the college hill commoner_april 2010

COLLEGE HILL CROWN HEIGHTS UPTOWN SLEEPY HOLLOWVol. 4 No. 5 APRIL 2010

6 College Hillpainter Curt Clontsreturns to featheredform in latest show.

4 The Commoner’sguide to historicallydesignated homesin College Hill.

10 Hopping downthe bunny trail inCollege Hill Park.

• ••

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER

WICHITA FIRE DEPARTMENT ARCHIVES

The original Fire Station No. 5 at Hillside and Second streets, circa 1909, which served College Hill and surrounding neighborhoods.

FIRE STATION NO. 5A LOOK BACK AT COLLEGE HILL’S FIRST FIRE STATION PAGE 8

GOING THE DISTANCE

We got a hold of a list of the historically designatedlandmark homes in College Hill last month,attached it to our trusty clipboard, and took a self-

guided tour. We’ve been on the tour before. It’s actually onewe’ve taken once a month for going on three years now, butthis was the first time we took special notice of the homes atthe ends of the driveways. I confess that during our regularstops, when we are throwing the paper, we usually only takenote of how deep the lawn is and how far we have to walk toget to the porch. Short walk, fine home. Long walk, preten-tious manor. By our designation, that puts the fine homes onQuentin Street at the top of the list no matter that not a sin-gle one of the residences has been deemed historicallyimportant. (So far.)

The official list [see story, page 4] features homes rang-ing from the impressive Robert Clapp (son of L.W.) place onBelmont modeled after Sheffield Manor to the more modestbut certainly charming two-story clapboard Grace Wilkiehouse on English Street. There are more than a dozen homeson the list. Our American Foursquare on Holyoke is notamong them. That’s a pity, considering how much of a ruinit already looks.

But we have high hopes for our children. We’re expectinggreat things. Perhaps our humble hovel will one day be as popu-lar to tourists as Edgar Allen Poe’s Baltimore tenement or LarryBird’s childhood home. That would make the old man proud. Ofcourse, what would make him even prouder is if this old housebecame known as the birthplace of a pair of world renown archi-tects, famous for designing ridiculously fine homes with promi-nent porches that extend all the way to the sidewalk.

BARRY OWENSEDITOR

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z APRIL 20102

A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

LETTERS

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONERVOLUME 4 ISSUE 4 APRIL 2010

PUBLISHERJESSICA FREY OWENS

EDITORBARRY OWENS

CONTRIBUTORSDAVE KNADLER, JEFF ROTH

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONERPublished monthly by

The College Hill Commoner337 N. Holyoke

Wichita, K.S. 67208316-689-8474

[email protected]

In response to last month’s article about J. Hudson McKnight, long time College Hill resident DonMalone provided this photograph of his grandparents’ home on Kellogg Street as it appeared in1910. His grandfather Harry Malone (standing at center) was McKnight’s “sharecropper” who,for a share in the proceeds, farmed McKnight’s alfalfa fields (now displaced by the Kellogg & I-135 interchange). Do you have old family photos with a connection to College Hill? Help makehistory. Contact contributing writer Jeff Roth at [email protected] or 684-1919.

TO THE EDITOR:Annual dues to the College Hill

Neighborhood Association are $20. I’vebeen asked by several members: “whatdo I get for my money?”

Fair question.Spent money is a relative thing. Most

of us would travel another mile or two tosave 75-cents per gallon of gas for ourcars. That $20 is relatively meaningful. Ifyou are selling your house and the buyeroffers you $299,980 instead of your$300,000 asking price, you would prob-ably accept it; that $20 is not so meaning-ful. You probably wouldn’t even discussit. But it’s the same amount of money.

The $20 you give for your annualmembership fee is in the category of“very meaningful” for the College HillNeighborhood Association and it shouldbe for you.

It helps support the Christmas TrolleyTour, the children’s Easter Egg Hunt, theSpring Garden Tour and the Family FunFair each year.

It helps support the new Web site that

will be launched on or before June 1. Itoffsets our advertising and promotioncosts. It buys renovations to theChristmas pool display in College Hillpark. It helps offset the cost of the plasticdoggy bags that are in the dog waste dis-pensers in the park.

