The College Hill Commoner, Jan. 10

COLLEGE HILL CROWN HEIGHTS UPTOWN SLEEPY HOLLOWVol. 3 No. 2 JANUARY 2010

6 The Year in Review:The Commoner looksback at the highs andlows of life in 2009 inthe old neighborhood.

4 NeighborhoodAssociation seeksdiscount deal forlocal, residentialtrash service.

5 Downtown has hada grocery store fordecades, residentsjust haven’t seemedto have noticed.

• ••

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER

VINTAGE POSTCARD COURTESY OF TOM D. HANKINS

Pretty as a postcard, the second of three College Hill Elementary School buildings was built in 1912. The first, designed by Proudfoot and Bird, was built in1889. A photo of that building, equally grand, can be found on page 10. The look of the current school building, built in 1977, is nothing to write home about.

OLD SCHOOLA look back at College Hill’s first primary school, a one room shack onCook’s Hill. Plus, a rare peek at early College Hill Elementary. PAGE 10

KNOCK, KNOCK

Oh, January, thank you for your bracing cold and slategray skies. Things were getting a bit too festivearound here, what with all the holiday parties and

light stringing and such. The feasts are over, the gift wrap-ping stowed, and certainly by February we should be rid ofour hangovers and that Douglas fir tree standing in our livingroom. Yes, it is good to step out in the old neighborhood on afrozen morning, grim in our determination to get back towork, to get back to normal. Thank you, January, for beingsuch a bore. What we could all use right now is a bit less fri-volity. And maybe some aspirin.

Curse you, December, for making us behave so lamp-shade-on-the-head foolishly. We should have been wrappingup this drafty old College Hill house in weather proofinginstead of cranking up the furnace, pouring another egg nog,and wrapping up yet another video game system for the kids,almost exactly the same gift that we wrapped up and putunder the tree last year but, you know, shinier. The newmodel. We know, we know ... Christmas is not supposed to beabout the gifts and it’s the thought that counts and all that.But try telling that to your little ones on Christmas morning.So we indulged. Thank you, January, you frigid old crow, forrap, rap, rapping at our door and reminding us what fools weall were. “Nevermore.”

We’re going to lay low this month, and pile on a few extrablankets instead of purchasing over-the-counter firewood.We’re going to let the credit cards cool off, too. And we’recutting back to 2-percent milk; that egg nog was a little rich.And we’re going to quit drinking, or maybe take it up inearnest. Whatever it takes to get us through these dark days.Because so long as old man January is on our porch, shakingthat mittened fist full of unpaid bills, we’re staying inside.

See you in February.

BARRY OWENSEDITOR

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z JANUARY 20102

A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

WRITE THE EDITOR: We welcome your letters. No subject is out ofbounds, so long as it is local. Letters should not exceed 300 wordsand may be edited for clarity and length.

E-MAIL US: [email protected]

WRITE US: 337 N. Holyoke, Wichita, KS, 67208

CALL US: 689-8474

ADVERTISE: [email protected], or 689-8474

LETTERS

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONERVOLUME 3 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 2010

PUBLISHERJESSICA FREY OWENS

EDITORBARRY OWENS

CONTRIBUTORSJEFF ROTH, JOE STUMPE

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONERPublished monthly by

The College Hill Commoner337 N. Holyoke

Wichita, K.S. 67208316-689-8474

[email protected]

It’s 2010.

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Call for details: 689-8474

I get good beans.I roast with love.I sell them fresh.

And serve with pride.Coffee by the cup

or by the pound.

Espresso, latte’s, cappuccino’sand specialty drinks, too.

FEATURING: Pop-A-Brew coffee…an individual brew, just for you

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TO THE EDITOR:As we enter a new year, what do we

bring with us from the old? As I reflectedon this question, I came up with the fol-lowing:

Old dreams and deeds,Old hopes and fears,Old sadness and sorrows,Old joys and tears.Old habits and thoughts,Old bodies and pains,Old tests and trials,Old losses and gains.In other words, the self we were yes-

terday is most likely to be the self we aretoday—except that we are one dayolder—unless something new, different,startling or damaging happens to us tocreate a change in our lives. The humanself resists change and resists quite tena-ciously. This firmness of the human selfmight help to explain the problem withNew Year’s resolutions.

