Mistakes written in stone at Naftzger Park will be replaced, city official says

A poem set in stone at Naftzger Park in downtown Wichita will have to be corrected after it got the park’s namesake wrong — twice.

“Sunflower Exclusive” by Wichita State faculty member Chinyere Okafor is stamped line-by-line on concrete panels around the walkway of the park. It is also engraved in its entirety on a stone tablet near Douglas and St. Francis.

The poem opens with the lines “Fans make brief stops at Naftzger Park / Salute Clinton Naftzger and Carry Nation / Folks that did their work for this Park / At the heart of Shocker Nation,” a nod to the park’s historic importance and some of the names associated with downtown Wichita.

But there’s one problem. “Clinton” Naftzger had nothing to do with the park. And the Naftzger family, who gave $100,000 to the city for the park in the late 1970s, is not happy.

“There is NO Clinton Naftzger in the Naftzger family name,” Caesar Naftzger said in a written statement to The Eagle.

The park — M.C. Naftzger Memorial Park — was named after Caesar’s grandfather Maurice Clifford Naftzger, an early Wichitan and banker whose family gave money to the city of Wichita for the park following his death in the 1970s.

“Clinton” appears on the stamped concrete poem and the engraved stone piece.

The city said Tuesday that the mistake will be corrected, but has not provided a timeline or a cost estimate to fix the errors.

“A mistake happened, and the mistake will be rectified,” Wichita Director of Parks and Recreation Troy Houtman said.

Caesar Naftzger said he was “appalled that the name was not correctly researched.”

“The poem is the author’s prerogative,” he said. “But I would urge the author to do research, spelling included, on names that will be forever etched on granite at the park.”

The errors were discovered by Wichita State sociology professor Chase Billingham on Saturday. Billingham has spent the past six years researching Naftzger Park and has published two academic papers on the park’s history.

Billingham said the misidentification of the park’s namesake is another example of disregard for the history of the park during redevelopment. His research disputes claims made by city officials to justify giving away some of the park’s eastern edge to private developers last year.

Central to that research was whether the city had originally built the park on private land, as claimed by city officials. Billingham’s research showed that the property in question was actually built on public land and later sold to a private party, who granted an easement to the city for that portion of the park.

“The details are important,” Billingham said.

“In particular, the history of the park is tied to the history of the family, and the Naftzger family is one of the oldest families in Wichita. They’ve been here since the nineteenth century, and it was the original bequest of the Naftzger family that really made that park possible in the first place.

“If the city is going to continue to use that name, I would just expect that they would make sure to get that history correct,” Billingham said.

Naftzger Park was a downtown park designed to preserve a Victorian style in the East Douglas Avenue Historic District. It was once a draw for photographers because of its trees, gazebo, waterfall and water fountain. It was also a favorite hangout for Wichita’s homeless population, for whom the park was a shady oasis in the heart of downtown.

Through a public-private partnership, the park has been transformed into a gateway for the nearby Intrust Bank Arena, open space primarily for tenants of the adjacent apartments in the former Spaghetti Works building, and the entryway for new businesses built to the eastern edge of the park.

Event management for the park has been privatized and the park has been renamed Naftzger Park and Evergy Pavilion, after the energy company donated $1.4 million to the project.

The trees are gone, as are the water features. Artificial turf has replaced some of the grass. The park now has an open-air vibe and features a large LED screen with the Evergy logo displayed prominently.

It’s unclear whether the mistake was in the original poem or if it was introduced by the engraver, city or developers on the project. Okafor did not respond to questions from The Wichita Eagle.

Houtman said at Tuesday’s park commissioners meeting that the mistake will be fixed.

“It will be repaired. ... Just like everything else, once we find out, we make the changes and repairs. It’s kind of an interesting situation because a lot of times we don’t spend a whole lot of time proofing all of our artists’ work because sometimes that’s construed as evaluating their work,” Houtman said.

“In this situation also we have to remember it’s the developer that’s actually the project manager. It wasn’t the city that was the project manager, so it didn’t go through the normal processes of review,” he said.

But the poem was reviewed by a city board as early as April 1, 2019. A version of the poem was reviewed by the Design Council in April and then again on June 24, according to the group’s meeting minutes.

Besides Naftzger’s namesake, there are several instances where “-nd” is used instead of “and.” Those were included in the draft viewed by the Design Council.

“After much discussion, board members stated they felt it was important they are not commenting on the content and special spelling of -nd is outside of their purview,” the minutes read.

There’s no mention of the wrong Naftzger being included in the poem.

Okafor, chair of the women’s studies department at Wichita State, was chosen to write the poem by Naftzger Park architect SWA/Balsley.

Naftzger Park and Evergy Pavilion is scheduled for a grand opening 5-7:30 p.m. on Thursday. It will start with a silent auction and will feature music from MC Brett Harris and Annie Up Band along with food trucks — and possibly fireworks. The event is free and open to the public. Food and drinks will be available for purchase.

This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 5:01 AM.