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Said to be an area frozen in the years of 1865-1880, the Old
Cowtown Museum is open to all guests interested in history. Working directly
with the city of Wichita, the museum houses over 10,000 pieces of American
history, ranging from textiles, tools, art, and more. Cowtown has the
distinction of being officially recognized by the American Alliance of Museums,
the highest national recognition achievable by a museum in the United States.

Cowtown offers interactive learning through living history exhibits as well as special educational programs.

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Old Cowtown is a living history museum with fifty-four historic and refashioned buildings that work to recreate a Central Plains cattle town in the late 19th century. Cowtown’s unique programming chronicles Wichita's transformation from a frontier settlement to a cattle town, as well as its subsequent transformation to an agricultural center and manufacturing city. Costumed staff portray buffalo hunters, traders, cowboys, Blacksmiths, carpenters, and farmers. Guests can tour authentic and recreated stores, depots, banks, grain elevators, barns, saloons, newspaper shops, and much more. Children will especially enjoy the DeVore Farm, which features a working farm with machinery from the 1880s.

Old Cowtown Museum

This tour starts at several landmark downtown buildings and monuments before winding its way towards museums and historic city buildings as it moves to the riverfront area. Along the way, the tour stops at civil rights landmarks as it winds its way towards the Keeper of the Plains and the Mid-America All Indian Center. 

Highlights and History of Central Wichita Tour

The namesake of this building is Henry Lassen, a flour miller and real estate investor. Lassen's hometown was El Reno, Oklahoma. He began his career there with companies such as the Canadian County Mill and Elevator Company, frequently passing through Wichita on his way to other places of business like Osage City. Eventually, he left his hometown to continue business here after being "snubbed into leaving [El Reno]," according to an Oklahoma newspaper. The circumstances of this are unclear, but the Lassen family left for Wichita in the 1910s, with Henry Lassen joining C.M. Jackman with a local milling operation.In 1918 Lassen financed the construction of the Lassen Hotel, which Richards, McCarty, &amp; Bulford designed. The building's architecture combines Renaissance Revival and Late 19th and Early 20th Century Revivals. When it opened for business on January 1, 1919, the Lassen was the largest hotel in Kansas and the first high-rise hotel in Wichita. Famous guests at the hotel over the years included Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Will Rogers, Knute Rockne, Jack Dempsey, and William Jennings Bryan. The Lassen is significant for its architecture and its association with the economic development of the city between World War I and the Great Depression. For decades the hotel was the city's premier hotel and convention center. During the 1930s, it was the home of the city's oldest radio station, KFH, which stood for "Kansas' Finest Hotel."In 1986, the hotel was purchased and operated as the Wichita Radisson. This lasted until 1971 when the building was purchased by Defenders of the Christian Faith, who repurposed it as a retirement home. This lasted until 1981, after which the building was vacant for several years until another repurposing, this time for office space. Many locals today may know the building better as Market Center, the title it took during its thirty or so years as an office building. In 2015 all offices were vacated in preparation for yet another repurposing, the aim of which this time was to convert the building to 110 apartments. Work never began, and as of 2022, the empty structure is for sale.

Wichita's first high-rise and once its largest hotel, the Lassen Hotel was financed by El Reno businessman Henry Lassen. It is also notable for its interesting use of a classically-inspired combination of Renaissance Revival and Late 19th and Early 20th Century Revivals, which are all characteristic styles of the post-World War I boom. After being completed in 1919 the hotel accommodated many famous figures as they passed through the city, including Amelia Earhart, Will Rogers, Rudolph Valentino, and many others. After changing hands several times over the decades, the hotel became the Radisson Hotel from 1968 to 1971, a retirement home until 1981, and office space until 2015. The offices were vacated in 2015 so the building could be repurposed into apartments, but this never happened and the former hotel stands empty today.

Lassen Hotel, later Radisson Wichita Hotel, later Market Center

The theater is also significant in that it represents the transition from the vaudeville era to the film era. The architect, John Eberson, designed the building in such a way that the transition could take place. For many years, traveling vaudeville acts were one of the country's main sources of entertainment. The onset of the film industry in the 1920s soon overtook vaudeville acts in popularity. Mirroring this trend, in just seven years the theater began to only offer films.&nbsp;

The Orpheum opened in 1922 and is historically significant as one of the first "atmospheric" theaters built in the country (in atmospheric theaters the auditorium ceiling is curved and decorated in such a way that it gives the illusion of an open evening sky). The interior was designed to mirror a Spanish courtyard. The theater's history followed the decline of urban downtowns as places of entertainment, losing business to suburban theaters that had less overhead and maintenance costs. Volunteers saved the theater from the wrecking ball in 1983 and began the process of restoring the historic theater. Today, the theater once again hosts some of the leading national acts and is one of the premiere attractions in central Kansas. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.  

