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COLLEGE HILL CROWN HEIGHTS UPTOWN SLEEPY HOLLOW Vol. 6 No. 1 DECEMBER 2010 5 College Hill cook shares her family recipes in hot selling cookbook. 4 There’s a new establishment in Clifton Square, John Browns. Abolitionists? No. Absolut? Yes. 6 College Hill writer publishes first novel. Its setting is far away, but the inspiration came from close to home. THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER COLLEGE (C)HILL The campus that never made it to the neighborhood and the chill that quickly set in. PAGE 8 Above: North Hall towered over Winfield’s “College Hill” from 1887 to 1950, when it was razed for being in poor repair. It could have towered over Wichita’s College Hill. Left: 1887 map of Wichita. The red push pin marks the spot where a university was planned. ILLUSTRATION: THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER

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The community newspaper for the College Hill neighborhood of Wichita, Kan.

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Page 1: The College Hill Commoner

COLLEGE HILL CROWN HEIGHTS UPTOWN SLEEPY HOLLOWVol. 6 No. 1 DECEMBER 2010

5 College Hill cookshares her familyrecipes in hot sellingcookbook.

4 There’s a newestablishment inClifton Square,John Browns.Abolitionists? No.Absolut? Yes.

6 College Hill writerpublishes first novel. Itssetting is far away, butthe inspiration camefrom close to home.

• ••

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER

COLLEGE(C)HILL

The campus thatnever made it to

the neighborhoodand the chill that

quickly set in.PAGE 8

Above: North Hall towered over Winfield’s“College Hill” from 1887 to 1950, when itwas razed for being in poor repair. Itcould have towered over Wichita’sCollege Hill. Left: 1887 map of Wichita.The red push pin marks the spot where auniversity was planned.ILLUSTRATION: THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER

Page 2: The College Hill Commoner

A PRIMER

We’ve been doing this neighborhood newspaper thing forawhile now and it is probably a safe bet that not all ofour readers today understand how or why we do this

thing to begin with. We know that we have loyal readers that dateback to our beginnings in 2007, but we get enough questions fromnew residents curious about the paper thing that just arrived ontheir porch that I’d like to use this space this month to explainwhat it is that The College Hill Commoner is about. If you’veheard the story before, or have your own notions, feel free to skipahead. For the rest of you, a primer.

We’re a free monthly newspaper. We are independently owned,a literal mom and pop shop, run entirely out of the home. There isno office, staff, intern or delivery driver. We occasionally springfor some crack freelance reporters and photographers (and arelucky to have the donated contributions of neighborhood historianJeff Roth published in our pages) but otherwise try do the thingourselves. That means we sell and build the ads, snap the photos,write the stories, lay out the pages, send it off to the printer, pickup a couple bags of rubber bands from Office Depot and then rolland throw the papers onto your porches. This requires a lot ofwalking and takes a number of days. We’re lucky to have a fewhardy volunteers that help us by delivering the paper on theirstreets (some pick up three or four streets). We can’t thank themenough.

What sort of stories do we include in the Commoner? We fol-low our noses and hearts and chase the stories that most interestus. We wish we could include more every month but there is onlyso much we can do story-wise each issue and still get everythingelse done, too. Call in your suggestions. We’d love to hear them.

A common misconception: we are affiliated or produced by theCollege Hill Neighborhood Association. We’re not, but we doattend and cover its meetings for news stories and as residents weare supporters of its efforts (the association is kind enough to sup-port us through advertising).

Why do we do it? Simple. Because we can and because welove our neighborhood. We started the paper as under-employedcreative types in search of an outlet. We’re not business people.That hasn’t changed.

Finally, we should note that The Commoner is only part ofwhat we’re doing down here on Holyoke Street. We’re also raisinga family and the editor has a full time job apart from the newspa-per. We give the paper our full attention whenever we can, but thattends to be evenings and weekends and those odd moments whenthe children are quiet. So, apologies if we miss your call the firsttime. Or if we haven’t gotten to that story that you really want toread. Or if the paper has not yet arrived on your porch this month.Hold on, neighbor. It’s coming. We’re working on it. Promise.

