Saving this building part of making neighborhood ‘as beautiful as it once was’

For a time, the Historic Midtown Community Development Association had become somewhat inactive due to the pandemic and a lack of volunteers, among other things, but that’s changed.

“Now we’re back at it,” said Rhandalee Hinman, the group’s president. “Our mission is to develop Midtown.”

That includes saving a Park Place duplex.

The 1923 arts-and-crafts style building at 1416 and 1418 N. Park Place was built as a duplex.

“Most of the buildings of that time were not multifamily,” Hinman said. “They were single-family homes.”

The dilapidated duplex is on the city’s demolition list — there had been complaints from neighbors about its decaying state — but the association got a 180-day reprieve. On Tuesday, the Wichita City Council decided to take it off the demolition rolls.

Volunteers have been cleaning the duplex inside and out. The interior, which took seven dumpsters to empty, was worse than expected, Hinman said.

“It was like, oh my gosh, what have we gotten ourselves into?”

The association also has been working to try to get historic tax credits to improve the property.

Hinman said the group hopes to start renovating the stucco exterior in early 2026.

“It’s really cute,” she said of the property.

There are wood built-ins and fairly decent closets for 1923.

Hinman said she hopes it won’t cost more than $150,000 to renovate the duplex and ready it for renters.

“We’re kind of begging contractors.”

Hinman said she appreciates the city working with the association, but she said in general she worries that when there’s a problem property, “way too often . . . it goes to demolition.”

She said the Midtown neighborhood is one of the largest in the city.

“Over the years as everybody’s seen, our neighborhood has kind of deteriorated, especially (the) Broadway corridor.”

Hinman said projects like this duplex renovation honor the city’s past and make an investment in its future.

She said she’s excited to move forward with neighborhood improvements “and bring it back to being as beautiful as it once was.”

This story was originally published October 6, 2025 at 11:07 AM.