KSHPO - Kansas State Historic Preservation Office

09/01/2026

WHAT’S WHAT IN TAX CREDITS – September 1 is National Hotel Employee Day. Tipping is optional and welcomed at the Elgin Hotel in Marion, Marion County.

The three-story limestone Elgin Hotel has an L-shaped plan. Ordered formal articulation is confined to the two street facades. It is through disposition of windows and doors, through the stone detailing and through the treatment of the cornice that these facades are organized. Two types of stonework are used. The walls are laid up in regular coursed rockfaced ashlar. The quoins, band course beneath the cornice, the vertical striping that frames the east wall’s central pavilion and the voussoir and lintels of the windows and doors are articulated in smooth-faced stone. Keystones provide an added embellishment.

A bracketed metal cornice caps the two street facades. This feature draws attention to the main or east façade as it pushes up into a pediment form over the middle portion of the wall. This central focus is reinforced by two stone strips that flank the pediment running from cornice to ground level. At the corners and flanking the pediment the cornice is surmounted by simple finials.

Several Kansas Historic Tax Credit projects have supported substantial rehabilitation of the building. Learn more about the Elgin Hotel (historicelginhotel.com) and read the informative National Register nomination in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=115-3540-00012

08/28/2026

Thank you to KSN TV for featuring these Heritage Trust Fund grant awardees! Applications for the 2027 round of HTF grants will open soon. See more at https://www.kansashistory.gov/14617.

The Old Greeley County Courthouse in Tribune will receive $94,982, and the Pospishil Building in Luray will receive $100,000.

MORE: https://www.ksn.com/news/state-regional/thousands-of-dollars-awarded-to-preserve-two-historic-kansas-buildings/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_KSN_TV

08/27/2026

WHAT’S WHAT IN TAX CREDITS – August 29 is National Sport Sampling Day. Catch your second wind at the Homer Hanson Stadium, Marysville, Marshall County.

The Stadium is oval shaped in plan form. A stone wall between stone piers with a cap surrounds the north and east borders of stadium. A second wall frames the lower edge of the bleachers. It is, essentially, a football field surrounded by running track. It was constructed before the high school itself, which was completed in 1939.

During the Great Depression, the Marysville School District secured a grant from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to construct this new athletic stadium. The federal grant provided for labor and materials. This was matched by the Marysville School District. The stadium was dedicated in September 1937.

A Kansas Historic Tax Credit project cleaned and repaired the stone walls of the stadium. Learn more about the Homer Hanson Stadium in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=117-247

08/25/2026

WHAT’S WHAT IN TAX CREDITS – August 25 is National Park Service Founders Day. Send a message of thanks to our Federal partners at the Western Union Building in Wichita, Sedgwick County.

Featuring a rectangular footprint, the building is three bays wide fronting Topeka Avenue and eight bays deep along 1st Street. The masonry load-bearing structure has brick perimeter walls, tile block partition walls and concrete columns and beams, floors and roof. Red brick is the exposed finish on the secondary east and south facades. The front façade features mottled cream-colored glazed terracotta panels with ornate detailing. The 1924 design of the Western Union Building reflects the traditional Commercial Style building common in the Progressive Era. Classified as a Two-Part Commercial Block with a clear distinction in the upper and lower facades, the terracotta facade is classically configured with two-story pilasters defining bays along the upper and lower facades. A simple cornice separates the upper and lower facades and defines the base of the parapet. Finely detailed terracotta panels feature ornate shields, urns and acanthus leaves on the upper facade as well as rope detailing on the pilasters around the masonry openings at each bay.

The Western Union Building retains its terracotta facade with few modifications. The primary exterior change was ca.1980s replacement of the upper windows and storefronts on the street facades. Secondary facades have few if any modifications and retain the original 3/3 DH metal windows. The original street entry, the lobby and main stairway remain intact on the ground floor as does the interior storefronts in the bay immediately east of the north entrance. Finishes in the public areas include terrazzo floors, plaster walls and ceilings, marble wainscoting and school-house style pendant light fixtures. The upper floor retains features and finishes that convey its historic design for commercial offices with doors, transoms and flanking windows in place at office entrances off the corridor.

Federal Historic Tax Credits were earned for a substantial rehabilitation of the building. Learn more about the Western Union Building and read the informative National Register nomination in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=173-11076

08/24/2026

The Kansas Historical Society has an opening for a State Historic Sites Supervisor. This position oversees the state historic sites and requires knowledge of professional historic sites practices, procedures, and techniques, knowledge of American and Kansas history, knowledge of sources, methods, and techniques used in historical interpretation, and knowledge of the principles and practices of management and supervision. Responsibilities include recruitment and training of historic sites staff, evaluating the effectiveness of staff members, travel to state historic sites, and coordinating programs and projects happening at the sites. To apply, go to www.kansashistory.gov/p/jobs/11403

08/20/2026

WHAT’S WHAT IN TAX CREDITS – August 20 is National Accessible Air Travel Day. Fly the friendly skies at the Municipal Airport Administration Building, Wichita, Sedgwick County.

The building consists of a central three-story portion that measures 60 by 160 feet and was built from 1930-1935 and two-story wings to either side of this main rectangular block that were built in 1942 and 1943. The overall dimensions are 60 by 300 feet, Stone coping runs around the entire perimeter of the parapet, and a stone string course runs at its floor level, The Art Deco style is apparent in the broad, flat surfaces of wall broken by step-backs that emphasize doors, windows and the progression from one section of the building to another; in the strong verticality created by various unbroken two-story elements; in the stepped corners of windows and the inset, stepped and faceted stones at the corners of end bays; and in the panels of stylized airplanes surrounded by chevron patterns.