Because a resolution implies a planand a commitment toward a clearlydefined goal, a personal resolution is apromise to yourself that you will think,feel and act differently in some way thatseems important to you. However, mostof us make our resolutions impulsivelywithout careful and deliberate thought.Therefore, they are more likely to be thestuff of dreams, not realities—they arewished and wants without substance—they represent fantasies not actualities.

Resolutions can become realities if weare willing to involve ourselves, if weaccept major responsibility for all of ourchoices and all of the consequence that gowith them. This means we have to bewilling “to pay the price” of emotionalunrest which always accompanies changeby choice or change by force. But, if ourresolutions depend upon others, ordepend upon luck, good wishes, goodintentions or prayers, we’ll soon find outthat all the old ways from last year andthe years before will likely reassert them-selves.

To choose to change our habits or atti-tudes, in any significant way, requires usto clearly define our goal, increase ourknowledge about how to reach it and thenbe willing to keep at it in spite of obsta-cles, slippage or discomfort.

Therefore, if you have made someNew Year’s resolutions, take time to see ifyou’ve met the above requirements. Thenset about the task of working to achievethe change you desire. However, whiledoing so, be gentle with yourself if theprocess seems a bit slower or bumpierthan you would prefer it to be. Also,please realize that a Happy New Yearisn’t something that just happens to us,rather having a happier New Year is theresult of something we, ourselves, can doin spite of all the unpleasant events weencounter which are beyond our ability tocontrol.

JOHN E. VALUSEK

THE PROBLEMWITH NEW YEAR’S

RESOLUTIONS

3THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z JANUARY 2010 OP-ED

January is named for the two-faced Roman god Janus, wholooks into the future with oneface and into the past with the

other. That’s kind of where the restof us find ourselves, too. On thesedark days following the winter sol-

stice, we look atthe year aheadand resolve to bebetter in somesmall way, evenas we look at theyear past andrealize howunlikely that is.

Was it just 12months ago wewere standing in

front of this same mirror, vowing tohit the gym five days a week, cutdown on the fatty foods and take iteasy on the wine? I think it was.Those vows are too easy to makeafter the excesses of the holidayseason. Suddenly your waistband isa little too snug and you’ve gotsome acid reflux going on and a lit-tle headache just behind the eyesand you realize that in a whole yearall you’ve gotten is older. It reallyis time to make a change, you think,and this time the change will extendbeyond the first week of February.

Which is no doubt why the

Romans invented old Janus, god ofgates and portals, god of transi-tions. In 21st-century America, thetransition most sought is the onefrom fat to slender, or from obscuri-ty to fame, but theidea is the same: Ifyou want to be good-looking and get yourown reality show,once a year it’s a goodidea to take a fewminutes and see howthings are trending.

Thus are born NewYear’s resolutions —the temporary tri-umph of hope overexperience. I make fewer of themthan I used to, but I still do. They’remostly mundane: gonna get fit,gonna get better on the guitar,gonna be nicer to everybody. I don’twrite them down anymore, sinceit’s better not to leave a paper trail,but I still try to convince myselfeach January that this time it will bedifferent, that I will end the year abetter man than when I started.

We’ll see about that, won’t we?Anyway, while I may have misgiv-ings about my own resolutions, I’venever been more sure or more com-mitted when it comes to making

them for everybody else. Here,then, is my short list of New Year’sresolutions for Crown Heights andCollege Hill:

This year, I will not exceed thespeed limit on First orSecond Streets, and Iwill not flip off thosewho do. I will not passon the right, or on thesidewalk, and I will pokealong in the middle lane,serene in the knowledgethat wherever I’m headedis unlikely to disappearin the 30 or 40 seconds Imight save by rocketing

through school crossings like a manpossessed.

This year, I will not only pick upafter my dog, but I will pick upafter other dogs too, perhapspulling a wagon behind to accom-modate the reeking heaps of dungthat will surely accumulate in a six-block stroll. I will figure it’s myway of giving something back.

This year, I will not crowd bicy-clists into the curb in an attempt toteach them a lesson about obstruct-ing traffic. I will be patient and givethem room, and utter a quiet prayer

of thanksgiving that a doofus on abike is one less car to worry about.I will also get on a bicycle at leastonce myself, and perhaps ride it toAce Hardware on Douglas, just forthe exhilaration of seeing how itfeels to cheat death.