Some of the money accrues for spe-cial purposes, like possibly purchasingart for public places in our residential dis-trict or to underwrite special programslike “art in the park” or “Shakespeare inthe Park.” or other programs and ideasthat may be of interest to College Hillresidents. And it goes toward purchasingawards given periodically to deservingresidents and business operators in thecommunity.

In short, the $20 you give to yourneighborhood association goes a longway.

BILL HESSPresident,

College Hill NeighborhoodAssociation

WHAT DOES $20 BUY? QUALITY OF LIFE

Want to join or renew? Send $20 toC.H.N.A., P.O. Box 20707, Wichita, KS,67208. For more info: Mike Ferguson,treasurer, 682-5265

Still legal. Steal away and get

yourself some today.

By the cup. By the pound.Coffee roasted on-site

NE corner of Clifton at Douglas

8-5:30 mon-sat778-0846

freshroastcoffeecompany.com

COURTESY PHOTO: DON MALONE

3THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z APRIL 2010 OP-ED

In theory, Wichita should be agreat place to ride a bike. It’s rel-atively flat, the streets are rela-tively wide, and the weather is

relatively mild. The people, whenthey’re not in their SUVs and flipping

each other off onKellogg, are thefriendliest sort ofpeople you couldever hope tomeet.

And yet. On arecent beautifulSunday afternoon,driving fromCrown Heights toOld Town andback, I saw not a

single person riding a bike. That’s notan anomaly. Most days, you have abetter chance of finding a $20 billalong the road than another bicyclist.That’s not such a good thing.

I’m not pointing fingers; after all, Iwasn’t riding either, even though itwas definitely the kind of day for notonly having the windows down, buthaving them gone altogether. CollegeHill is beautiful this time of year. Butriding a bike around here is like get-ting out on the dance floor: Nobodywants to be first.

You can see why. Wichita driverstend not to see anything that’s not

another car, and when they do, they’renot amused. A person on a bike is stillnot considered part of traffic, but anannoying disruption of it. Wichitaboasts 100 miles of bike trails, but thisis still the only cityI’ve ever lived inwhere you’re actuallyencouraged to ride onthe sidewalk.

From the city’sWeb site:

“In the interest ofsafety, one should usethe sidewalk when rid-ing on a busy street(except in the CentralBusiness Districtwhere it is illegal).”

Two things strikeme about that statement: First, that it isnecessary to warn bicycles off thestreet, even though they’re consideredvehicles in every other respect. Second,that it makes an exception for theCentral Business District, which isprobably the one place where you’dactually want to be on the sidewalk,particularly during rush hour.

Fortunately, things may be changingeven here. I’m told that painted bikelanes are planned for First and SecondStreets sometime in the next few weeks,and that the striping job will includereducing one or both of those streets to

a single lane of traffic. If that happens,a bicycle commute from our neighbor-hoods to downtown and back suddenlybecomes a lot more pleasant.

And bike commuting is somethingthe city should encourage:it means slightly fewercars on the road, slightlyless demand for gas, andslightly less obesityamong its residents. Thetradeoff is that more biketraffic might add a fewseconds to somebody’shigh-speed commute.

I know; there’s anoth-er tradeoff: Somebodymight get killed. We’re allaware of the risk after thetragedy on Douglas four

years ago, which reinforced the percep-tion that riding a bike in this town is justnot worth it. But one big reason bicy-clists feel vulnerable in this town is thatthere are so few of them. Drivers, eventhe ones who aren’t jerks, just aren’tused to seeing people pedaling. So ifthe city really does give us Wichita’sfirst dedicated bike lanes this year, let’stry to make sure those lanes get used.

In the meantime, it’s spring in amostly level city, and this happens tobe a city with a lot of routes to getfrom point A to point B. If you decideto try riding in the weeks ahead, do it

in the spirit of a pioneer: Be vigilantand strong of heart. Someday bicy-cling will seem normal even here, butin the interim, here are a few things tokeep in mind:

• Dress to be seen and ride likeyou’re invisible. Never assume thateye contact is the same thing as some-body knowing your intentions, or youtheirs.