Wichita Orpheum

Civil Rights activist Ron Walters once called his Wichita hometown the “Mississippi of the North.” He had good reason to think so. During the 1950s Walters lived in a Wichita that denied the black population the right to swim in the municipal pool and admittance to the city parks. The local hospital forced blacks to be treated in a separated wing, and ninety percent of Wichita’s African American population lived in seven census tracts. Children attended segregated schools through the eighth grade, and hotels, restaurants, and movie theaters did not serve black patrons unless the movie theater had a balcony for blacks to sit or unless a restaurant was black-owned.The latter proved to be the final indignity for Walters and his cousin Carol Parks. Parks recalled the humiliation of standing at a lunch counter waiting to be served food which she was forced to eat elsewhere solely because of the color of her skin. “We never knew what it was to just sit there and have a glass and dishes,” she remembered. This treatment sparked Parks and Walters, members of the NAACP youth group, to plan a sustained sit-in of a family-owned drugstore chain in downtown Wichita—Dockum Drugs.The carefully planned protest began on a hot and humid Thursday evening in July 1958. A dozen young people quietly walked into the downtown location at the corner of Broadway and Douglas late in the afternoon and asked to be served. Parks seated herself first and was about to be handed a coke when the waitress noticed her companions and said, “you are not colored are you dear?” When Parks answered yes, the waitress cited store policy and refused to serve her and her fellow protestors. The young people, ages 15-22, quietly sat facing forward as if expecting to be served until the store closed later that evening while anxious parents watched from across the street. That day a movement began.The group organized the sit-ins for three days a week—Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The strategy, recalled Walters years later was to “shut off the flow of dollars.” The youth group committed themselves to returning to the drugstore for as long as it took to be served. They received the support of the Wichita NAACP, but not that of the national office, which cited that direct action was against policy. The national office preferred litigation.Walters knew the sit-in hurt Dockum’s business when protestors took to the lunch counter stools because the manager occasionally closed the counter as a way to refrain from serving the black students. Other times white patrons walked into the store and immediately left without making a purchase once they noticed the protesters.Nearly three weeks after the protest began on the afternoon of August 11, the owner of the Dockum chain walked into the store and saw Parks sitting at the counter. He threw up his hands and called to his store manager, “serve them—I’m losing too much money.” Shortly thereafter all the Dockum stores in the city were integrated.Walters finally received an award from the NAACP in 2006 to honor his role in organizing the protest. He continued to work as an activist and eventually became a teacher, author, and television commentator. He passed away in 2010.

Seeking racial equity and an end to segregation, Wichita's Black students organized and staged a sit-in on July 19, 1958, at Wichita's Dockum Drugstore, a location now home to the Ambassador Hotel. Long denied entry into the city's movie theaters and restaurants, students exercised their right to peacefully protest over a three-week period at the popular lunch counter. It was one of the first organized sit-ins in the country. A group of young people led by Ron Walters, the president of the Wichita NAACP Youth Council at the time, decided to start the protest. The sit-in was successful after the owner finally relented because the protest was hurting business. Other businesses in Wichita soon followed suit, leading to desegregation throughout the city. Protests like the Dockum Drugstore Sit-In transformed the struggle for racial equity in America and inspired similar protests in Oklahoma City and Greensboro, North Carolina, which took place soon after. A monument honoring the sit-in was erected at this location and later placed in storage with plans to install it one block east within a dedicated urban park.