This year, instead of grudginglyobserving the 20-mph speed limit inEastborough, I will get out of mycar and walk through it, being care-ful not to step on the finely mani-cured lawns or take photographs ofthe proud-but-secretive residents. Iwill studiously refrain from mock-ing their quaint customs, such aspaying water bills that greatlyexceed the national average.

This year, I will invest my entireannual income on an animatronicholiday display that will teach myneighbors what it means to play inthe big leagues, holidaywise. I’mtalking both Halloween andChristmas. I mean it. I’m throughscrewing around with simple smokemachines and flashing lights. Saygoodbye to the holiday throngs,Broadview, because they’ll all beover at my place.

Writer Dave Knadler lives inCrown Heights.

The Year of Our Self-Improvement

DAVE KNADLER

This year, I willnot exceed thespeed limit on

First or SecondStreets, and I

will not flip offthose who do.

See our new web site forparty ideas, serving guides,

special deals and more.

rjdiscountliquor.com

4 THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z JANUARY 2010

BY BARRY OWENS

Last month the College HillNeighborhood Association sought adeal with Lies Trash Service to offerdiscounted service to College Hillresidents. If you live within theneighborhood proper—Hillside toOliver, Kellogg to Central—you

could qualify. In a letter to

Lies TrashService fromBill Hess, pres-ident of theCollege HillNeighborhoodA s s o c i a t i o n ,Hess outlinedterms of a serv-ice discount forne ighborhood

residents similar to that offered toother neighborhoods, such as Crown

Heights and Uptown.“It is another way in which this

neighborhood association intends tobenefit residents,” Hess told theCommoner.

All residents would be eligibleand membership with the neighbor-

hood association is not required,Hess said.

Hess credits Circle Drive resi-dent Sam Webb with the idea.

“It was not something that I waseven aware of until he brought it tomy attention, but it sounded like a

good idea,” Hess said.Lies Trash Service did not return

calls last month seeking comment,but Hess provided the letter to TheCommoner.

While The Commoner will notquote the rates that were outlined inthe letter, as those could not be con-firmed with the company, Hess saidthat residents are welcome to callLies (522-1699) and ask about theCollege Hill NeighborhoodAssociation discount.

Lies offers both regular trashservice and recycling pick-up.

Both new and current Lies cus-tomers would be eligible for the dis-count under the neighborhood asso-ciation plan, Hess said.

“Over time, it is a pretty gooddiscount,” he said.

The discount would apply onlyto residential, not commercial, cus-tomers.

The discounted trash service willbe discussed at the March meetingof the neighborhood association,Hess said, which representativesfrom Lies have been invited toattend.

The meeting is set for 7 p.m.,March 16, at East Heights UnitedMethodist Church, 4407 E. DouglasAve.

CHNA Seeks Deal for Discount Trash Service

FILE PHOTO

Bill Hess

Discounted trashservice, availablein Crown Heights,

would be a firstfor College Hill.

Last month, as we thumbedthrough our archives in search ofhighlights of the year past [seestory, page 6] we happened across afile of articles from our former sisterpaper, The Downtowner, that unfor-tunately never made it to print.Among them was this gem by JoeStumpe about a downtown grocerystore. While the store is not inCollege Hill, it is a story worthsharing.

Ask a dozen Downtownresidents what the areaneeds most, and 10 willprobably give the same

answer: a grocery store.All of which makes Joy Farha

smile a little wanly, considering herfather has run a grocery there fordecades.

“I would say once a day someonewalks in and says ‘I didn’t know youwere here,’” she said.

Then again, Ray Sales Co. at 206S. Emporia isn’t your average gro-cery store, at least by current stan-dards. From the roll-up awning out-side to the colorful mix of goods andcustomers inside, Ray Sales is bothmore and less.

Step inside and the first thingyou notice is a collection of styro-foam take-off containers, with theirprices stapled to the opposite wall.On the shelves are a mixture ofbrand names, off-brands and bulkgoods. A sign invites customers towin groceries by guessing the num-ber of peanuts in a barrel. There’s alittle fresh produce and frozen meat,and lots of candy.

Behind the register is a glass-paned inner office. All that seems tobe missing is a bookkeeper withgreen eyeshades writing in a dustyledger book (there’s actually a com-puter back there).