• Keep both hands on the handle-bars and close to the brakes. Trust me;you’ll need to stop unexpectedly oncein awhile.

• Take it easy. You’re not trying towin the Tour de France. You don’tneed one of those spandex outfitsemblazoned with logos. Pace yourself;pick a low, easy gear; get off and walkyour bike if you feel like it.

– Finally, most bike injuries occurat intersections and during rush hour.Use Google Maps to pick a route thatavoids the worst areas and give your-self time to take a longer but saferroute. Even with that, you’ll be sur-prised at how soon you’re goingthrough the door. That’s the miracle ofnot cruising for a parking space.

That’s it, then. Be careful out there.And if you happen to find a $20 alongthe road, it’s mine.

Writer Dave Knadler lives inCrown Heights.

Of Bravery and Bicycles

DAVE KNADLER

College Hill isbeautiful this time

of year. But riding abike around here islike getting out onthe dance floor:Nobody wants

to be first.

It’s our dedicated staff that makes the difference.

See our web site for party ideas, serving guides, special deals and more. rjdiscountliquor.com

Huge wine selection. Party planning and gift ideas. Ask about our gift cards.

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4 THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z APRIL 2010

LONG3401 E. SECONDSenator Chester I. Long put thisVictorian on the map when he movedin in 1911, but the former farmhouse(modified by Long and again in 1976)has been on the College Hill land-scape since 1887.

HILLSIDE COTTAGE303 S. CIRCLEProminent early Wichita architectWillis Proudfoot built this cottage ashis personal residence in 1887. Hedidn’t stay for long. In 1901, it wasleased out as the original WichitaCountry Club.

ALLEN-LAMBE255 N. ROOSEVELTThis one is hard to miss. It is the onlyFrank Lloyd Wright residence in thestate. It was completed in 1919 forGov. Henry Allen. Tours are availableby appointment.

ROBERTS235 N. ROOSEVELTChicago architect Lawrence Buck iscredited with this Craftsman style resi-dence, modeled after another of hisdesigns that was so winning it waspublished in Ladies Home Journal.

JACKMAN158 N. ROOSEVELTBuilt for Charles Jackman, owner ofWichita Milling Company, this SpanishColonial Revival house is the work ofLorentz Schmidt and George Siedhoff,the familiar names behind the Hillcrestand East High, among notable others.

BATH HOUSECOLLEGE HILL PARKOur handsome bath house was builtin 1937 as a Works ProgressAdministration project in 1937. It wasdesigned by local architect EdwardForsblom.

We’re a house proud bunch here inCollege Hill, and rightfully so. No otherneighborhood in this city can boast ofblock after block of so many well main-tained homes, many of them dating backto the turn of the past century.

While it is no secret that College Hillhas interesting architecture, some of thestories behind the homes (and the peoplewho built them and first lived there) arelikely a mystery to most.

Enter the College Hill NeighborhoodAssociation which last month announcedplans to provide placards outside of the

historically designated landmark homesin the neighborhood.

Of course, it will be up to the currenthomeowners to decide if they want todisplay a placard on their property. In themeantime, these pages offer snapshots ofthe houses and their history. It mightprove useful next time you are out insearch of, say, the Grace Wilkie house.

“Oh, I’ve heard of it,” said oneEnglish Street resident who was recentlyasked for directions. “But I don’t knowwhere it is.” Turns out, it has been sittingat the end of his block for 77 years.

(Blank) Slept HereManors of early movers and shakers could get signage

5THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z APRIL 2010

(BLANK) SLEPT HERE

AVIARY330 S. CIRCLEWhile Proudfoot was building hishome at one end of Circle Drive, hispartner George Bird built this perch atthe other in 1887. “Aviary” is a pun onthe architect’s name.

NEWBERN-GORE400 S. ROOSEVELTNamed for two subsequent wealthyowners – Reymond Newbern, gas,and Harry Gore, oil — this AmericanFoursquare is listed as a prime exam-ple of the form.