Dockum Drug Store Sit-In

Chester Lewis was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1929. His father, Chester Lewis, Sr., was a mail carrier and a vocal supporter of racial equality, attending local NAACP meetings during Lewis, Jr.’s childhood. Lewis was influenced by his father’s activism and took his parents’ advice to study law as a way to create change. Lewis was also probably influenced by his surroundings in his adolescence: Hutchinson was the only city in Kansas that did not segregate public schools, so he grew up in majority-white schools where he succeeded academically. Lewis attended law school at the University of Kansas, then moved to Wichita with his wife Jacqueline in 1953 and set up a law practice. Immediately, he began his work as a lawyer and activist as a force for change in the city. In 1953 alone, Chester convinced Wesley Hospital to desegregate their infant nursery and influenced the city to desegregate public pools.Chester is most famously remembered in Wichita for his role in the Dockum lunch counter sit-ins of 1958. At the time of the sit-ins, he was president of the local chapter of the NAACP, and a successful lawyer. When students from the NAACP Youth Council approached him with their plan for a sit-in, he wholly supported them and helped to organize their efforts despite orders from the Association to avoid direct action. The students planned to sit at the Dockum Drugstore lunch counter at Douglas and Market every Thursday and Saturday starting July 19, 1958. Lewis offered emotional support, using his strong leadership skills to motivate the community even when the students faced opposition, as well as free legal services to any protesters arrested. The students continued to sit at the counter every week, and on August 11, the Dockum store manager ceded and announced that the store would serve Black customers. Though Lewis and the students defied the NAACP headquarters' orders by engaging in direct-action protesting, the next year the NAACP awarded Chester Lewis and the chapter a Thalheimer Award, an award given for the highest achievements. Though the sit-ins are what Lewis is often remembered for, his effort and influence did not end there. He remained president of the local NAACP chapter for eight more years and, during that time, fought several more injustices in the city. In 1958, the Boeing Aircraft Company, the biggest employer for several decades in Wichita, had only 400 Back employees, representing less than one percent of their total workforce. In addition, all Black employees were entry-level, unskilled positions. That year, Chester Lewis complained to the President’s Committee on Government Contracts that Boeing’s hiring practices defied Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802, which prohibited hiring discrimination in companies that supplied the U.S. military. This led to dozens of Black Wichitans being promoted and hired for engineer and production positions in the company.One of the biggest battles Lewis fought, which spanned most of his career, was the battle for equal schooling. Though Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was decided in 1954, elementary and middle schools in Wichita stayed effectively segregated for two decades. After Brown v. Board was decided, many white Wichitans fought for their children’s schools to remain all or majority white. On paper, Black families living in majority Black neighborhoods could opt for their children to be bused to majority white schools. In reality, most families’ requests for these transfers were denied, and many in the community including Chester Lewis felt that this solution put an unfair burden on Black children, while keeping several elementary schools and one intermediate school virtually all Black. Lewis led the fight by submitting a formal complaint to the federal Office for Civil Rights of the Wichita school district’s noncompliance in desegregating, which led to an official investigation into school segregation in the city, and an eventual lawsuit against Unified School District 259. The district proposed several plans that Lewis and others publicly opposed because they did not truly address the issue of de facto segregation. Lewis also served as a witness in the government’s case against the school district. After a long battle between the Wichita school board and white elites, the Wichita Black community, and the federal government, on May 17, 1971, the school board agreed to a plan that would close almost all Black majority elementary schools and bus students of all backgrounds to schools throughout the city to maintain diversity.Many Wichitans know the story of the Dockum sit-ins of 1958 and remember the desegregation of busing in Wichita public schools, but this park is one of the first monuments to Chester Lewis, a man who spent his career fighting for racial equality in all sectors of Wichita. Ronald Walters, the Wichita NAACP Youth Council president during the sit-ins, argued that while the Greensboro sit-ins may not have been directly connected to events in Wichita, the Dockum sit-ins were a spark that contributed to the flame of the protest that culminated in a wave of sit-ins two years later. Chester Lewis was a hero not only for Wichita but for the entire country, as a symbol of the Civil Rights movement and the successes won by many people. As Chester Lewis’ daughter Brenda Lewis stated at the park’s 2023 debut, “the history of Wichita, Kansas cannot be told without Chester Lewis.” This park will be a lasting tribute to Chester Lewis’ monumental contributions to the city of Wichita and the Civil Rights movement.

Chester I. Lewis Reflection Square Park opened in September of 2023 and commemorates the life and legacy of Chester I. Lewis, one of Wichita's most important civil rights leaders during the twentieth century. The park contains several large art installments depicting scenes from the local civil rights movement, including the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, Freedom Rides, and sit-ins. Chester I. Lewis was a lawyer and activist in Wichita who worked tirelessly throughout the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s to break down the deep segregation and inequality in his city. Lewis’ value to the progress made towards equality cannot be overstated: he fought injustice everywhere he saw it, including the Boeing Aircraft Company, local public schools, the fire department, housing, local hospitals, and more. He strongly advocated involvement for young people in public life and was known as a man of principle who valued the movement and its goals to support positive change in Wichita.

Chester I. Lewis Reflection Square Park

On July 19, 1958,
tired of the injustice caused by segregation, a group of African American
youths started a sit-in protest at Dockum’s Drugstore in Wichita, Kansas. A
sit-in (or sit-down) is a form of direct action that involves one or more
people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or
economic change. After three weeks of protest, the management relented,
choosing to begin serving both Black and white customers alike.While not quite as
famous as other sit-ins that came later, the Dockum’s protest remains a pivotal
moment in desegregation in the state of Kansas. In 1998, this sculpture was
first unveiled to the public, in memoriam of the original protest. 