BARRY OWENSEDITOR

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z DECEMBER 20102

A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

LETTERS

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONERVOLUME 6 ISSUE 1 DECEMBER 2010

PUBLISHERJESSICA FREY OWENS

EDITORBARRY OWENS

CONTRIBUTORSJEFF ROTH

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONERPublished monthly by

The College Hill Commoner337 N. Holyoke

Wichita, K.S. 67208316-689-8474

[email protected]

The biggest turkey on your holiday table should be your bird.

Not your coffee.

I roast only the finest coffees from around the world.Your gathering deserves nothing less.

FRESH ROAST COFFEE COMPANYNE corner of Douglas at CliftonMon. - Sat. 7am to 11:30 am778-0846www.freshroastcoffeecompany.com

Please mark your calendars and plan to attend….

The Annual College Hill Trolley TourSunday, Dec. 12, 5:30-9pm

Dress your house up for Christmas…the Trolley may come down your street!

CHNA Christmas Members Meeting“A casual business meeting and gathering”

Tuesday, Dec. 21, 7-9pmEast Heights United Methodist Church - Hedrick Hall

Visit the CHNA website @ collegehillneighborhood.com

Be an active member of the Great College Hill Residential District of Wichita.Neighborhood Association Memberships are limited to College Hill Residents… Join or renew today - $20 for 2011 annual period beginning January 1, 2011

CHNA – PO Box 20707, Wichita, Kansas – 67208Information?..... call Mike Ferguson at 682-5265

Page 3: The College Hill Commoner

3THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z DECEMBER 2010

We can’t make this stuff up.

Call with your story suggestions: 689-8474

Come as you are,but come often.

Open for lunch, dinner and last call.Watch the game (NFL, college,

whatever is on) in the UndergroundBloody Mary bar on Sundays 11-3

A neighborhood eating & drinking establishment. All ages welcome.

OPEN EVERY DAY 11AM-2AM. SUNDAYS 11-103700 E. DOUGLAS. IN CLIFTON SQUARE

686-5299

Page 4: The College Hill Commoner

BY BARRY OWENS

The neighborhood has anotherrestaurant and Clifton Square a newtenant. John Browns, a dining anddrinking establishment, opens thismonth in the former Clifton Wine andJazz space in the square at 3500 E.Douglas.

Owner John Fitzthum says hishope is that the bar and restaurant willfill a niche in College Hill (which nowlooks ripe with local dining and drink-ing options) by offering a cozy neigh-borhood pub atmosphere.

It also has a local feel, decoratedwith art created locally and black andwhite photographs on the wall depict-ing people and scenes from earlyWichita.

“The idea is to keep it local,”Fitzthum said.

Fitzthum is a neighborhood native.He grew up near Kellogg and Oliver.He moved to Colorado where heattended Colorado State and went intobusiness as a Subway franchise ownerand real estate developer in the Veilarea. He returned to Wichita to raise hisfamily.

“Veil is Hollywood,” he said. “Wewanted to raise our kids the way thatwe were raised.”

John Browns is open seven days aweek, offering lunch, appetizers, soup,sandwiches, desserts and a full bar.Because it is primarily a restaurant, itis open to all ages.

The restaurant will serve food untillast call.

“If you order at last call, you willget it to go,” Fitzthum said. Fitzthumis toying with the idea of offering take-out as well. “You could pull up onVictor Place, call us, and we’ll bring itout to you,” he said. “Curbside serv-

ice.”About the restaurant’s iconic name

… it’s not who you’re thinking. JohnBrowns is not named for the famousKansas abolitionist. John “Brown” is anickname Fitzthum earned in college,he said, where he was known as the“last American Cleveland Browns fan.”

“I became John Brown,” he said.“My wife was Julie Brown. My Dogwas Jed Brown.”

Fittingly, the basement level ofJohn Browns is called theUnderground. The downstairs loungecan be reserved for private parties butis otherwise open for patrons night and

day. It is equipped with televisions forwatching sports or whatever strikesyour fancy.

“There is always a game on, but weinvite people to come down and turn itto the History Channel and have aglass of whiskey if they want,”Fitzthum said.

The bar will also serve coffee madeto order in a French press.

Fitzthum said his hope is that JohnBrowns can become a comfortableneighborhood hang out for all ages.