VAN ARSDALE201 N. BROADVIEWCredit Lorentz Schmidt (again) for thisresidence, originally home to WilliamVan Ardsdale. Van Ardsdale was pres-ident of the Arkansas Valley InterurbanRailway Company.

GRACE WILKIE4230 E. ENGLISHThere have only been two owners ofthis house. The first, Grace Wilkie,was dean of women at University ofWichita where a building there, a for-mer dorm, also bears her name.

PRYOR263 S. PERSHINGRalph Pryor was the first owner of thishouse in 1926. But the name youwould know is that of the builder,Walter Morris. It is a fine example ofthe style prevalent in Lincoln Heights.

BLASER136 N. CRESTWAYContractor Frank Blaser built thishome for himself in high SpanishRevivalism style. It so typified the lookthat it is featured in the book A FieldGuide to American Houses.

CLAPP320 N. BELMONTIt’s difficult to capture the scale of thishome in a single photograph. It wasbuilt for Robert Clapp, son of L.W.Clapp and was reportedly modeledafter Sheffield Manor in England.

POWELL330 N. CRESTWAYGrain merchant Lon Powell had thisTudor-Style home built for his family in1926. Once again, Lorentz Schmidtgets credit, with assists from partnersOverend and Boucher.

BY BARRY OWENS

“I don’t claim to know a lot aboutbirds,” Curt Clonts, a College Hillnative and painter of vibrant works,was saying the other day from his stu-dio at Friends University.

“The birds in the park, when I hearthem I know what they are. I can iden-tify a redheaded woodpecker and acardinal and a robin. I put a feeder inmy backyard to attract them and I findmyself watching them more. But Idon’t know a lot about them,” he said.

So how to explain the flocks ofthem perched in his latest show, “TheBirds Eye View of Colored Air,”which opens this month during FinalFriday? There they air, flying acrossthe coast, or warming themselves inthe sun, or lined up like hieroglyphics.

Clonts says he is not sure wherethey came from, or why he startedpainting them in the first place. Herecalls painting his first shortly afterhis father, Harlan, died in 1991. Theyhave since become more than occa-sional visitors to his work over theyears.

A spontaneous painter, Clontsprefers to get his materials in front of

him, put on a little music, and seewhat happens.

“When you are a young artist youthink all the time about what some-thing needs to be or what it needs tobecome. But when you’ve been doingit a while and it sort of becomes a partof you, then you don’t worry aboutthat. You just put a surface in front ofyou and you go to work. It becomeswhat it becomes.”

Clonts cycles through subject mat-ter, he said, and at least one of thepieces in the show is an abstract. But

the rest feature birds. He’s learned notto question it.

“A bird can go where it wants, dowhat it wants. When it comes down toit, the only thing that can kill a bird isbeing in the wrong place at the wrongtime. They have more freedom thanwe do,” he said. “Total freedom, that’swhat they mean to me.”


Black, white

& readall over.

subscribe today:689-8474

ARTS

Painting Outside the Cage

“The End of January,” by Curt Clonts “Warmed by a Tangerine Moon” by Curt Clonts “Flight Over Coast,” by Curt Clonts

“Manual for Happiness,” by Curt Clonts

BARRY OWENS

Curt Clonts returns to feathered forms with “The Birds Eye View of Colored Air”

“The Birds Eye View of Painted Air”opens this month during Final Fridayat Artifacts, in Lincoln Heights Village,and runs through May.

Curt Clonts in his studio at Friends University.

FIRE STATION NO. 5A look back at College Hill’s original fire station.

Late in the afternoon the stationbell at Hillside and Secondstrikes a sequence that the men

immediately recognize. The cadenceof “dong, dong…pause…dong, dong,dong…pause…” sparks them to actionas clearly as someone yelling, “fire inthe east side district.” They hope it’snothing more than a grass fire, perhapsin the park. From their second floorquarters they half fly, half drop downthe polished brass poles. Captain justhappens to reach the trip lever on thewall first. He unleashes the hangingcollars from the ceiling above to theanxious horses below. Then they’regone, the first firefighters of FireStation No. 5…circa 1907.