The sculpture depicts
a man spinning his young boy on the chair, the waitress, and another customer
waiting for her meal. It is part of the "Streetscape" installation,
which is spread out over a four-block area. It features various sculptures
depicting children playing, as well as adults. Two children riding scooters are
located near the counter.

"Streetscape"
was&nbsp;commissioned as part of a downtown revitalization project. The open
seats are open for local workers in the area to sit on during their lunch
break.&nbsp;

This bronze sculpture, created by artist Georgia Gerber, memorializes the months-long sit-in of African American college students in the former Dockum's Drugstore, which took place in July-August 1954. Ultimately, the sit-in was successful; the owner allowed the participants to eat at the counter and soon the city began to desegregate.

The Soda Fountain

Kansas City-based clothing and furniture company Woolf Brothers was founded in 1865 by brothers Alfred and Samuel Woolf. Alfred's son, Herbert, took over the company after his father's death in 1915. He expanded the company's operations, opening the company's first store at 11th and Walnut in Kansas City and planning to expand across the midwest and south, with eyes on cities like Tulsa, Dallas, Memphis, and Wichita.The Wichita store's location was selected in 1922. The new building was designed by Lorentz Schmidt and Company and built by George H. Sidehoff Construction Company, both renowned, Wichita-based organizations. The stone, steel, and terra cotta building belongs to the Chicago School of Architecture, noted for "tripartite fenestration, large display windows at the first story, and overall composition with base, shaft and highly ornamented cornice." The ornamentation is influenced by the Classical style. When the building was completed in 1923, it was the biggest building in the state of Kansas used exclusively to sell clothing.Once the new location was finished, Wichita proved to be one of Woolf Brothers' most successful markets. The store quickly established itself as an important part of Wichita's economy. Its success is shown in the many ads taken out by the company welcoming other new businesses to the city; this is proof that the company was not only popular with the people, but a significant contributor to the city's expansion, encouraging more new businesses to come. By 1938 the store had grown from 30 employees to 60 and in 1948 it underwent a major modernization project, improving the entire building.In 1985 the eight remaining Woolf Brothers stores across the country were sold to David Carpenter of Kansas City. This included the Wichita location which had served the downtown area for more than sixty years. Sadly, the store's new management quickly decided to close the store, with the holiday season of 1985 being the building's last. The decision to shut down this store was made for several reasons. The aging building was becoming an inconvenience for shoppers, as was parking in the increasingly crowded downtown area. Most importantly, sales had dropped so much the store had been forced to close at least one of its sales floors. The building has served as office space ever since, and today it houses World Impact, a Christian mission organization.

Woolf Brothers was a Kansas City-based clothing company founded in 1865. In 1922, after taking over the company, the founder's son Herbert Woolf expanded its reach to cities across the south and midwest including Tulsa, Memphis, and Wichita. The location here on Douglas Avenue quickly became a core of the downtown shopping district which encouraged other out-of-state companies to expand their business to the Wichita market. However, as shopping trends over towards malls and away from the downtown in the 1980s, this store closed in 1985 after sixty years of serving the downtown area. The building was repurposed into office space.

Woolf Brothers Clothing Company Building

This styled nude statue was intended to honor early white
Kansas settler women when it was placed in Wichita amid the nation’s
bicentennial celebration in 1976. The city council commissioned the statue for
a new pocket park under construction behind the former city hall (now the
Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum) and Carnegie library.&nbsp; 

Local artist Richard Bergen described his work as “an
abstracted nude figure of a pioneer woman preparing herself for a cool dip in a
Kansas stream.” Demonstrating more empathy for western settlers than historical
knowledge, Bergen explained that “When you’ve been walking across the plains on
a hot, windy, dusty day and you come to a river … [y]ou’d probably strip off
your clothes and jump in. That’s what I think the pioneers probably did, too.” Although
Heritage Woman was highly stylized,
the artist claimed that “It has a classical feeling to it.”1&nbsp;The Wichita Heritage Square advisory committee unanimously approved the Bergen
sculpture, which the chair called “very effective and just right for the
setting”; the director of Wichita’s Community Arts raved that he “love[d]
it.&nbsp; No question, she is a stunning
person.”2&nbsp;They appeared to embrace the juxtaposition of
a nude figure representing a pioneer woman, and of a hot, dusty settler for a
Victorian-style urban park. Perhaps because the artist chose to name the
sculpture after its site in Heritage Square Park rather than explicitly
identifying the nude figure as a pioneer woman, the broader public seemed to
share the arts community’s appreciation. The citizens of Wichita apparently
viewed Bergen’s Heritage Woman within
a long-established fine arts tradition of nude female forms. &nbsp;In contrast to the outrage expressed in Denton,
Texas, in the 1930s and Salem, Oregon, in the 1950s, newspaper coverage of
Wichita’s Heritage Woman did not
reveal any protests to her nudity.&nbsp;
Instead, local residents appeared to embrace the work’s merging of
classical and contemporary aesthetic for their new Victorian-inspired urban
park, and overlooked the artist’s conception of a nude pioneer woman revealing
herself in downtown Wichita.

