AKS – Page 2 – Kansas Preservation Alliance

Endangered:
Kansas Homesteads

Year(s) Listed: • 2007 • 2008 | City/Town: • Central Kansas • Eastern Kansas • Northern Kansas • Southern Kansas • Western Kansas

The Homestead Act of 1862 made much of Kansas available for settlement. The Act provided farmers with 160 acres of land, provided they would live on the land for five years and improve it. Many of these settlers began in sod houses and then built frame or stone buildings depending on available local materials. Most …

Endangered:
Leavenworth Veterans Affairs Complex

Year(s) Listed: • 1996 • 1999 | City/Town: • Leavenworth

Photo by Vickie Bach In 1884, Leavenworth was chosen as the site for a home for disabled veterans. James McGonigle was a local builder and a veteran who had been wounded in the Civil War and also designed the Riverfront Community Center in Leavenworth. At the home for disabled soldiers, McGonigle’s firm constructed 17 buildings on 650 acres of land. …

Endangered:
Sauer Castle

Year(s) Listed: • 1996 • 1999 | City/Town: • Kansas City

Anton Philip Sauer immigrated to Kansas City from New York in 1868. Originally from Hessen Germany, the wealthy entrepreneur spent his younger days traveling all over South America and other countries. Finally settling down in Kansas City Anton owned around two hundred acres and picked a spot that reminded him of his homeland along the Rhine River. …

Endangered:
Old Main Building – Osawatomie State Hospital

Year(s) Listed: • 1998 | City/Town: • Osawatomie

Photo by: Unknown The Old Main Building was built in 1869 at a cost of $20,000. It was built to replace all of the existing structures on the Osawatomie State Hospital grounds. It was built exactly to the specifications of the “Kirkbride Plan”, having a central building and two wings, swept back in sections. The …

Endangered:
Rural Churches of Kansas

Year(s) Listed: • 1998 • 2009 | City/Town: • Central Kansas • Eastern Kansas • Northern Kansas • Southern Kansas • Western Kansas

Rural churches all over the State of Kansas are in danger of disappearing. With smaller rural communities finding it harder and harder to keep their incoming revenue sustainable the upkeep of church buildings has become harder to maintain. In addition these communities are losing population faster than they can repopulate leaving congregations to die out …

Endangered:
Rural Schoolhouses of Kansas

Year(s) Listed: • 1998 | City/Town: • Central Kansas • Eastern Kansas • Northern Kansas • Southern Kansas • Western Kansas

Schoolhouses all across the state of Kansas are in danger of being turned to dust. Many of our one room schoolhouses, left vacant in the 1960s-1980s during consolidation and funding changes within the government have been abandoned for so long most are a shell of what they used to be. Rural high school buildings vacated …

Endangered:
Topeka State Hospital

Year(s) Listed: • 1998 | City/Town: • Topeka

Photo by: Ralena Gordon of www.theemptyplaces.com It was determined that Topeka needed a mental institution around the 1870s, the state legislature would put up $25,000 under the condition that they wouldn’t have to buy the plot of land for it. Thanks to the donation of $12,000 from both Topeka and Shawnee County 80 acres of …