Focus on Preservation

Putting Topeka on the map --CJ Online, 8-28-2008
It took 12 months, but Topeka and several surrounding communities in northeast Kansas [including Silver Lake] have been added to what is seemingly the future of online mapping.
Cemetery budget supplimented --CJ Online, 8-27-2008
Bethany Place: Court sets aside Council's decision,
--PreservationNation, July 25, 2008
Constitution Hall on Nat'l Register of Historic Places,
--CJ Online, July 22, 2008
Sumner School named to Nat'l Trust endangered list
--CJ Online, May 20, 2008
2008 Historic Preservation Awards May 4, 2008
Tower Building to be saved from demolition, Apr. 14, 2008
Mary Evelyn Ritchie Jarboe obit, Feb. 10, 2008
Ritchie House gets check for $100,000, Jan. 30, 2008
Ritchie House featured in AP article, May 30, 2006
SCHS Preservation Awards listing
Historical Preservation Series, May 2006
Dillion House nominated for National Historic Preservation
Ritchie House designated as local Historic Landmark

Cox Communication pledged $100,000 lead gift to the Historic Ritchie House Campaign!
View Fact Sheet
For more information
contact Chris Keeshan,
(785) 633-0969

Cox Communications has pledged the lead gift of $100,000 to the Shawnee County Historical Society’s Ritchie House Campaign. A check presentation will be held on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. at the Ritchie House Site, 1116-1118 SE Madison in Topeka, Kansas.
    In recognition of their lead gift, the Education Center at the Ritchie House Site will be named the Cox Communications Education Center.
    “We are proud to have Cox Communications be a part of the Ritchie House Campaign,” said Dale Anderson, campaign chair of the Ritchie House Campaign.
   “Cox Communications appreciates the opportunity to support the Topeka community by contributing to the Shawnee County Historical Society and the Ritchie House Campaign,” said Coleen Jennison, director of government affairs for Cox Communications.

The Shawnee County Historical Society’s Ritchie House Campaign is a $1.2 million campaign that will fully fund the restoration and renovation of the Hale Ritchie House to serve as the Education Center for the John and Mary Ritchie House, and will fund continued local and state history curriculum development for grades third and seventh.
1/29/2008

The City Council approved including the Hale Ritchie House on the list of Topeka Landmarks at its early January 2008 meeting. 2/8/2008

Historic Sites Board of Review nominates Constitution Hall, Topeka – Topeka, Shawnee Co., as National Historic Site
Built in 1855 and located at 427-429 S. Kansas Avenue, Constitution Hall, Topeka is being nominated to the National Register for its association with the 1850s Free State constitutional movement in Kansas. Although it features a front façade added in the early twentieth century, this two-story Territorial period building is largely constructed of native limestone and features a vernacular method of construction prevalent during this period. It is historically significant for its association with events in the Kansas Territory, from 1854 when this land was opened for U.S. settlement, to 1861 at Kansas’s statehood and the beginning of the Civil War. Shortly after the United States opened the Kansas Territory, the antislavery “Topeka Constitution” was written and approved in Constitution Hall. The first of the Kansas constitutions, this document was rejected by the Southern-dominated Congress and thereby not accepted by the appointed Federal officials of the Kansas Territory. Nevertheless, it set the course for the Wyandotte Constitution under which Kansas entered the Union of states in 1861. The building served other functions dedicated to the antislavery cause. It was a storage place for firearms, the boxes of Beecher’s “Bibles,” which were in reality rifles to aid in the Free State cause. It was used in the support of a chief fugitive escape route northward. Plans for the building include restoration and interpretation.
[See the entire list of nominations.] 12/14/2007

St. Francis Hospital of Topeka purchased property on Menninger Hill in Topeka. Concern over fate of the historic Tower Building, once the Security Benefit Association Hospital, has been put to rest. St. Francis Chief Executive Officer Mike Schrader voiced plans to tear down all buildings except the clock tower during a three-month demolition process in Spring, 2008. Read article in the Topeka Capital-Journal, Apr. 14, 2008. —4/17/2008

A BRIEF HISTORY

In January 2003 the Shawnee County Historical Society merged with Historic Topeka. The combined organization is called Shawnee County Historical Society . SCHS is dedicated to the preservation of Topeka's historic neighborhoods, buildings and sites.

Giving Topeka's Past a Future!

he evolution of a community, its history and personality, is reflected in the architecture that remains from the past. Preservation of Topeka's landmarks and significant places is a recycling that encompasses the rehabilitation, restoration and adaptive reuse of individual buildings, whole blocks and entire neighborhoods.

By recycling landmarks and structures for uses which are appropriate now, a link is forged that connects our present community to the foundations of our heritage.

The Shawnee County Historical Society seeks to heighten awareness of Topeka's rich past and of the need for preservation of historic landmarks not based solely on architectural detail, but based on significance to the community.

The common sense wisdom of preservation is that communities should be a mix of the old and the new. That the fabric of a city is tied to the idea that all of its buildings were not created yesterday and that they will remain beyond tomorrow. These buildings are remnants of earlier times and are the irreplaceable footprints of our heritage stitched together in a harmony that includes entire blocks and neighborhoods.

We wish to encourage public participation in local preservation, to educate the community about the rich history of the city, and to provide leadership for all preservation activities. Many of Topeka's greatest treasures, such as the former Governor's Mansion, the Arthur Capper home, the Grand Theater, the Dickinson Theater, the library on the Statehouse grounds, and the old courthouse have been lost to progress.

The economic benefits of preservation make the adaptive reuse of buildings not only sensible but logical. Dollar for dollar a rehabilitated building provides more square footage, creates more jobs, and the end product features craftsmanship and materials that cannot be duplicated today. Discarded buildings and entire neighborhoods can be regenerated with whole new lives that often renew their integrity and utility in ways more profitable than their original use.

Back to Top of Page

Neighborhood Virtual Tours
Archive, Historic Topeka Newsletters
Photo Archive

Past Community Projects:

Restoration of the Ross Row Houses, 513-521 Van Buren
Restoration of Ward-Meade Home and Park
Organization of the Apple Festival
Founders of Railroad Days
Supporter of the 1908 Herschell-Spillman carousel in the park restoration
"Magic Moments in History"- historical sketches of places and events in Topeka history
Retrieval of the WREN bird and its placement in a city park
Leadership and support of Save The Jayhawk Theater
Presenter of annual preservation awards
Organizer of bus and driving tours of Topeka's historic neighborhoods and sites
Endorsement of Preservation Ordinance for Topeka

Back to Top of Page