Yet
Wichitans’ acceptance of the nude pioneer woman appear to have declined over
time. In April 2005, vandals damaged the sculpture’s hands, requiring $5,000
worth of repairs.&nbsp; Shortly after the city
returned the statue to its plinth in Heritage Park in fall 2006, it was
assaulted a second time, knocking it off its base, breaking it in half at the
waist and cracking the bronze skin, causing another $20,000 in damages. Vandals
attacked it a third time in early 2013, again removing it from its base and
breaking it in half. This time repairs kept the statue out of the public eye
for four years. City leaders hope that the installation of a tall iron fence
around Heritage Park will protect the statue from further damage. Historical
society staff suspect that the statue’s nudity inspired these repeated attacks
on Heritage Woman.&nbsp;<div><div>

</div>

</div>

This styled nude statue was intended to honor early white Kansas settler women when it was placed in Wichita amid the nation’s bicentennial celebration in 1976. Wichitans accepted the statue at that time, but some appear to have become concerned with her nudity. Since 2005 the statue has been seriously vandalized three times.

Heritage Woman statue

Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie sponsored nearly 1,700 libraries across the United States, with many others being built in countries like Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Public libraries are commonplace today, with many more cities having them than not. However, most of the growing midwest in the early twentieth century had no public library systems, so donating a single library was an invaluable contribution to local literacy and education. Towns had to meet some requirements to be eligible. They had to have at least a population of a thousand people as a prerequisite and needed to commit to maintaining, staffing, and funding the building and its operations after the library was built. The library also had to be free for all to use. Wichita and its rapidly growing population had no problem meeting these requirements, so they were awarded a $75,000 grant to construct the new library in 1912. Wichita's was one of nearly five dozen Carnegie Libraries across Kansas, and less than half of these remain today.After being designed by Anthony Allaire Crowell, the Beaux-Arts-style building was completed in 1915. Located downtown directly south of City Hall, the new library was a source of great pride for Wichitans, quickly becoming regarded as a cultural and educational staple. The interior, designed by Parsons School-trained Louise Caldwell Murdock, boasted marble columns, Doric pilasters underneath the ceiling beams, and a classically detailed atrium. Stacks around the library housed growing numbers of books and other materials, while other areas had seating for patrons.The Wichita Carnegie Library served the city for fifty years. The building was initially built to hold between 120,000 and 145,000 books and periodicals, a significant amount in the 1910s. By the mid-1960s, though, twice this amount had been crammed into the struggling library. Library staff did not struggle with funding or obtaining materials, but accommodating them all soon proved impossible, with stacks overtaking the building's seating and study areas. As a result, the Central Branch reopened in a Brutalist building in 1967. After this, the former Carnegie Library was a government building for some time. It served as a planetarium called the Wichita Omnisphere and Science Center for a time. When nearby Exploration Place opened in 2000, the Omnisphere closed, and the building was vacant for six years before becoming the headquarters for Fidelity Bank in 2006. Restoration projects were undertaken in 2008 for the building's new purpose and in 2015 in honor of the former library's hundredth birthday.

One of fifty-eight libraries across Kansas funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, the Wichita Carnegie Library opened its doors in 1915 and served as the city's main library until 1967. The outside of the building was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Anthony Allaire Crowell and the inside featured classical elements. To the growing city of Wichita, the library was a source of cultural pride, soon becoming a staple of education and literacy for its citizens. After the Central library replaced this structure as Wichita's downtown branch in the late 1960s, the historic building building housed government offices followed by a planetarium. The building is currently home to Fidelity Bank.

Wichita City Carnegie Library

The museum traces its roots to the Sedgwick County Pioneer Society which was established in 1909. It became a museum in 1938 called the Wichita Public Museum. It adopted the current name in 1947. When the city began discussing the construction of a new city hall in the 1960s, concerned citizens helped save the Lassen from demolition. In 1979, the museum moved in.&nbsp;

This local history museum is located in the old City Hall which was built in 1892. The building is one of the state's oldest and most impressive courthouses. Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by Willis Proudfoot and George Bird, it features an ornate stone decorative exterior and was given the nickname, the “Palace of the Plains”. As such, the building is significant for its architecture and the fact that it represents the city's development during the late 19th century. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. 

