Recent Posts – Page 3 – Kansas Preservation Alliance

Endangered:
Vermilya-Boener House

Year(s) Listed: • 2010 | City/Town: • Lawrence

The Vermilya-Boener House is the only structure remaining from a historic farm in a scenic area of level fertile land in the Kansas River valley north of Lawrence. Elijah Wentworth Vermilya worked with Swedish stone masons to construct the stone farmhouse in 1867. It remained the family residence until 1948. Descendants of the Vermilya family …

Endangered:
Swedish Mission Church

Year(s) Listed: • 2010 | City/Town: • Osage City

Constructed by Swedish immigrants in 1872, the Swedish Mission Church is located at the intersection of Topeka and Lakin Streets in Osage City. The church is a rare example of the Carpenter Gothic style is Kansas and is listed on the Register of Historic Kansas Places. The ornamental steeple and stained glass windows were installed …

Endangered:
W. H. Sternberg Mansion

Year(s) Listed: • 2010 | City/Town: • Wichita

The Sternberg mansion was nominated for the Endangered Historic Places list by the present owner, Ken Elliott, because the property is threatened by deterioration. Elliott has tried to rehabilitate the ornate building on his own, but has been unable to qualify for municipal and state assistance. Constructed for his personal residence in 1886 by William …

Endangered:
Mary Butterfield House

Year(s) Listed: • 2010 | City/Town: • Manhattan

This house was constructed ca. 1908 for Mary Butterfield, who was the owner. She and her husband Frank, a retired farmer, lived with their daughter, Margaret, at another location. Margaret Butterfield was appointed secretary of the Kansas State Agricultural College (now KSU) in 1909. Formerly the Manhattan Emegency Shelter, the building has been vacant for …

Endangered:
Drinkwater & Schriver Mill

Year(s) Listed: • 2010 | City/Town: • Cedar Point

In 2006 the historic, almost a century and a half old mill was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since then there has been community outcry to have this piece of history restored back to its former glory. Restoration efforts started officially in 2015 with the first order of business being removing the …

Endangered:
Grace Bedell Billings Home

Year(s) Listed: • 2010 | City/Town: • Delphos

When Grace Bedell was eleven years old in New York state, she wrote to candidate Abraham Lincoln suggesting that he grow a beard so he could be elected president. Lincoln requested a stop when the presidential train headed to the inaugural so that he could thank his “Little Correspondent” as he called her. Later, Grace …

Endangered:
Stone Arch Bridges

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

Stone bridges, though the most expensive way to erect a bridge, represented the strongest and most durable bridge construction method. When arranged with an arch, stone can bear an almost unlimited load making it a popular choice near mills where heavy vehicles would cross or along a major roadway into a town. Stone bridges represent …

Endangered:
Lion Block

Year(s) Listed: • 2009 | City/Town: • Ness City

The Lion Block in Ness City, Kansas, serves as an excellent example of late 19th century Italianate design. Italianate styling was popular nationwide from the 1840s through the mid-1880s, spurred on by pattern books such as those published by Andrew Jackson Downing. Financed by the Shepard Brothers in 1887, the Lion Block retains its interior …

Endangered:
Parker House Hotel

Year(s) Listed: • 2009 | City/Town: • Minneapolis

Originally constructed in 1887 as a business building on the corner of Main Street in Minneapolis, Kansas, the Parker House Hotel was retrofitted into a 26 room hotel by widow Isabelle Parker in 1889. This Italianate structure had an interesting history serving as the primary meeting place for women suffragettes in the early 1900s and …

Endangered:
Diskau Archeological Site

Year(s) Listed: • 2009 | City/Town: • Manhattan

Archaeological test excavations have recovered Clovis projectile points and the remains of extinct Ice Age mammoths and camels in a cultivated field near Riley, Kansas. State archeologists indicate finding mammoth and camel remains is very rare in not only the state but in North America. Access to the site is being restricted, limiting the further …