“I want people here in the after-noon inking deals over a glass ofscotch,” he said. “Or studying.”

4 THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z DECEMBER 2010

BARRY OWENS

Above: John Browns, a dining and drinkingestablishment, opens this month in CliftonSquare. Owner John Fitzthum, left, says thatthe bar will offer a “cozy and quaint atmos-phere” for neighbors to drop in for a beforedinner drink, or after dinner dessert, or towhile away an afternoon watching the game.

At John Browns: Abolitionists? No. Absolut? Yes.In Clifton Square, anew neighborhood

pub opens its doors.

Come see our selection of: natural body products and cosmetics

GET 1/2 OFF YOUR NEXT SERVICEWHEN YOU BUY HOLIDAY GIFT CERTIFICATES!* (*expires 12/24/10, limit 2 per customer)

PAMPER YOUR LOVED ONES!

Skin Essentials3555 E. Douglas Suite 25316-684-1857www.skinessentialswichita.com

Page 5: The College Hill Commoner

BY BARRY OWENS

Andrea Cassell says she did not setout to write a cookbook. She had onlyset out to write down her grandmotherNahima’s recipes following her passinglast year at the age of 101.

“I decided that I was going to recreatesome of her recipes (that did not havemeasurements, by the way) and writethem down as a legacy for my children,”Cassell said.

So she did, in long hand, adding someof her own into the stack until enoughhad accumulated that she could, literally,fill a book.

The result was “Nahima’s Hands,” auniquely intimate cookbook that includesfamily photos along side family recipes.

Aside from the recipes, Cassell alsodesigned the book, including collages andhand painted graphics.

She was explaining this the other dayfrom her living room on North Crestway,where cartons of her book were stackedaround the coffee table. It was the secondrun of the book following an initial runof 1,200 that quickly sold. The book isavailable at neighborhood stores, includ-ing Watermark Books, Eighth Day

Books and Maxines. It is also available atwww.nahimashands.com.

“I think the thing that people are real-ly responding to is how warm the bookis,” Cassell said. “It’s not just about theidea of food, it’s about the idea of fami-ly.”

Andrea’s Syrian grandmother,Nahima (Abouid) Albert, immigrated tothe United States shortly after marryingin 1926. She and her husband owned andoperated a corner grocery in Miami whereyoung Andrea spent her days while hermother taught school. It was there, at

Nahima’s knee, that Andrea says shelearned about hospitality and cooking.

She includes many of theMediterranean dishes that she learnedfrom her grandmother in the book butsays she took pains to make them sim-ple.

“It couldn’t be about cooking like itwas back in the day when my grandmoth-er would be cooking all day long,”Cassell said.

Instead, she broke the recipes downinto simple and inviting steps. Most aresimply a list of ingredients followed by a

short paragraph of instructions.“I want people to read my book and

say ‘this looks easy and I can create thiswithout a lot of work and time for myfamily,’ ” she said.

From soup and salads, to desserts andbreads, to hummus and tabbouleh, tochicken dishes, slow cooker recipes andmore, the book includes a wide range ofMediterranean fare. It also also includeswine pairings.But Cassell says she wouldbe happy if readers took away just onelesson from the book.

“I’m out to help people come back tothe family, come back to the table,” shesaid.

5THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z DECEMBER 2010

BARRY OWENS

Andrea Cassell in her College Hill kitchen. Cassell recently compiled her family recipes into acookbook , “Nahima’s Hands,” which has become a surprising hot seller.

Home Cooking Leads to Hot Selling CookbookCollege Hill cook

shares family recipesin ‘Nahima’s Hands’

Page 6: The College Hill Commoner

BY BARRY OWENS

The book is not about CollegeHill, but author Clare Vanderpoolsays local readers will recognize theneighborhood in her recently pub-lished novel “Moon Over Manifest.”

The book, published by RandomHouse, is a novel for young readers.It is a work of historical fiction, setin southeastern Kansas during theDepression era. But Vanderpool saysshe was inspired by the neighborhoodand her life spent here. The spirit ofsuch a familiar place informs thestory.

“You can find signs of it through-out the whole book,” she says.

In fact, sharp-eyed readers mightalso recognize the neighborhood onthe back cover. That is the bathhousein the background of the author’sphoto.