Today’s 1950s-vintage fire stationsits unobtrusively on Hillside, waitingfor the next Uptown, College Hill orSleepy Hollow alarm. Decades earlier,a two story grey brick firehouse stoodthere, home to four firefighters andtheir loyal teams of steeds with famil-iar names such as Tom and Jerry,Dutch and John, Peanuts and Charlie,and Bully and Jack. The signal theywere hearing came from the GamewellFire Alarm System housed at theCentral Station downtown. It soundeda sequence, similar to the Morse Code.

As soon as a citizen tripped one of thered alarm boxes or telephoned in thereport of a fire, the Gamewell signalrang in every fire station in town. Thesequence of the ringing, accompaniedby ticker-tape readout, told the fire-fighters what vicinity a fire was in. Ifthe sequence named a location in yourdistrict you were the team sent in tofight. Downtown backup with a horsedrawn steam-powered pumper would

be provided if the fire was a big one.The horses were well trained. At

the sight of the men clamoring forgear they knew it was time to per-form. They dutifully took their posi-tions astride the fire wagon’stongue. A pair of open collars hungabove them from the ceiling —winched and held there by thincables since the last call. Thesehinged halves of a traditional horse

collar, called hames, were the 1896invention of Wichita firefighterRobert G. Armstrong. He alsodevised a winch system that whentripped, allowed a governed andcontrolled drop of the hames to thehorses’ necks for quick coupling,wagon attachment, and rapid depar-ture. As observed by one veteranfirefighter, “It is not how fast yougo, but how quickly you get startedthat counts.”

In the early days of the east side,homes and businesses located therewere suffering the town’s greatestlosses to fire. The horse drawn wag-ons were having to make a two milerun from downtown to reach a fireon the hill. Station No. 5 was built toaddress that vulnerability. Theupstairs was fitted with quarters forthe men: sleeping rooms, a bath,lavatories and lockers. A haymow,or loft, at the rear of the secondstory held baled hay and bins of oatsfor the horsepower below. Fore andaft brass poles assured fasterresponse times than the stairs wouldotherwise allow.

Their fire wagon was paintedred, pinstriped and identified as,“Wichita F.D. No. 5.” It was a “com-

8 THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z APRIL 2010HISTORY

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE



BY JEFF A. ROTH

The original Fire Station No. 5 was razed in 1953 and replaced with the modern style build-ing shown here. It has changed little over the decades.

Left: The original Fire Station No. 5 atHillside and Second streets, circa 1909,which served College Hill and surround-ing neighborhoods. Below: Wichita firefighters, from left to right, Johnson, Coleand Hazzard pose in front of the stationin 1917.


bination fire wagon” carrying acombination of ladders, hoses and a45 gallon soda-water tank. When afire hydrant was unavailable, as inthe early days of College Hill, firescould be fought by means of achemical reaction. Pressure to shootthe water would be provided by aglass bottle containing sulfuric acidsuspended inside the sealed watertank. At the appropriate time thebottle was inverted with a crank,dumping the acid into 45 gallons ofbicarbonate of soda. It created a car-bon dioxide eruption like a schoolexperiment, or more appropriately,like an old brass fire extinguisher,albeit on a much larger scale. It wasnot uncommon to have grass fires inthe unmowed Merriman Park, espe-cially after the Wichita CountryClub abandoned it for greener links.Grass fires could also be fought witha pair of nickel-plated hose carttorches mounted at the rear of the

wagon. When these oil-pots were lit,they enabled the firemen to startbackfires to purposely burn awaygrass in the path of the fire anddeprive it of the fuel it need to con-tinue.

With the fire extinguished andhomes around the park safe onceagain, the men returned to Station 5to await the next ringing of theGamewell alarm. In-between horsegrooming and equipment mainte-nance, the idle hours were filledwith activities such as groundskeeping. A survivor of their early

efforts remains to this day. On thesoutheast corner of Station No. 5’slot there exists an estimated 100-year old Eastern Redcedar, Kansas’only native evergreen tree. It wasplanted in the earliest days of thestation. With a circumference ofover 7 feet, it ranks as one ofCollege Hill’s grandest and oldestresidents.