The museum offers four stories of exhibits that showcase life in Wichita over the centuries, from Native American culture, to early settlers and railroads, to the birth of the aviation industry, and to more recent history. A wide variety of exhibits explore this history, such as the recreated early car garage featuring a 1916 Jones automobile, a typical 19th-cottage, and an early 20th century drug store. The museum also houses an internationally-acclaimed collection of silver-plated service ware.       

Sedgwick County Historical Museum

Wichita's Carnegie Library was a staple of the local community ever since it opened in 1915. As Wichita's growth as a city skyrocketed in the following decades, however, this library began to struggle in meeting the literacy needs of the rising population. Despite satellite locations across the city picking up some of the slack, the Carnegie Library was "bursting at the seams" with the sheer amount of books and other material it had become expected to carry. Even study rooms and comfortable reading areas were overpowered by the branch's growing amount of stacks. Much of the funding for the new branch was secured through bonds and Federal Urban Renewal Grants beginning in 1961.The architects of this building were Schaefer, Schirmer &amp; Eflin Architects, a greatly renowned architectural firm throughout the 1960s and 1970s. While they were better known for Modernist work, which they were especially acclaimed for, they chose a Brutalist design for the new library. While this was an unusual choice for the firm, which had not worked on any buildings in this style before this one, they picked it because of its newfound popularity. The style had become more famous after being used in the design for Boston's City Hall. Brutalist buildings like this one are minimalist and prioritize showcasing the internal structures, in this case, concrete, over external decorations. While the Brutalist style has been criticized elsewhere for being unfriendly, this building avoids that by featuring numerous windows on all sides and stories. This lets patrons enjoy natural light no matter where they were in the library. Ground was broken in 1965 and the finished building opened for business two years later.By the 21st century, it became clear to city officials that this library would soon meet a similar fate as the Carnegie Library. An initial plan to build a new central location at 2nd Street and McLean fell through in the recession, causing efforts to shift to expansion, but by 2011 this was shown to be too expensive an option to be viable. Funding was finally secured in 2015 and the Advanced Learning Library opened in 2018, one month after the Central Branch closed following fifty years of service. Apart from being used as a COVID-19 vaccination site during initial vaccine rollouts in 2021, the former library has been empty ever since that time.

Designed in the 1960s in the Brutalist style of architecture which was popular and considered modern at the time, this building was the home of the downtown Wichita library for fifty years. Built to be plain yet functional, much of this four-story structure is made of glass, letting in natural light and making the space inside feel inviting and open. In the 21st century, the public library system moved the central branch to the nearby Advanced Learning branch in order to expand to a larger building. The former Central branch has been vacant since 2018 other than serving as a temporary COVID-19 vaccine clinic in 2021.

Wichita Central Library (1967-2018)

The city of Wichita celebrated its centennial in 1970. To ring in the start of the city's second century, local architect John M. Hickman designed the appropriately named Century II, an arts and convention center. Century II was built on the site of a previous convention center, called The Forum, that had opened in 1911. It quickly became famous for hosting major area events, including everything from Russian ballets to circuses and car shows. However, by the 1960s, this building was deteriorating and could no longer meet the demands for capacity called for by the growing city. This caused Hickman to have the aging theater razed along with numerous former riverfront businesses to clear the way for Century II, which was designed with the works of Frank Lloyd Wright in mind.Despite Hickman's unexpected death, Century II opened as planned in January 1911. At the time, it featured a concert hall, convention hall, exhibition hall, and a theater later renamed as Mary Jane Teall Theater. Bob Brown Expo Hall, named for a former Wichita City Commissioner and Mayor, was a later addition, built in 1986. A decade later, the Hyatt Regency Wichita was built on the south side of Century II to accommodate visitors to the city.

This riverfront site has been the center of performances and conventions in Wichita for more than a century starting with The Forum, which became the largest theater in the city when it was constructed in 1910. As part of the 1970 centennial celebration of Wichita, the former site of the Forum became home to Century II starting in 1969. The venue is a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired structure that has hosted numerus cultural events, conventions, sporting events, and community meetings in its theater, expo hall, and meeting spaces.