“Moon Over Manifest” tells thestory of Abilene Tucker, a youngDepression era girl who explores asmall Kansas town in hopes of learn-ing more about its past, her fatherand herself. In many ways, it is a taleof an unrooted child seeking a placeto call home. Abilene has spent mostof her life on the road with her father,with no real place to call home.When he drops her off in Manifest forthe summer while he works a railroadjob, Abiliene learns for the first timeabout sense of place.

Exploring a character’s life as anunrooted rolling stoneappealed to Vanderpool,she said, once she con-trasted it with her ownhappily rooted life herein the neighborhood.

“Having lived mostof my life in CollegeHill [she grew up onVassar and now liveson English], place isvery important and, forme, true places arerooted in the familiar—the neighborhood pool,the sledding hill, theshortcuts, the placeswhere memoriesabound. But I won-dered, what would atrue place be for some-one who has neverlived anywhere formore then a few weeksor months at a time.”

Manifest, the fictional setting ofthe book, is modeled after the smallsoutheastern Kansas town ofFrontenac. Her mother’s family isfrom the area. Vanderpool researchedthe town and the two eras in whichthe book is set – 1936 and 1918.

“It didn’t really feel like researchbecause it was interesting to me,” shesaid. “I’m a hugely nostalgic per-son.”

As any parent or writer will tellyou, it can be difficult to write withthe children about. Vanderpool, amother of four, said she found the timewhen she could—early mornings, naptimes, while the children were atschool. It took her 16 years to com-plete the novel.

When she got the call from heragent, who asked ifshe was sittingdown, she slippedoutside onto the frontporch for some priva-cy. When told thatRandom Housewanted to publish herwork, she said shegot in the car anddrove down the block“just to make surethat the conversationwasn’t interrupted bythe kids.”

The book wasreleased in Octoberand is available inthe neighborhood atWatermark andEighth Day Books.

Though under-standably thrilled tobe published (the

book has been well received by critics)Vanderpool remains grounded.

“My life is the same,” she says,pointing out that one of the mostrewarding aspects of her recent publica-tion is that her children have now readher book.

She’s traveled to New York a timeor two for editing and business as wellas hit a few book conventions out ofstate, but naturally returned to where itall began—back home in College Hill.

6 THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER zDECEMBER 2010ARTSLocal Novelist Finds Inspiration in College Hill

COURTESY PHOTO

Life-long College Hill resident ClareVanderpool, at left, recently published herfirst novel, “Moon Over Manifest.” The fic-tional town of Manifest is based onFrontenac, Kan., but Vanderpool said theinspiration for the book comes from growingup in College Hill.

Excerpt from “Moon overManifest,” by Clare Vanderpool.

The air in Miss Sadie’s parlorwas hot and thick. I thought

sitting on one of those red velvetycouches chockfull of fringy pil-lows was probably akin to suffo-cating.

Still, I had to find my compass.I took a deep breath and venturedaround the room.

Suddenly, the double doors ofthe parlor whooshed open.

A large fleshy woman stoodbefore me in full regalia. Her eyeswere all made up, earrings andbracelets jangling. The sign in thewindow said Miss Sadie was amedium. From the look of her, I’dsay that was a bit wistful. Theheavy red dress she wore brushedacross the floor, tossing up dust asshe hobbled to an ornate chairbehind a round table. She seemedto have a bad leg and took sometime squeezing herself between thearms of the chair.

Thinking she hadn’t seen me, Iturned to make a clean getaway.

“Sit down,” she said her voicethick and savory, like goulash. Sheput her hands flat on the table. “Letus see if today the spirits are willingto speak.” Suddenly, it became clear.A diviner. A Medium.

This woman was a fortune-teller and a spirit conjurer. If youbelieved in that sort of thing.

I stood near the front door. “I’mnot here for—”

“Silence!” She held out a hand,motioning me to the chair across fromher. I sat.

She slid a cigar box across thetable. I almost told her, “No thankyou,” but then I saw a little slot cutinto the lid.

Now, I didn’t usually have twocoins to rub together, and when Idid, I was real slow to part withthem. But if this was the only wayto get my compass back, I guessedI’d have to go along with it. Idropped in a dime. Miss Sadiepeered inside the box and slid itback to me.