Most of the employees are fami-ly -- Ray Farha; his wife, “Mrs.Ray”; their daughters, Joy andDenise Johnston; and Denise’s hus-band, Rusty.

Ray Farha, who’s 87, started thebusiness 36 years ago this February.At the time, Farha had a contractwith the Sante Fe Railroad, whoseoffices were nearby, to sell damagedgoods. That meant not just food butfurniture, appliances and anythingelse, such as “lots of 50-pound bagsof dog food that had to be taped up,”Denise Johnston recalls.

Farha also developed a whole-sale business. In addition to No. 10cans and take-out containers, onespecialty is the brown paper bagsused by liquor stores.

Then after the city built its bustransit center across Emporia, RaySales evolved again, into a kind ofconvenience store and neighborhoodgrocery for the people using it.

All day long, bus passengers popinto the store for a cold drink, snack

or microwaved sandwich. If there’snot a supermarket near their home,they may buy what they need forthat night’s dinner as well.

“It’s kind of cool, the old-schoollook,” Byron Breckenridge, whotakes the bus to and from WichitaState, said while stopping in lastweek.

And when it comes to prices, hesaid, Ray Sales charges about half ofwhat the vending machines in thetransit center require. “I love themcrackers.”

“It’s just convenient and the

prices are good and the people arenice,” another rider, ShannonBettorft, said. A Dallas native andregular at Rays for two years, shesaid, “I’ve never seen anything likethis before.”

Rusty Johnston said Ray Salesappreciates the business from thetransit center.

“We get all kinds in here,” hesaid. “Most are nice. Every once in awhile you’ll get somebody who’shaving a bad day or off their meds,but it hasn’t happened in a while.”

When Ray Farha had to be out ofthe store recently, customers filled alegal pad with well wishes. Andwhen the store was nearly bulldozedto make way for Intrust Bank Arena,several hundred customers signedpetitions to keep it open.

Not everyone is enamored of thestore, though. Another bus rider saidshe’d prefer that a Starbucks locatethere.

The Farhas acknowledge thatthey don’t have many customersamong people who’ve madeDowntown their home in recentyears, even though they offer deliv-ery for orders over $40. Said oneyoung professional: “I like vintagebuildings, not vintage food.”

Another reason may be that thestore is only open weekdays from 8a.m. to 4 p.m., when many of thoseresidents are working.

The store’s location just north ofthe arena leads to a steady stream ofspeculation about its future.

“Everybody asks us that and wedon’t know,” Joy Farha said. “We’llhave to play it by ear. Really we’rejust going to let it happen.”

Possibilities include convertingit into a bar, restaurant or otherhigh-traffic destination. Then again,with Downtown residents clamoringfor a grocery store, its current use —with changes — might pay off big.Joy Farha mentions as a potentialmodel the Vermont Country Store inWeston, Vermont, which maintainedan old-fashioned look while becom-ing nationally known through itscatalogue.

In the short term. they plan tomake improvements to building’swindows, awning and other exteriorfeatures, including doing something— painting a mural, maybe, or theRay Sales logo — on the south fallfacing the arena.

Whatever happens, the finaldecision will be Ray Farha’s, andit’s clear how he feels. Farha sayshe’s lasted for nearly 36 because ofhis employees and becauseDowntown needs a grocery store.He still enjoys the people who comethrough the door, whether they’rebuying 500 brown paper bags or aCherry Mash bar.

“He’s the heart and soul of thisplace,” said Joy Farha. “He’s goingto keep it open as long as he can.”

5THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z JANUARY 2010

PHOTOS: BARRY OWENS

Bus StationBODEGAHard against the new arena, close tothe transit center, and in the heart of aresurging downtown, a decades oldneighborhood grocery store may

finally get its due.

BY JOE STUMPE

Ray Sales Co. at 206 S. Emporia is the sort of urban and authentic neighborhood grocery store,or bodega, that you would find in many major cities. It has been there for decades. Downtownresidents, so far, haven’t seemed to notice. “I would say once a day someone walks in and says‘I didn’t know you were here,” says Joy Farha.

Rusty Johnson, at right, serves a customerfrom behind the counter at Ray Sales Co.“We get all kinds in here,” he says. “Mostare nice. Every once in a while you’ll getsomebody who’s having a bad day or offtheir meds, but it hasn’t happened in awhile.”

Ray Farha, owner of Ray Sales Co.

