The Historic A.S. Allen Building

10/21/2025

Quick update : they’re doing more stuff.

07/25/2025

The Allen Building Annex (the Brinkman Bank) is the little engine that could. It’s overcome so much! And is ready to be the home of someone’s next greatest adventure.

Available for rent!

07/25/2025

Available for Rent - the Allen Building Annex - formerly the Brinkman Bank Building - was annexed to the Allen building during one of its many renovations.

It’s a little over 800sqft and has a kitchen, bathroom, and large open space. Water is included in the rent price.

Located in the consumption district at 2006 Forest and a prime location for businesses looking to interact with the community as Final Fridays on Forest are held right outside your front door.

Message for information!!

07/10/2025

We keep chipping away at our big ole building here. Yesterday we replaced the door and storefront glass that surrounds it. We’re so thankful for the guys at Quality Glass, they’ve always treated us fairly and do great work! We can’t thank them enough!

All the little projects in the midst of our big project keep adding up to the beauty she’ll be when we’re done.

Can you believe the Allen Building is celebrating 150 years this year!! What a piece of history it holds for our community. We could not be more proud to breathe new life into to it and bring back so many wonderful features that had been covered or removed over the years.

10/27/2024

https://www.gbtribune.com/news/local-news/local-building-reborn/

Over time throughout the history of Great Bend, the building that serves as the anchor of what is known as Allen’s Corner in the 1400 block of Main Street has endured. It has seen many occupants and worn many faces.

10/08/2024

Celebrating my 7th year on Facebook. Thank you for your continuing support. I could never have made it without you. 🙏🤗🎉

We’re so excited to see the continued progress on our beloved Allen Building and cannot wait to share this amazing space with the community.

Thank you Great Bend Tribune for the feature.

09/28/2024

What a beauty.

The scaffolding is down and we’re waiting on windows and doors.

Really exited to share progress as we wrap up here.

07/20/2024

Pardon our mess. But I hope you’re as excited as I am to be where we are.

Believe it is not, I started meeting with our architect in 2018. Being a small project for him, he’d fit us in when he was passing through the area visiting larger project sites across western kansas. The slow roll of things actually worked to our benefit as a local facade grant became available and we happily applied. Sadly our architect fell victim to Covid and passed away before we began work.

We took the original plans and started bidding them out and decided to about face due to the fact the design was not what I had truly wanted but was believed to be the most affordable route. Our quotes in hand proved that theory wrong.

A big thank you to our economic development director Sara, as she put forth a massive effort to make our down town a designated Main Street district and historic district which opened up even more resources, including an architect that has strong relations with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). Robert created a lovely design that really fit my vision and dream for the Historic Allen Building and I cannot wait to unveil the finished project.

We’ve had many unforeseeable obstacles and hiccups along the way- far too many to mention here - but we could not be more thrilled to see this progress.

08/24/2023

Here with a non-update, update.

As many of you see on a daily basis, we still sit demoed with zero outward evidence of progress, but the amount of inward, unseen work, may as well look like we’re trying to put Pangea back together. We’ve been told on a few occasions work will start tomorrow, but you can see as clearly as we can, it has not. Partly due to a recent storm taking workers to immediate need repair situations.

I can say, historic renovations are not for the faint at heart. There’s a lot of unknown red tape pair that with supply chain issues and other obstacles it’s nightmarish.

We’ve got some amazing plans coming down the pipeline (a complete 180 from the design we shared a few years ago) and oh so worth the wait.

Hopefully within the next few days/weeks we’ll see the new steel beams and studs installed and we can move forward with stone and window work.

We haven’t forgotten, lost interest, or ability. This process unfortunately, takes much longer than we’d all hope.

We cannot wait to unveil the finished product.

05/22/2023

2016 —> 2018 —>2023

We’ve been working on this beast for a long time. The main floor interiors of 1401 Main & 2006 Forest have experienced massive transformations since I purchased them in 2016. Now it’s time to bring the facade back to its former glory. Inspired by its previous facades, we’ll be blending its current state with its 1914-1920 design.

This may not be the fínale but it most definitely will be one amazing transformation.

Stay tuned over the next couple months as we document the changes and share our excitement. This Historic property holds such a special place in my heart.

09/08/2021

*UPDATE* after much thought, consideration, and the unexpected passing of our original architect we’ve decided to go down a different avenue and work towards a design with greater historic influence and future impact.

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We’ve got some exciting news to share!!

The Allen building was the recipient of grant funds offered by Barton County for Facade restoration/improvements. While this is only a portion of our total project budget, it is a huge step for us to reface this beauty and bring back some of its former glory!!

Thank you Barton County Commisioners for seeing the value here and for awarding us with these funds. We hope our new face will make you proud.

https://greatbendpost.com/posts/30774926-59e1-49ed-96a2-88aec6491c9c?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Special thank you to owner Kelly McMurphy of Landmark Architects out of Hutchinson and Great Bend’s very own Rachel Bussen, a recent FHSU grad working at Landmark for their work on our project!!

These drawings are not set in stone but this is the direction we’re heading. Stay tuned for project updates and the big reveal.