She tapped her fingers on thetable. “Today is hot. The spirits arereluctant.”

I wondered if her divining abil-ities allowed her to see the othercoin in my pocket. I might be wan-ton enough to risk eternal damna-tion on Miss Sadie’s spiritualism,but I’d be hung if I’d waste anoth-er dime.

“You can tell the spirits it ain’tgetting any cooler.”

I pushed that cigar box back.She heaved a sigh so heavy it

might’ve been mistaken for adying breath. “Very well. What isit you want? Your fortune? Yourfuture?”

I squirmed, not knowing whatto say. She peered at me hard andasked again.

“What do you seek?”Maybe it was the way she stud-

ied me so hard that made me feellike she could see right through meto the brocade wallpaper behindme. I didn’t know what made mesay what I said next, and I wasn’tquite sure what I meant by it. Itjust came out.

“I’m looking for my daddy.”

“True placesare rooted inthe familiar—the pool, thesledding hill,the shortcuts,

the placeswhere

memoriesabound.”

Page 7: The College Hill Commoner

7THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ZDECEMBER 2010

Page 8: The College Hill Commoner

8 THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z DECEMBER 2010HISTORY

BY JEFF A. ROTH

In the summer of 1884 surveyorswere taking measurements amid theripening corn fields on the hill east oftown. The wagon path reaching out fromChisholm Creek would soon be graded asthe eastward extension of Wichita’sDouglas Avenue (nearby farmers havingacquiesced to the opening of the 80’ wideroad through their hedges). Land ownersand realtors alike speculated about newsthat September of a college to be built on

the rising slope. A newly platted addition,filed on September 30, 1884, was thefirst official mention of the name,College Hill. But the recruitment of acollege would involve competition withother Kansas communities vying for thesame economic benefit and cultural sym-bol, all touting their respective advan-tages and “inducements.” The final deci-sion was followed with recrimination bysome, relief by others, and servings ofsour grapes in the local papers.

South Central Kansas was “all ears”the following spring when the MethodistEpiscopal Church officially announcedits intention to locate a college (or semi-nary), somewhere in the region then con-sidered “southwest” but central to theMethodist’s four conferences in Kansas.The name proposed for the institutionwas Central University. The towns ofNewton, Eldorado, Wellington, Winfieldand Wichita began to assess their chancesto land the school. Locally, Rev. Dr.D.W. Phillips was successful in convinc-

ing M.R. Moser, James Haward, A.C.Payne and Samuel Deenan on Wichita’seastern slope to organize their CollegeHill Addition to feature a rectangular 15acre park, aptly named College Park, tooffer to the Methodists for their collegecampus. It was squarely situated over thehalf section line where Douglas Avenuewould otherwise be graded, bounded bythe streets of Park Avenue (Rutan) to thewest and East Park (Yale) to the east.

The natural beauty of the site, plusthe support of such a large and centrallylocated city as Wichita bode well for theCollege Hill site. Optimism reignedsupreme. Early on prominent real estatebrokers of the day, the Stites Brothers,jumped the gun and advertised, “Choice 21/2 acre lots in the College HillAddition…near the park and seminary.”

The trustees of the Methodist Churchappointed their “location committee”who in turn announced the minimumrequirements they would consider. Thesewere euphemistically called “offers ofaid.” The competing communities would

COLLEGE(C)HILL

The campus that never made it to CollegeHill and the chill that quickly set in.

A sign points toward Southwestern Collegein Winfield. Had things worked out different-ly, a similar sign today would point travelersto the campus in College Hill.

North Hall towered over Winfield’s “College Hill” from 1887 to 1950, when it was razed for being in poor repair. It could have towered over Wichita’s College Hill.

PHOTO: FROM THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

Page 9: The College Hill Commoner

9THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z DECEMBER 2010 HISTORY

have to come up with no less than 20 acres of land for the school, at least$15,000 in cash, plus whatever else that would distinguish their proposal.Additionally, the committee’s travel expenses would have to be paid bythose communities wanting to be visited, reviewed and considered.