COURTESY PHOTO


BY BARRY OWENS

We certainly do a lot of looking back here atThe Commoner. But then, when you live in anold neighborhood—stately, established and virtu-ally unchanged for decades—there are not a lot ofnew developments to explore month to month. Soit is that this humble neighborhood newspaper’shistory pages are often fat and the news pagesthin.

That does not mean that 2009 was an unevent-ful year in College Hill—or in Crown Heights,

Uptown and Sleepy Hollow, or along the avenuesthat each of the neighborhoods share.

The past year saw carnivals at Clifton Square,disco dancing in the school gym, oysters atchurch, and one eventful night, a house crawledup the middle of Douglas Avenue.

Those were some of the highlights we foundas we flipped through back issues of TheCommoner last month. But there were moresobering finds, such as the passing of CrownUptown Dinner Theatre owner Ted Morris and

the closing of Barrier’s. There was even a bit ofnews coming out of the College HillNeighborhood Association, and all sorts of goodand bad things seemed to be happening onBelmont Place.

Best year ever? Probably not. But the passing of 2009 in the old neighbor-

hood should not go undocumented. And after-ward, we can all go back to perusing the lessrecent history pages.

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

JANUARY

MAY

FEBRUARY

JUNE

MARCH

JULY

APRIL

AUGUST

A month by month look back at the highs and lows of life in the old neighborhood.

2009

It was a tumultuous year for the CrownUptown Dinner Theatre, and it began in theworst possible way—with the death of the-atre founder and owner Ted Morris. Morrisdied just before the New Year, casting amournful gloom on the annual year-endshow and putting the future of the theatre indoubt.

Ted’s widow, Karen Morris, ran thetheatre for a time, but abruptlyannounced her retirement in June, andthe theatre was slated to close.

But general manager Robert Brinkleystepped in to buy the business and thedoors have remained open.

This year, the New Year’s show wassold out again.

In May, we finally caught up withGrant and Janet Rine and asked a simplequestion: just what exactly do you plan todo with that church?

The College Hill residents had pur-chased the former Hillside Christian andFirst Southern Baptist church at Hillsideand English streets, and their plans for theold building were sketchy at the time.Certainly, the 32,000-square-foot structurehad possibilities. Weddings? Storage?

Since then, inspiration has struck. Atheatre and venue called Rine Center forthe Performing Arts.

Alan and Kathleen Pearce finallytopped off their home, the 1887Proudfoot and Bird cottage called Aviary,by replacing the ornamental peak pieceon the roof. It would be nice to reporthere that the installation meant that thehouse was completely restored, and thePearces could enjoy the satisfaction of ajob well done. But there remain a fewnagging details: a balcony needs work, awooden arch is missing, a brick chimneywas originally stone.

“Will we get around to all of that? Idon’t know,” said Kathleen. “But if youwanted it to be absolutely accurate, youwould need to have those things done.”

Lincoln Heights Village, at Douglasand Oliver, turned 60 years old in July,and with a fresh coat of paint, did notlook a day over 30.

The merchants planned a celebrationand invited the whole neighborhood.Which seemed fitting, as developerWalter Morris considered the villageshopping center to be the heart of theneighborhood, and the crowning jewel ofhis long development career.

“It is not merely the best in theMiddle West,” Morris, then 90-years-old,said during the opening of the mall in1949. “It is the nicest shopping center inthe world.”

What was the deal with that house onthe corner of Douglas and Rutan?

“It was like the Wizard of Oz the wayit just plopped down,” said Cheryl Smith,owner of Creative Catering and Cafe.

The house actually only traveled afew hundred yards. It was trucked overfrom nearby Victor Place, where it wasthe last house on the corner of the block.It was moved to make way for a parkinglot for Parkstone. The house eventuallyfound a new home at Clifton Square, butnot before alarming the neighbors whodiscovered it lodged on Yale Street onemorning in the spring.

“You don’t see that every day,” saidneighbor Brian Adamson.

The crumbling Belmont Place archesfinally got a makeover, thanks to thestreet’s homeowners association.

Belmont Place residents pitched in topay for the nearly $100,000 renovationof the neighborhood’s most iconic fea-ture.

The Classical Revival style piers,connected with wrought iron arches,bookend Belmont Place at Douglas andCentral. The limestone monuments werebuilt in 1925. And they looked it.