Century II Performing Arts and Convention Center

This sunbonneted pioneer mother carrying a Bible and satchel and leading her young son by the hand echoes Bryant Baker's famous "Pioneer Woman" for Ponca City, Oklahoma. It was sculpted by Dorothy L. Koelling in 1989, and dedicated on the Wichita riverfront in 1994. According to the dedication plaque, it "symbolizes the hardhip and dreams of early Wichita pioneers." It was given in memory of Eva M. and Will G. Price to recognize "their devotion and inspiration to the cultural and business life of Wichita." The statue stands in front of the civic center, near statues of a Native American man holding a peace pipe, Lebanese immigrant Farris George Jabara, and a group of children at play representing America's future.

Hardship and Dreams statue

Lieutenant Commander Earle Caffrey Schneider was scheduled to sail the newly commissioned submarine Dorado from New London, Connecticut to Panama on October 6, 1943.  After all the trials and testing were finished USS Dorado left Connecticut and headed for the Panama Canal where she was expected to arrive October 14, 1943. When the submarine missed her arrival date, the air searches began but they only found scattered oil slicks and debris. The USS Dorado (SS 248) is believed to have been destroyed by a US Navy PBM-3 flying boat based at Guantanamo Bay on October 12, 1943. While patrolling the area the aircraft dropped three depth charges and a bomb on what seemed to by a surface U-boat.  The aircraft circled around to observe the results of the attack but could not see anything except white water and bubbles. On October 24, 1943, the Navy announced the loss of USS Dorado (SS 248).The Veterans Memorial Park is located on the east bank of the Arkansas River and is open to the public 24 hours every day. While visiting the park be sure to take the winding peaceful path to see all of the Memorials and reflect on the history behind each of them.

The Dorado SS (248) memorial is located within Wichita's Veterans Memorial Park honors the submariners of Dorado SS (248) who were lost during World War II. The monument was dedicated by the US Submarine Veterans of World War II, Kansas Chapter in October 1996. The front of the monument includes a complete crew list and the words “In Honor of One of 52 Submarines on Eternal Patrol” appear at the base of the monument.  Although submarines only represented 2% of the US Naval Forces, they destroyed 50% of Japanese shipping and more than 30% of their warships.

Dorado SS Memorial

Veterans Memorial Park was formed in 1980. Since Veteran’s Day in 1977, Wichita has paid homage to the men and women who have fought and died in various wars throughout history. The purpose of this park is to honor veterans and military with statues, sculptures and memorials dedicated to The Civil War, World War 1, World War 2, The Korean War, Vietnam War, and Global War on Terriosm. Sitting on 4.5 acres this park is one of the largest in the country and it's just one of three in the country that houses a Berlin Airlift Memorial. Providing winding paths that take you to each of the memorial monuments from the front of the park down to the river. It is so unique because it also honors the sacrifices of the veteren's loved ones. What was/is given up by families in support of the troops too often goes unrecognized. Most memorials were paid for by relatives that were involved in the war so it definitely adds a lot of personal touch.All branches of the U.S. military are represented as are prisoners of war missing in action, gold star families and service members who have received a Purple Heart. The Veterans of each war have been memorialized, plus there is a Bicentennial Flag Pavilion, Gold Star Wives of America, POW*MIA, Purple Heart, American Gold Star Mothers, Pearl Harbor, Merchant Marines, and the crew members who lost their lives on U.S. Submarines after WWII, among others!The Korean War Memorial was very special! It has an Asian styled entrance. When you look through it, you can see the Map of Korea. Beyond that, there is a soldier on top of a pedestal with tributes to each of the Branches of Military. I also was fascinated with the 15 flags flying high! Each flag has shown the changes in the United States through the years. Did you know that there is a specific flag for the Commander-In-Chief?I had not seen memorials for a lot of the Wars memorialized here. Sad to say there have been a lot of conflicts, but it's really cool that this spot in Kansas paid tribute to the Veterans and their families.

What some people might call "The hidden gem," is called Veterans Memorial Park. This unique park is located Downtown Wichita Kansas along the Arkansas River on about 4.5 acres. From the Bicentennial Flag Pavilion to the 17 memorials representing six wars and every branch of the military, visitors can honor veterans and military to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. The park is open to the public and offers free admission. You can complete the “Veteran’s Memorial Walk” along the east side of the Arkansas River right to the park and witness for yourself this appealing and unique collection of statues, sculptures and memorials. The tour takes about 1-2 hours to complete.

Veterans Memorial Park - Wichita, KS

Exploration Place opened in 2000 and is located in a beautiful modern building on the Arkansas River. The museum features a theater and planetarium, as well as a dozen major permanent exhibits and rotating interactive exhibits that keep the museum a dynamic learning environment. 