An alarm went up among some of Wichita’s civic leaders that promptand unified action would have to be taken to raise sufficient cash to accom-pany the naturally desirable site being offered. Throughout Wichita, how-ever, there wasn’t a unanimous desire for a college for the hill, some view-ing the recruitment of commerce and manufacturing to be better invest-ments. “I wouldn’t give a tinker’s anathema to make this a college town,”

opined one critic. The day of reckoning arrived May 12,

1885. Delegations from Winfield, Newton,Harper, El Dorado, Hutchinson andWichita presented their offers of land, cash,pledges and other inducements.Hutchinson offered, in addition to land andcash, a “cabinet of minerals valued at$4,000.”

Wichita’s proposal was presented byJ.C. Rutan whose home at the northwestcorner of Douglas and Park Street would bea stone’s throw from the college campusand directly across from the proposed thetrolley loop. He presented the College Hillbackers’ package of incentives: 20 acres ofland and $15,000; the latter ante beingupped to $30,000 during the proceedings.But Wichita was trumped by the town ofWinfield which offered $40,000, 20 acresof land, a promised $20,000 annuity, and

all the free limestone required to build the building. The Wichita Beaconobserved dryly, “Winfield having the longest pole gets the persimmon.”

In the aggregate, the competing towns had pledged $275,000 for theproposed Southwest Methodist school, bids seen by some to be entirelyout of proportion with the value of such a school. The Eagle decried the“auction style of the disposing of the matters,” It carped that theMethodists had lost sight of College Hill’s natural advantages and were dis-tracted by the lucre in the game. In one of its harshest indictments it stat-ed, “Nobody but a body of preachers destitute of business ideas would havemade such a mistake.” In the heat of the moment the Eagle’s editorMarshall Murdock took a swipe at one of their previous Kansas colleges,Blue Mount, calling it a “failure” since the Methodists had giving it up tothe state in 1863. It was turned it into an agricultural school, today’s KansasState University.

Subsequent editorials carried a sour grapes theme: that Wichita’s leadingspirits were, after all, relieved that the college would be located elsewhere

The following paradoy song was published in TheEagle in June of 1885. It skewered College Hill by paro-dying a song from the popular Broadway musical “ColdDay When We Get Left.”

‘COLLEGE (C)HILL’A SONG. BY POLAR WAVE.Tune: “A cold day when we get left.”

Brilliant and round rose the full-orbed moon,On a warm summer’s night, in the early

June;And with radiant rays of silvery light,Was the emerald landscape all benight.

Looming up to the east of this city of mud,Serenely beyond the Chisholm’s1 dark flood,Where the waters in tumult roll down from

the mill 2,Stood the mountain of knowledge men

called “College Hill.”

Its fame has spread far and its name wasknown wide,

And many a Wichitan pointed with pride,To the high-rising walls of the temple of

learning,That already this eminence proud were

adorning 3.

And the deep, sacred soil that covered thishill,

Had been bisected, cut up, and divided, untilEach lamb of the flock 4, that abjures world-

ly pelt,Had a small little slice, “all alone to himself.”

And the soft moon rose high, and high up inthe sky,

And the breezes of midnight gently whis-pered a sigh,

For a conclave of preachers, assembled instate,

Were preparing an edict for College Hill’sfate.

The sun brightly rose, as ever before,But College Hill smiled in his glances no

more:The preachers, ere morn, had “sat down”

upon it,And sunk it beneath the reach of a plummet.

When the fiat went forth that leveled the hill,It came to the flock like a dumb-ague 5 chill;And some of the brethren were taken so

sick,They squandered a quarter to ride home in a

hack 6 !

When asked by their friends what madethem so ill,

They replied with a chatter and gasp,College (c)hill!

Today, as you wander the city about,If you don’t wish your sanity taken in doubt,When asked by a stranger about College Hill,Point downward and tell him to go to--the

deal!

LATER.

The deacon 7 is happy and his visage is up,Revealing a face shining like a tin cup,For the word comes from Winfield this

evening by mailThat an elephant there, is held by the tail,And they’ll gladly let go, if the people here

still,Will take him to graze on our own College

Hill.