It took months to resurface the mar-ble, and the Douglas arch was complete-ly dismantled, but by summers end, therestoration was complete.

One sunny weekend in April atClifton Square, burgers sizzled on thegrill, music wafted through the parkinglot and there was a hint of patchouli inthe air. It was the Clifton Square Musicand Art Festival, an event that broughttogether a disparate group of musiciansand their fans–from heavy metal to R&Bto folk—and artists to the square for twonights of performances and displays.

This was not the usual crowd.“I don’t know where they came from,

but I wish they would stay,” said TerriWindsor, owner of Garden Reflections.“This is the best weekend Clifton Squarehas seen in years.”

By day, it was an impressive new fea-ture on the neighborhood landscape. Bynight, it glowed.

The neighborhood got a new foun-tain, this one at Parkstone. KentWilliams, a local artist and architect,installed a megalithic, seven-tiered foun-tain in the pocket park on Victor Place atRutan, just in front of the new Parkstonetown houses. Lights inside the fountaingave it an orange glow.

How might it compete with thesometimes sudsy neighborhood favoriteon Fountain Street? “I hope that it bub-bles beautifully and no one gets it in theireyes,” Williams said.


THE YEAR IN REVIEWSEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER

A month by month look back at the highs and lows of life in the old neighborhood.

2009

“The time has come,” said CeliaGorlich, who announced in Septemberthat she would step down as president ofthe College Hill NeighborhoodAssociation.

Gorlich had been heavily involvedwith the neighborhood association sinceits inception in the 1990s. She started onthe crime committee, launched thenewsletter, then it was on to the vicepresidency, and finally the presidency.She is only the third president in theassociation’s history.

“We need new people,” Gorlich said.“We need new ideas.”

Life long College Hill resident BillHess was elected president of theCollege Hill Neighborhood Associationin October.

Hess is Vice President and LandManager with McCoy Petroleum Corp.,and the owner of more than 40 rentalunits in College Hill. He and his wife,Judy, are the former owners of Inn at thePark and the Venue.

Though they now live on Terrace, thecouple began the tradition of lighting upPershing for the holidays and have longbeen involved in the neighborhood asso-ciation.

The grind of a long year operating in awoeful economy finally took its toll inCollege Hill. By November, about a halfdozen small businesses had shuttered orplanned to call it quits by the new year.Among them were Barrier’s, a retail anchorin the neighborhood for decades. CaffePosto, across the street, closed their doors.Myoptix, the designer frame shop just nextdoor, closed as well.

At Clifton Square, The Bay Leaf Cafefolded up their table clothes for the lasttime. And at Garden Reflections, ownerTerri Windsor planned her going out ofbusiness sale. “I can’t be bitter,” Windsorsaid. “I’ll just be broke.”

In response to an alarming number ofresidential robberies in College Hill in pre-vious months, the College HillNeighborhood Association devoted itsquarterly meeting in December to address-ing the problem.

Uniformed cops, detectives, even acrime reporter from a local newspaperprovided tips on avoiding break-ins.Chief among them is to lock your doors,never leave your car running in the drive-way, and to consider installing outsidesecurity lighting.

No robberies were reported in theneighborhood last month.



Word & NotePlymouth Congregational Church,

202 N. Clifton, will host its secondannual Word & Note: The Divine Artsof Knowledge and Exultation, on theweekend of Feb. 5-7.

The series will feature lectures andpresentations by biblical scholars JohnDominic Crossan and Marcus J. Borg,and performance by internationallyknown singer and popular MusicTheatre of Wichita performer ArthurMarks, accompanied by DavidJosefiak.

“Word and Note is a way to intro-duce provocative thoughts and ideas inthe fields of theology and music,” saidRev. Dr. Donald P. Olsen, SeniorMinister at the Church.

Refreshments, wine and cheese,will be served.

Tickets are $15 for each individualevent, or $45 for the series. All eventswill be held at the church. Tickets areavailable by calling the church officeat 316-684-0221. Visit www.ply-mouth-church.net, for a completeschedule.

Christmas Tree RecyclingNeed to lose the Christmas tree?

College Hill United MethodistChurch, 2930 E 1st St., this monthwill host a recycling drop-off sitefor trees. Drop-off is in the westparking lot of the church, located at1st and Erie streets.

Call for SubmissionsCollege Hill United Methodist

Church, 2930 E. 1st St., is seeking2010 art submissions for its ParlorGallery.

