Northern Kansas – Page 6 – Kansas Preservation Alliance & Abandoned Atlas Foundation

Awards of Excellence:
McPherson Opera House

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

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1972, by 1986 local residents organized the McPherson Opera House Preservation Company in an effort to save the building from destruction. Still with an uncertain future, KPA placed the building on its Most Endangered list in 1998. Rehabilitation of the 1888 McPherson Opera House began in …

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 …

Awards of Excellence:
The University of Kansas Campus Heritage Plan

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

The University of Kansas Campus Heritage Plan is viewed as the first step in building a new culture of stewardship of historic landscapes and buildings on campus. Funded by the Getty Foundation and completed in March, 2008, the plan is available at www.dcm.ju.edu/planning.

Awards of Excellence:
Fairfax Bluff’s Apartments

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

The Fairfax Bluffs Apartments Project in Kansas City, Kansas received a Certificate of Honor for Rehabilitation. Constructed in 1943 to house civilian and government workers, this 48-building complex was adapted for contemporary affordable housing.

Awards of Excellence:
Northeast Junior High

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

The Northeast Junior High Project in Kansas City, Kansas received a Rehabilitation Medallion Award. Designed and built in 1922-23, the former school was rehabilitated as an income-adjusted elderly housing project.

Awards of Excellence:
Castle Tea Room

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

The Castle Tea Room Project in Lawrence received a Rehabilitation Medallion Award. Built in 1894, the building was threatened when it was purchased by Libuse Kriz-Fiorito in the 1940s. It was rehabilitated by the Libuse Kriz-Fiorito Historic Foundation.

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:
Chouteau Trading Post, Station and Post Office Site

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

Located at the mouth of the Kaw River, this historic site in Johnson County, Kansas, was home to the first trading post, train station stop and post office for the former Monticello Township (now Shawnee). Established in 1828 by Frederick Chouteau, the site first served as a fur trading post and ferry stop along the …

Endangered:
Sumner Elementary School

Year(s) Listed: • 1996 • 2009 | City/Town: • Topeka

Constructed in 1936 this Art Moderne style building is the school Oliver Brown’s daughter was denied admission to in the historic Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 19554.

Awards of Excellence:
Richard Pankratz

Year(s) Listed: • 2008 | City/Town: • Topeka

Dick Pankratz spent 34 years at the Kansas State Historical Society and was the agency’s first full-time staff person dedicated to the historic preservation program.

City: Northern Kansas