FOOTNOTES

1 Today’s Canal Route.2 The water mill, namesake for Hydraulic at 1stStreet.3 Schools other than Wichita University to thesouth 1886 and Fairmount to the north 1887(?).4 Christians, real estate investors includingamong others, Presbyterians A.A. Hyde andHiram Lewis.5 Archaic term for a fever believed to be causedby stagnant air.6 A depot wagon (and taxi cab predecessor)available for hire from any number of liveries intown.7 Dr. Phillips, the original promoter of the CollegeHill college prospect.

“Nobody buta body ofpreachers

destitute ofbusiness

ideas wouldhave made

such amistake.”

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

COLLEGE (C)HILL

Page 10: The College Hill Commoner

10 THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z DECEMBER 2010

and that they would be relieved of the bur-dens it inevitably would have brought.Winfield was sarcastically congratulatedby the Eagle editor for having “capturedthe elephant.” The real estate promotersof College Hill however did not entirelygive up the prospect of a college in theirmidst. They still saw a college as a drawnot a hindrance to home lots sales. Forthe next two years they courted thePresbyterians to come to College Hill,but the latter ultimately declined theopportunity, content to build a preparato-ry school instead, Lewis Academy atMarket and 3rd street, no longer extanttoday.

During the hot days of the summer of1885 there were amusements to distractone from the bad news in the papers. TheRink Bijou Theater troupe arranged topresent (in a recently converted rollerskating rink) a popular comedy and musi-cal show which was contemporaneouslyplaying in Boston and New York entitled,“Cold Day When We Get Left.” Easternreviews gave it high marks. Playbillsdeclared, “You will laugh with all yourmight.” Local retail advertisers got onthe bandwagon with ad copy such as:

We Never Have a COLD DAY

At Innes & Ross

Our CustomersNEVER GET LEFT

It Pays to TradeAT

Innes & Ross

Appearing resigned to the

Methodists’ decision, the writers at theEagle had fun with a parody of the show’slyrics and poked fun about the collegedebacle, inferring buyer’s remorse. Theparody from the play was published undera pseudonym on June 17, 1885 [See par-ody on previous page].

Winfield citizens read the poemin the Eagle and their editor respond-ed in kind: “We sympathize with the“Deacon” in his afflictions, butmust inform him that Winfield likes

the elephant and will hold on tohim. He will graze on the Winfield“College Hill” where the feed is somuch better than in the “Deacon’s”pasture. Winfield Courier, Thursday,June 25, 1885.

As if to rub salt in an openwound, the school’s building com-mittee ran ads in the Wichita Eagle afew months later soliciting sealedbids from local contractors for theconstruction of Winfield’s new col-lege building. The resulting edificewas Southwestern College’s NorthHall, opened in 1887 (and used until1949, it’s demolition undertaken in1950 after having been declaredunsafe by the State Fire Marshall).

In the wake of the failed collegeand real estate development gambit,further yet less elaborate effort topromote the hill bears mentioning.

One that stands out involved thenewly platted Frisco HeightsAddition north of Central Avenue,part of pioneer A.J. Cook’s farm(Wesley Medical Center and north-ward). Its incorporators, A.A. Hyde,George C. Strong and Hiram Lewiswere determined to capitalize on thepicturesque “…crest of a gentle emi-nence commanding a magnificentview of the city…” They constructedan observatory tower 40’ high uponthe highest point of Cook’s Hill andequipped it with George Strong’s tel-escope. The tower sported a flag poleflying the “national banner.” It wasclaimed that from the “grand tower”Goddard could be discerned andClearwater was clearly visible withthe aid of Mr. Strong’s telescope.

“Central University,” the collegethat was hoped for College Hill,remained a concept in print for a fewmore years, still being mentioned onmaps “booming” Wichita as late asJuly, 1887 (although the specificlocation for the college was leftunstated). Advantages and incentiveswere still being tried during the lastof the boom years to get a school orchurch built in “College Park.”However by 1887 the darkeningspecter of Wichita’s real estate crashwas looming and the vision ofCollege Hill’s own college amidstthe streets of Vassar, Yale andHolyoke was forever extinguished.

MAP: FROM THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

COLLEGE (C)HILL

A July 1887 map of Wichita still depicts thepark in the middle of Douglas Avenue,street car line to its center. “CentralUniversity” was listed in the map’s marginof college projects still pending in 1887.

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11THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z DECEMBER 2010

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