Booking is on a monthly or twomonth basi and the parlor can showabout 12 to 15 paintings or photo-graphs.

The church is seeking artists forthe months of March and beyond.

The church does not charge acommission and all sales go theArtist.

For booking or more informa-tion, e- mail, Mark Walker @[email protected]

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

read local. shop local. advertise local.

6 8 9 - 8 4 7 4

(it’s a local call)


College Hill’s ubiquitous blink-ing school zones are a dailyreminder of the various pathstrodden by the neighborhood’s

youngest residents to their schools:Hyde, Blessed Sacrament and CollegeHill. These schools have operated, for themost part, within the age of the automo-bile, replete with curb side drop offs andcrosswalk safety patrols. Time has large-ly erased the memory, however, ofCollege Hill’s schools of the horse andbuggy era. The record of their existenceis yellowed, frail and boxed away, but itcan still be revisited.

The history of public schools inWichita is archived at the historicMcCormick Elementary School atMcCormick and Martinson, operated byvolunteers as a museum since 1992.From its file cabinets, as well as the pub-lication “A History of Wichita PublicSchool Buildings, 1997,” one can lookback to the origin of nearly every publicschool in the city. For instance, CollegeHill Elementary School’s current, mod-ern building, dating to 1977, was built onthe site of its 1912 predecessor, animpressive red brick building with mas-sive pillars and lintel guarding its entry-way. Many area residents attended thered brick school; some watched its dem-olition in 1976 from the front steps ofnearby Plymouth CongregationalChurch. But even it had a predecessor,dating back to 1889.

On August 5, 1889 the WichitaBoard of Education received a petitionfrom the residents of College Hill askingthat the lot at the northwest corner ofClifton Avenue and Prospect (FirstStreet) be purchased for a school for the

area’s children. The petition wasapproved and a three story stone andbrick building was design by architectsProudfoot and Bird. Although $6,280was budgeted for its construction, it waslater reported that the project would be

scaled back, closer to a $4,000 estimate.Fearing shortcuts were about to be taken,former Wichita mayor and College Hillresident Ben W. Aldrich decried that, “hewants it generally understood thatCollege Hill does not propose to haveany cheap uncomfortable building but inhis judgment something in keeping withthat part of the city.” Wichita Eagle June19, 1890.

The building was completed inhandsome fashion and dedicated onNovember 30, 1890. Children from near-by farm and suburban families worepaths across the mostly open, undevel-oped area to reach the school on the hill.Many years later some probably regaledtheir grandchildren with stories of walk-ing miles to school, in the snow,uphill…both ways.

Among the school’s first studentswere the children of nearby neighbor andMentholatum inventor A.A. Hyde. In1897 Paul and Ruth Hyde posed for aschool photograph with Principal EllaTaft who served from 1897 to 1901. Theschool eventually had three teachers andcovered grades one through eight.

The College Hill School of the1890s was not, however, the first schoolon College Hill. There was yet an earlierschool, from the decade of the 1870s, aone-room country schoolhouse locatedon the road to Augusta (later CentralAvenue) at the half section line (laterBluff). It was known as Cook’s HillSchool having derived its name from the

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OLD SCHOOLProudfoot and Bird built a fine school on thehill, but it was not the neighborhood’s first.

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A Proudfoot and Bird designed College Hill school building, circa 1890, may have been the finest, but it was not the first school house in the neighborhood.MCCORMICK SCHOOL MUSEUM

BY JEFF A. ROTH

PHOTO FROM THE COLLECTION OF JOHN M. HYDE

College Hill principal Ella Taft, backrow left, poses with students in 1897. The school, opened in1890, had three teachers and taught grades one through eight.

first settlers north of the road, Andrew J.Cook and Robert S. Cook. The Cookswere the first to own the southwest andsoutheast quarter sections of Section 14(due north of College Hill’s Section 23),carved out of the former Osage Indianreservation by the government in 1871.Though not required to do so by any landuse decree, they set aside an acre of landfor a school.