Probably the most remarkable decorative features of the building occur on the entrance block. These are the large stone window spandrels in the three central bays, and the huge cast stone (essentially a very refined concrete) mural that runs the entire length of the three recessed bays. The three stone panels reflect both the nationalism of the 1930's and the stylization of Art Deco. They consist of a cast stone design in low relief of an eagle with wings spread, superimposed over a stylized pattern of airplanes. The cast stone mural is 37 feet long by 5 feet 4 inches wide and depicts the arrival of Lindbergh of the coast of Ireland. It was designed by L.W. Clapp, a prominent public figure in Wichita who was instrumental in bringing the aviation industry to the city. The color in the mural was obtained by crushing colored bottles in the cast stone mixture.

A recent tax credit project focused on interior plaster repairs. Learn more about the Municipal Airport Administration Building, now home of the Kansas Aviation Museum, and read the informative National Register nomination in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=173-5880-00129

08/18/2026

WHAT'S WHAT IN TAX CREDITS – August 18 is National Mail Order Catalogue Day. If you don't see it they don't make it, at the Palmyra Post Office in Baldwin City, Douglas County.

The Post Office is a 1.5-story wooden building with a shake roof and a full-width, one-story front porch. Centered in the east elevation, double doors with six-light-windows in the upper portion open to the porch. There is a four-panel single door at the west end of the south elevation that leads to the attic stairs. There are windows on all sides of the building. On the main level, there are four fixed six-light units on the east side, two on each side of the doors. The north and south elevations each have two four-over-four, double-sash wood windows. The west elevation has two square four light fixed units. At the attic level, the east and west elevations each have a single four-over-four, double-sash wood window centered in the gable ends. The north and south sides each have a centered dormer window; although, historically the building had two dormers on each side.

Built in 1857, the relocated Palmyra Post Office is the only extant resource associated with the short-lived town of Palmyra. From June 1857 to May 1862, this building functioned as a post office along the Santa Fe Trail. The building was relocated at least three times since the early 1900s, finally settling into its current setting on the campus of Baker University in the 1980s.

The Kansas Historic Tax Credit was earned for foundation and roof repair. Learn more about the Palmyra Post Office and read the informative State Register nomination in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=045-0340-00004

08/13/2026

WHAT’S WHAT IN TAX CREDITS – August 13 is National Filet Mignon Day. Get a prime cut at the Kurht Ranch Historic District, Edson, Sherman County.

The Kuhrt Ranch Historic District ( c.1907-1950) is in Shermanville Township, twelve miles north of Edson in Sherman County, Kansas. The district is a contiguous 320 acre tract in an expansive landscape that hosts the nucleus of ranch buildings and structures: limestone house (c.1907,1934), barn (c.1922, 1933), shop (c.1933), bridge ( c.1950) and garage ( c. 1970). A dry, dusty gravel road descends from the dry land wheat and pasture of the Northwest Kansas highlands into the Beaver Creek Valley.

A picturesque setting of green, velvet-like alfalfa fields provide the canvas for a backdrop of historic cottonwood and evergreen trees. The Beaver Creek meanders through the willows throughout the district. Driving northwest down that narrow road, crossing the bridge built by Paul Kuhrt in 1950, one feels like they are entering an oasis in a desert. One encounters a red-roofed barn and shed on the left, a red-roofed machine shop on the right and a red-roofed, limestone, prairie castle nestled in the trees. Limestone hills provide a natural boundary on the south.

Federal and state tax credits were sought for exterior repairs and rehabilitation. Learn more about the Kuhrt Ranch Historic District and read the informative National Register nomination in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=181-0000-00028

08/11/2026

FROM THE KHRI ARCHIVE – August 11 is Presidential Joke Day. Find out how many Ikes it takes to change a light bulb at the Dwight D. Eisenhower House in Abilene, Dickinson County.

The Eisenhower Home is a two-story white frame house with a hipped roof and a chimney in the center of the roof. It has a flat-roofed front porch on the south and a small side porch on the west. A one-story addition of two rooms was built to the east when Dwight's grandfather, Jacob Eisenhower, came to live with the family.

Upstairs the house has two fairly large bedrooms and one quite small. The original downstairs consisted mainly of a parlor, dining room, and kitchen. The exterior of the house looks much as it did when young Dwight Eisenhower was living there. Original family articles and furnishings remain in the various rooms, including hooked rugs Dwight's father made as a hobby.

This house was documented in the 1940s for the Historic American Buildings Survey and has been open to the public since 1947. Learn more about the Dwight D. Eisenhower House and read the informative National Register nomination in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=041-0020-00001

08/06/2026

WHAT’S WHAT IN TAX CREDITS – August 6 is Farmworker Appreciation Day. Kansas knows we don’t eat without farmers at the Sowers / Crawford Farms Historic District, Overbrook, Douglas County.

The farmstead consists of 160 acres of land, eleven buildings, and six structures which illustrate the development of rural life in Douglas County, Kansas. The contributing buildings include a National Folk style house, two barns, a carriage house, a poultry house, a horse stable, and a Craftsmen/Bungalow style house. The contributing structures include a stone cellar, dry stacked stone fences, an outhouse, and a grain bin.

The property was settled by Mathias and Rebecca (Bowman) Sowers in 1879 and was developed into a successful family-operated cattle and livestock farm. The property has been continuously owned and operated as a family farm by descendants of Mathias and Rebecca Sowers. The farmstead is a cohesive collection of farm and rural-residential related structures that demonstrate development-over-time by reflecting the resources and values of a single family over multiple generations, and by incorporating technological changes into the architectural fabric.

A current Kansas Historic Tax Credit project is a rehabilitation of the horse stables. Learn more about the Sowers / Crawford Farms Historic District and read the informative National Register nomination in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=045-7489