Eight Kansas sites nominated for National Register of Historic Places

Eight Kansas sites including Wichita’s Oscar and Ida Barnes House at 901 N. Broadway have been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places by the Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review.

The properties include a Topeka church, a Baldwin City school and gymnasium, four historic districts in Shawnee County and a segment of the Smoky Hill Trail & Butterfield Overland Dispatch.

Currently, Kansas has more than 1,300 listings on the National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s list of historically significant properties.

To be eligible for listing, buildings must meet certain criteria, including age, integrity and significance. Properties must be at least 50 years old to be considered. They can be eligible if they are associated with significant events or people.

While the historic designation can bring prestige to a property, it can also bring money, specifically tax credits for improvement. Owners of historically designated properties can receive up to 25 percent of their improvement investment back as state tax credit.

The nominations were made during the board’s May 9 meeting.

The nominees are:

▪ The Barnes House at 901 N. Broadway, built in 1911. It is an Italian Renaissance foursquare with some Craftsman style in its cabinetry, geometric window designs and interior floor plans. It has a low, hipped roof with ceramic tiles, wide eaves and Classical columns and details.

▪ Goodland’s Grant School in Sherman County, built in 1926. It was used originally as an elementary school but then later as a junior high school. It was built in the Late Gothic Revival style with a red brick exterior, multiple gable roofs and dormers and a central tower.

▪ Baldwin City School and Gymnasium/Auditorium, Douglas County. The school opened in 1923 but the detached auditorium and gymnasium were built in 1942 as a Work Projects Administration program. It was used by the local school system until 2011.

▪ Topeka’s South Kansas Avenue Commercial Historic District, Shawnee County. The area includes 10 city blocks between 6th on the north and 10th Avenue on the south. It is nominated for its local significance to commerce and architecture.

▪ Mill Block Historic District, Topeka, Shawnee County. The district includes five buildings on Kansas Avenue, north of the central business district. The buildings were constructed between 1904 and 1930 as a warehouse district for railroad and road transportation.

▪ Church of the Assumption Historic District, in the 200 block of SW 8th Avenue and 735 SW Jackson Ave. in Topeka. The Church of the Assumption was built in 1924, the rectory in 1929. Both were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. The buildings were nominated for the architectural significance in terms of Mission Revival and Renaissance Revival styles.

▪ Westheight Apartments Historic District, Kansas City, Wynadotte County. The district is on the 1600 block of Washington Boulevard and includes four apartment buildings that were built between 1947 and 1952.

▪ Smoky Hill Trail and Butterfield Overland Dispatch Segment, 522 Golf Course Road, Chapman, Dickinson County. The road original began as a military trail and eventually connected travelers between Leavenworth and Pike’s Peak, Colo. Legislation has been proposed to make the Butterfield’s Overland Dispatch trail, also known as the Smoky Hill Trail, a national trail because of its historical significance. It connected the Missouri River with Denver and was the most contested route by the Indians of any trail in Kansas.

The Historic Sites Board of Review also nominated in Hiawatha the Long House in Brown County to the Historic Kansas Places register. That house is on a farmstead and was built in 1910.

Three properties were removed from the national register: the McClinton Market at 1205 E. 12th St. in Wichita, after the building was demolished in January; and the Hitschman Double Arch Bridge and the Cattle Underpass, both in Barton County. The two 1930s-era bridges were demolished last October.

This story was originally published May 18, 2015 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Eight Kansas sites nominated for National Register of Historic Places."