Station No. 5 had a kindred spir-it of sorts, a twin in the form ofStation No. 6, now the KansasFirefighters Museum & Memorial at

9THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z APRIL 2010 HISTORY

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

FIRE STATION NO. 5

JEFF ROTH



Coded alarm bells and a ticker tapemachine, right, alerted College Hill fire-

fighters to the location of a blaze. Below:Early Wichita firefighters race to a call.

Far right: Fire Station No. 5 as it originallystood. An exact twin of the station (Fire

Station No. 6) still stands at 1300 S.Broadway and serves as the Kansas

Firefighters Museum.

A fire wagon with hames open and ready for the horses. The harnesses were lowered bya winch for quick coupling. The city’s last horses were retired from service in 1918.

WICHITA-SEDGWICK COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM

Patent drawing for the hames horse collar,invented by Wichita firefighter RobertArmstrong. The hinged collars were part of anautomated system of harnessing the horsesand getting the wagons out quickly when thealarms rang. CONTINUED ON PAGE 11


Sun on the hill, light breeze in the trees, candy in thegrass. It doesn’t get much better than EasterSunday afternoon in College Hill Park. Early thismonth, hundreds of families turned out to paradethrough the park with the bunny and then make amad dash through the meadow in search of sweets.

Photos byBARRY OWENS

Hippity-Hoppity


1300 S. Broadway. Built in 1909,this building is a time capsule andan exact copy of College Hill’s firststation. Now a registered historicallandmark, Station No. 6 displaysfire fighting artifacts including acombination fire wagon, anArmstrong collar and winch, andeven hose cart torches. The museumalso displays the city’s only horsedrawn steam-powered pumper as wellas equipment of the next era, themotor-powered wagons. These piecesof equipment, arisingout of the dawn of theautomobile age, were sorevolutionary at the timethat people didn’t knowwhat to call them. The“automobile apparatus”was variously called the“motor fire apparatus”or the “motor firetruck,” before “fireengine” was finally set-tled upon. Station No. 6was the last firehouse inWichita to be built dur-ing the horse drawn eraand was the last to uti-lize horses in service tothe city. Its last horseswere retired in 1918.

Station No. 5 soon adapted to anew motor fire truck, a 1916Seagraves combination pumper: lad-ders, hoses and the ability to pump asteady stream of water with itsengine. The horse stalls wereremoved and the doors of the stationwere enlarged to accommodate thenew truck. College Hill’s fire fightinghorses were all but forgotten until theafternoon of April 9, 1952 when a 5.5Richter Scale earthquake sent tremorsfrom El Reno, Oklahoma, all the wayup to Wichita. It was reported that oldStation No. 5 “did a two-step” during

the quake. At the end of the distur-bance the ground floor to the rear wascovered with oats, shaken out fromthe ceiling above. Perhaps the quakewas a harbinger of “old” No. 5’s fate.It was razed a year later to make wayfor the modern station that existstoday.

One other College Hill fire stationbears mention, Station No. 9. TodayStation No. 9 is located on Edgemoornorth of the Kellogg Expressway.However, from 1942 to 1988 Station

No. 9 stood as a distinctive Art Decolandmark at Kellogg and Dellrose.Originally built in response to growthin southeast Wichita during WorldWar II, years later it was decided itsmission lay further to the east. It gaveup its College Hill location during theexpansion of the KelloggExpressway.

Whether from Station 5 or Station9, whenever you meet a firefighter ata neighborhood block party orCollege Hill Park event, consider thathe (or she) protects the lives andproperty of the folks in the hill districtas a part of a century-old tradition.

FIRE STATION NO. 5

U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS — PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS ONLINE CATALOG

Another handsome old building paved over to make way for the automobile. Fire Station No. 9, asit stood from 1942 to 1988 at Kellogg and Dellrose, was razed to make way for the Expressway.

Early Wichita firefighter Harry Hirst makes a new friend out-side Fire Station No. 5 during the winter of 1907.


the college hill commoner_april 2010

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