Southern Kansas – Kansas Preservation Alliance

Endangered:
Howard National Bank

Year(s) Listed: • 2023 | City/Town: • Howard

In April of 1877, the Elk County “State” Bank was organized with George W. McKey as President. Just a few short years later the bank was converted to the Howard National Bank. And in May of 1888 work would start on a massive castle-like building for the bank. The Citizen newspaper states, “The Howard National …

Endangered:
Edwin A. Smith Home

Year(s) Listed: • 2023 | City/Town: • Wellington

Joseph C. Smith Sr. and Mary Francis Burt Smith had decided that Wellington Kansas would be the place they settled down to have and raise their children. Mary had birthed four children Edwin, Joseph Jr., Nelly, and Harry. Edwin A. Smith was the eldest of the bunch born in 1870, they had brought him from his birthplace of Madison Indiana to Kansas …

Endangered:
Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. Station

Year(s) Listed: • 2023 | City/Town: • Fort Scott

This building sits alone, vacant and abandoned on the outskirts of Fort Scott. While the building itself history is little to none that could be found it is a part of history much bigger, that of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. Southwestern Bell purchased this property in March 1930 and constructed the building shortly after. …

Endangered:
Tiny Jails

Year(s) Listed: • 2022 • 2023 | City/Town: • Central Kansas • Eastern Kansas • Northern Kansas • Southern Kansas • Western Kansas

It’s safe to say that Tiny Jails have become a niche at the Abandoned Atlas Foundation. Making it a journey to document tiny jails all over the state. Most built in the 1880-1920s era they were used as merely holding tanks in their later years. Some were able to survive into the 1960s but most …

Awards of Excellence:
Mueller-Schmidt Home

Year(s) Listed: • 2021 | City/Town: • Dodge City

Built in 1880, the Home of Stone today serves as the museum for the Ford County Historical Society in Dodge City, KS. It is a limestone residence with ornate masonry and woodwork at each of its facades. In 2016, the exterior envelope was in need of multiple repairs. Ben Moore Studio was hired to produce …

Awards of Excellence:
Fresh Air Baby Camp

Year(s) Listed: • 2021 | City/Town: • Wichita

The Fresh Air Baby Camp in Wichita, Kansas may possibly be the only extant purpose-built and permanent baby camp structure in the United States. In 2007 the building had been out of use for several years and the City Park and Recreation Department had not been able to maintain it. The Wichita Office of Historic …

Awards of Excellence:
Common Ground Coffee Co.

Year(s) Listed: • 2021 | City/Town: • Fort Scott

The single story building was fully rehabilitated to bring the building from a vacant structure to a fully operational and vibrant business that enlivens the street in Downtown Fort Scott. The exterior primary stone façade (north) and the red brick secondary facades were fully repointed. The north stone façade was labeled and disassembled from the …

Awards of Excellence:
Washington School – Independence

Year(s) Listed: • 2020 | City/Town: • Independence

Washington School in Independence, Kansas was dedicated January 3, 1940, constructed with the assistance of the Federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The school is architecturally significant as a representative of an early Modern Movement school with Art Moderne influences and as the work of prominent school architect, Thomas W. Williamson of Topeka. The rehabilitation project …

Awards of Excellence:
Whipple House

Year(s) Listed: • 2020 | City/Town: • Meade

This project preserved the 1887 former residence of John and Eva (Dalton) Whipple, an 1887 contributing property part of the Dalton Gang Hideout and Museum in the city of Meade. Eva (Dalton) Whipple was sister to the famed outlaw Dalton brothers known for their robberies of trains and banks. The Whipple House faces west toward …

Awards of Excellence:
Colorado Derby Building

Year(s) Listed: • 2019 | City/Town: • Wichita

The Colorado Derby building, a 9-story example of modern movement architecture, was completed in 1960. The building was designed as a speculative office building but was fully occupied shortly after it opened. It is named after the Colorado Oil & Gas Co., which was the first company to occupy the building. In 2014 it was …

City: Southern Kansas