This was a time before automobiles and unless you had a carriage house with horse and buggy, the streetcar was your alternative to walking. The frequency with which
streetcar anecdotes were reported in the newspapers attests to the importance of the service. There were accidents to report: trolley vs. horse/buggy/wagon/bicycle; freight train vs. trolley; trolley vs. trolley; and inevitably, trolley vs. pedestrians young and old, including fatalities. The deaf and hard of hearing seemed to have been particularly vulnerable as they were unable to hear the motorman’s gong clanging the warning of its approach. There were inconveniences on the line such as being crowded in a car “next to a garlic-laden breath” during rush hour. Or pity the man in the dark suit having to sit next to the miller at the end of the day. There were other human interest stories of the time. One streetcar driver made a series of complaints to the Wichita Beacon on June 15, 1889, about women riders in particular: “Sometimes they wave their hand or parasol wildly from the sidewalk and when they get aboard, all out of breath, they look daggers at us and proceed to pile the seats CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
HISTORY
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WICHITA PUBLIC LIBRARY
A street car traverses the little Arkansas River on a bridge that was just south of today’s Murdock Bridge. The trolleys provided much needed transportation, but also cool leisure on summer nights. “Trolley Parties” were all the rage. CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
full of bundles; and “The pocket book is first examined for pennies. If only four are found, the thing is turned wrong side out to find the fifth.” The fare was 5 cents at the time. The street car company however made a small windfall later that summer when a group of visiting Indians amused themselves by dropping a nickel in the glass front fare box. They watched the coin zigzag its way into the money box. They were so tickled by the action, the Beacon reported in 1889, that they “dropped ten to fifteen nickels into the slot and chuckled as though they had discovered the funniest game out.” Young boys were also attracted to the amusement provided by the street car and posed a problem at times, such as placing items on the track to cause derailments. There were reports of broken streetcar windows as a result of a pop bottle bombardment. One snowball thrower was taught a lesson. His infraction was committed on the south line on Main Street at the Harry Street School. Motorman Tom Reeves put the hurler on board and ran him to the north end of the line, dropping him off in North Riverside a few blocks shy of 13th Street. The
WICHITA PUBLIC LIBRARY
Car No. 8, the College Hill car, coupled with the Riverside street car.
youngster had a cold January walk back home to his house in the 1100 block of South Main (near Harry Street). Sweet revenge may have been achieved only two months later when on March 28, 1909 the car was derailed after someone placed a wedge in the switch, in the 1100 block of South Main. Crimes were occasionally committed against the motormen. Masked men attempted to hold up the Fairmount car (just north of present day Wesley Medical Center) but Motorman Giddings raced down the Hillside track back to Douglas to
warn the other drivers. They in turn would not stop for the bandits, according to a tale in the Beacon in 1903. By 1906 the streetcar employees were apparently allowed to carry weapons. One night at Douglas and Grove a 30- year-old-passenger, intoxicated after a day of drinking absinthe, was disgruntled about having to pay the fare. He produced a 32-caliber Colt revolver and aimed it at the conductor. The conductor drew a 38-caliber Smith & Wesson and shot the man dead, the Beacon reported the next morning. “He met his end due to intemperance on
Streetcar No. 142,” is how the story was summed up. The trolleys remained an urban necessity (merely 10 pleasure cars were registered in all of the city in 1901 and only 125 by 1906). The trolleys, however, were also beloved by the city residents. Summer “Trolley Parties” were all the rage and lavishly reported on in the society news. For $5 one could book a private car for the entire evening. In the warm summer months the speed of the trolley brought the partygoers a refreshing breeze. The evening would be spent traveling the entire street railway system. Music was sometimes arranged for the trip and refreshments were customarily served enroute. Music and entertainment also played a presence on College Hill’s crest. In the early days, when the street cars were 18 to 28 feet long, they would comfortably turn around using a loop at the end of the line. College Hill’s loop was located in the middle of Douglas Avenue at Roosevelt and Circle Drive. In time the residents of College Hill desired to have a waiting pavilion built at their terminus. They had the noted architects Proudfoot & Bird design a shelter with benches. At their own expense of $125 they had it built on CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
HISTORY
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
END OF THE LINE CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
Drivers await a fresh team for car No. 8, a mule driven trolley which predated the electric street cars. At the height of the mule car service there were 235 mules housed in five stables located in different parts of the city; the system had 47 cars and 81 men to keep the operation on schedule. CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
Douglas and Roosevelt. From there they could enjoy the view from the hill while awaiting the next street car. It apparently was such a popular structure that band concerts and ice cream socials where held in it during the summer months. Eventually, due to increased passenger demand up and down Douglas Avenue, the street car system was forced to buy larger, longer cars. These turned out to be too long to make the loop with out hitting the pavilion. To the disappointment of the College Hill residents it was torn down in 1900 and never rebuilt. The loop served as the terminus for the College Hill line from 1887 to 1909 at which time the street cars were finally so large that their wheels couldn’t turn sharp enough to follow the radius of the loop. The loop was torn out and in its place a “wye” was constructed. According to local railroad and street railway historian Harry S. Lee, this design allowed the street car to motor eastward to the end of the line, turn down a short section of track on Circle Drive, and back up the wye in order to redirect itself back downtown for the return trip. There still exists today a rectangular patch of concrete on Circle Drive south of Douglas. It reveals the location of the wye which was abandoned and filled in following the end of the
Transportation Company. In a short order more modern and efficient bus designs were developed and incorporated into Wichita’s transportation system. The end of an era was at hand. The last street car pulled into the car barn on June 30, 1935 and the new all-bus service was begun. The old streetcars found various landlocked uses. Five were donated to the Salvation Army for use at Camp Hyde where the cars were made into cabins. Others were transformed into various commercial uses such as a lunch counter. Others were given more pastoral tasks, doing duty at local farms. One was purJEFF ROTH chased as a depression-era honeyThe Jitney bus, a passenger cab, marked the beginning of the end of trolmoon bungalow by a couple from ley service in Wichita. Street car service ended in 1935. Belle Plaine. According to historian But by this time the city had 12,000 Harry Lee, it still exists as one of street car era. While the wye served its func- registered pleasure cars, now being two survivors in storage today at the tion for many years, it was not with- termed passenger cars. Added to this Garvey storage facility on South out incident. On the afternoon of was a new means of conveyance, the Hoover awaiting restoration someMarch 20, 1919 College Hill street- Jitney bus, a long passenger cab day. Generations of Wichitans were car No. 236 was negotiating the wye built atop a truck chassis. The served by the street car system. Some when its brakes failed. It skidded Jitneys were a serious threat to the people today still recall the tracks eastward down Douglas, backwards viability of the street cars because embedded in our city streets. The last a full block across the top of the these vehicles weren’t confined to trolley tracks were removed in the brick pavement. When it came to the paths of the tracks. Fierce com1970s due to bicycle and motorcycle rest just east of Douglas and petition arose between the two Quentin the adjacent playground camps. Court injunctions and City mishaps with the tracks, the last was undoubtedly full of pint sized, ordinances were battled over. bumpy rides associated with the street However, both modes of transporta- car system. If you drive around town, wide eyed witnesses. Through the 1920s the street car tion were eventually acquired and and you know where you’re looking, system was still an important means brought under the purview of a you can still make out the street of transportation for the workers of group of local investors incorporat- repairs indicating the presence of the Wichita, their wives and children. ing themselves as the Wichita street car lines of long ago.
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ DECEMBER 2008
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