The earliest known depiction ofCook’s Hill School is found in the 1882Edwards Atlas Map, Wichita Township,where “School No. 2” is shown with anicon representing a country schoolhouse.Sedgwick County gave Cook’s HillSchool the designation District No. 2, adesignation that would stay with it (andits successors) for the next 70 years. Asubsequent 1901 Map of the City ofWichita depicts it as “Cook School” andplaces it to the east on the northeast cor-ner of Central and Bluff, an apparentrelocation from A.J. Cook’s land toRobert Cook’s land, yet still a countryschool outside the city limits.

Although no known image of theschool exists, the Kansas State HistoricalSociety has in its collection a photographof a one-room schoolhouse, labeled onthe back, “unidentified Sedgwick CountySchool.” If not the actual Cook’s HillSchool, the image is certainly representa-tive of rural schools operating inSedgwick County at the time.

Sedgwick County records of theCooks’ school date back to 1903 and aremaintained in the archives in the base-ment of the Sedgwick CountyCourthouse. These documents show theteachers’ budgets and salaries that wereannually accounted for as well as thepupils’ names, ages and achievements.The curriculum challenge for the teacherin a one-room schoolhouse was havingchildren of different age levels learn sub-jects at different levels of comprehen-sion, all in the same room.

In 1903 there were students ages 6, 7and 8, but also three students ages 19, 20and 21. The first 15 minutes might bedevoted to instructing the youngest in“Reading” before moving to the next agegroup for their reading instruction. In the

next period the groups would be stagger-started in “Arithmetic” and so forth.They would all come together for the“Story Period” or the “Music Period”and would likewise participate as a groupin special parties and programs at Easter,Halloween, Christmas and Kansas Day.

The children of Cook’s Hill Schoolcame from the homes and farmsteadsclustered near Central. The censusrecords for the year 1900 listed their par-ents’ occupations as mostly farmers, a

butcher, stock breeder, or keeping house,for instance. The children of school-agewere listed as “at school.” The names ofthe children in the census records alsoappear in Cook’s Hill School records. In1904 there were 28 students from 13families. And although their addresseswere not listed, many of their namescoincide with families identified as resi-dents on 1901 and 1905 maps of the area.The country school on the hill was clear-ly a community effort.

The early records also reveal that theschool was, after 30 years, still verymuch a family effort, courtesy of theCook descendants. In 1904, the schoolwas in the care of A. J. Cook’s daughterEmma (treasurer) and her husband John(clerk). Granddaughter Gertrude servedas a teacher and the youngest grandchil-dren, John, Jr. and Albert were students.Cousin Carrie Cook, from the RobertCook family, was also in attendance as a16 year old.

Classmate Clara Appling, a 13 yearold neighbor from the south side of theroad, brought distinction to the school in1904. The newspaper was reporting theCity’s plans to celebrate Memorial Day,still honoring the veterans of the CivilWar. It was a city-wide event. The peoplein town were provided extra trolley serv-ice to the hillside cemeteries, Highlandand Maple Grove, in order to decoratethe graves of the soldiers and familymembers buried there. Even a FriscoRailway steam locomotive train wasfired up to carry passengers out east onits tracks up to the cemeteries. Later thatday a parade was scheduled, ending atthe Toler Auditorium for invocations andrecitations. Clara Appling was compli-mented for her recitation of a poem byJohn Hendriks, “When the Boys in BlueAre Gone,” eulogizing the dwindlingnumber of surviving Union Soldiersfrom the great conflict.

Cook’s Hill School, District No.2,was eventually relocated as the city’sgrowth pushed its rural mission east-ward. The school’s next stop was anoth-er one-room schoolhouse built on thenortheast corner of Oliver and 9th Street,the site of today’s Adams ElementarySchool.

Cook’s Hill School, affectionallyknown then as “the little white school-house,” operated there until 1943. It hassince been forgotten but for the archivesand the alumni.

Danny Goldschmidt, a 6 year oldstudent at at the school in 1941, fondlyrecalls his days spent there. There wasonly one teacher, he recalls, eight pupilsand a portrait on the wall of the 32ndPresident of the United States—a man bythe name of Roosevelt, Franklin D.

11THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER z JANUARY 2010 HISTORY

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WICHITA PUBLIC LIBRARY

A one-room schoolhouse, labeled as “unidentified Sedgwick County School.” If notCook’s Hill School, the image is representative of rural schools at the time.

A 1901 map of the neighborhood shows College Hill School at First and Clifton and Cook’sSchool at Central and Bluff.

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OLD SCHOOL

Documents

The College Hill Commoner, Jan. 10