Permanent exhibits include AgMagination, an interactive set of displays and simulations that teach about the history and future of Kansas agriculture. There is also a seven-foot-tall model of the human mouth, appropriately labeled "Big Mouth," that tests good oral health knowledge. There is also an exhibit called Bridging Art and Science which features local artists whose work incorporates some aspects of scientific thought. 

Among the most popular displays, Exploring Flight and Design, includes flight simulators and a giant "wind wall" made of thousands of tiny reflective discs that show air currents generated by a real airplane propeller and two wind generators mounted on a tower. Also popular is "Kansas in Miniature" - a small-scale recreation of early-1950s Kansas buildings, landmarks and more. There are also numerous temporary and traveling exhibits.

Exploration Place

The Keeper of the Plains was commissioned in 1974 by the city to mark the United States Bicentennial. The 45-foot steel sculpture was created by Kiowa-Comanche artist Francis Blackbear Bosin (1921-1980) also known by his Kiowa name Tsate Kongia (meaning “black bear”). Blackbear Bosin was a self-taught artist and sculptor. His early works comprise of representations of early Indian life while his later works became increasingly complex depicting a combination of recognizable and surrealist elements in vivid paint colors.Created as part of a $20-million riverfront restoration project and dedicated in 1974, The Keeper of the Plains has become the symbol of the city of Wichita. The striking sculpture stands at the junction of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers and adjacent to the Mid-America All-Indian Museum. The sculpture depicts a man who stands “…with hands raised in supplication to the Great Spirit.” The plaza where the sculpture is situated also includes elements that represent the four elements that make up life: earth, air, fire and water. Surrounding the base of the statue are multiple displays which describe the local tribes that used to inhabit this area, as well as several fire pits which sometimes light up to illuminate the statue at night.Visitors to the city should consider watching the nightly lighting of the "Ring of Fire" around this platform, which burns nightly at 7p.m. from November to March and 9 p.m. from March to November. The fire pits, which are known as the Rings of Fire, are lit mannually for public safety and run in 15 minute increments. They are generally lit once a night around 9 pm during the summer and sunset during the winter.

Created as part of a $20-million riverfront restoration project and dedicated in 1974, The Keeper of the Plains has become the symbol of the city of Wichita. The 45-foot steel sculpture by Kiowa-Comanche artist Blackbear Bosin stands at the junction of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers. The sculpture stands on a 30-foot tall platform adjacent to the Mid-America All-Indian Center. The sculpture depicts a man who stands “…with hands raised in supplication to the Great Spirit.” The statue acts as a visual reminder of the local tribes that inhabit the area (past and present) and the significant roles Indigenous people played in American history.

The Keeper of the Plains

The museum collection includes over three thousand works from American Indian artists, including the largest collection of works by artist Blackbear Bosin who was one of the museum's founders and also designed the Keeper of the Plains statue. The museum's current location opened in 1976 and is located near the city's iconic landmark and symbol, the "Keeper of the Plains" statue. Between the statue and the museum, one can tour the Outdoor Learning Center which includes a variety of exhibits such as tipis and other shelters and signage about native plants. Together, these exhibits show how Plains Indians communities lived while the works of art in the museum demonstrate aspects of Native cultures.

Established n 1969, the Mid-America All-Indian Center works to preserve and share the culture and history of Native Americans, as well as the role they play in society today. The museum features a collection of 3,000 artifacts; these are rotated in new exhibits throughout the year. The museum also features activities and attractions outside, including a tipi, travois (a drag sled for horses and dogs), a wildlife learning center, and a medicinal garden. Events held at the museum include powwows and community nights. Educational programs are also offered including arts and craft classes and field trips.

Mid-America All-Indian Center

The Roland P. Murdock collection, acquired from 1939 to 1962, is a prized cache of 168 American works across history and media. It includes such remarkable features as three Thomas Eakins paintings, four Edward Hopper paintings, 31 Arthur Dove works, and a set of pendant paintings by John Singleton Copley. Adding strength and depth to this core collection are WAM’s notable holdings in art of the American West with 20 works by Charles Russell, contributed by M.C. and Gwendolyn Naftzger and John and Elsie Naftzger, a growing and distinguished collection of 19th-, 20th-, and now 21st-century glass thanks to a bequest from F. Price Cossman, and a strong collection of Pre-Columbian art established by two Wichita families—Gregory, Haig, and Rima Kurdian, and S.O. and Louise Beren.

Since the founding of the museum in 1935, the permanent collection of the Wichita Art Museum has grown to more than 8,000 objects. The collection is international, with an emphasis on American artists of the 19th and 20th century. It is particularly strong in works that reflect the cultural heritage of the Great Plains.

Highlights and History of Central Wichita Tour

Old Cowtown Museum

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information