Shamrock Lounge
PLAY AUDIOThe Shamrock Lounge is one of Wichita's oldest bars. The building itself was built with a storefront and two upstairs apartments, though it's unclear what business was housed there. That is, until Prohibition was repealed in 1933. That same year, Theodore C. Geselle, a local airplane designer, purchased the building and opened Geselle's Bar & Grill. According to a story from his granddaughter, Geselle was a part-time bootlegger prior to opening his bar. Mrs. Geselle ran a pharmacy for a number of years out of the other half of the building. Legend has it that many pharmacies sold alcohol during Prohibition to those with "proper" prescriptions.Sometime around 1949, Geselle sold his building to a Wichita businessman, Morris McGlynn, who opened the Shamrock Lounge. The Shamrock was passed from father to son to wife and then a series of managers, before the current owners purchased it in 2002.Pictures of the Geselles courtesy of current owner, Dave Stough.
Wichita Hospital
PLAY AUDIOThey didn't call it the Wild West for nothing – in the 1880s, if you were a cowboy who'd been shot you might have been taken down south to the Ladies Benevolent Home, built in 1879 on South Francis Street. Later in 1898, that early health care facility moved to the corner you're now standing on, at Douglas and Seneca, where the Quik Trip is located. Now known as the Wichita Hospital, financial problems led to its sale to the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1925 for $150,000. Later the sisters built another hospital on East Harry street which remains and operates as a Via Christi facility. The Wichita Hospital was closed in 1953, and a new Sedgwick County Hospital was built on 9th street (now the campus of KU Medicine and Pharmacy-Wichita).
Engine House #4
PLAY AUDIO(To see this building, look south on Seneca St. from the parking lot of the QuikTrip.)Engine House Number 4 is Wichita's oldest remaining former fire house. As Wichita grew larger, it was one of two new stations built in 1890 in order to improve service. In the days of horse-drawn engines, firefighters had a lot of daily chores. Each horse had to be fed, properly groomed, and exercised. The stalls of the horses also had to be mucked out regularly – and the firefighters benefited from this, as they usually slept next to their horses! Fire alarms were received from one of 44 call boxes dotted across the city, or if you had access to a telephone you might call the station directly. Since hitching up the horses took a considerable amount of time, one Wichita firefighter set out to improve the situation. R.G. Armstrong invented an automated hitch that hung from the ceiling in the fire house right above the place where the horses were trained to report on hearing the fire bell. He later patented this invention in 1896 and started a business to sell the hitches to other fire departments. This station saw the adoption of automobile engines in the 1920s, lasting well into the middle of the 20th century. It ended service in 1950 with the construction of the new No. 4 Station at Martinson and Douglas, which is now a private residencePhotos courtesy of: kansasfirefightersmuseum.com
Rowdy Delano
PLAY AUDIOOriginally called Elgin, the town west of the Arkansas River came to be known as Delano in 1871. It was named for Columbus Delano, Secretary of the Interior under President Grant. Delano was an important cattle shipment point on the Chisholm Trail, and became known for its lawlessness and vice. With no sheriff to oversee the town, Delano became a haven for drinking, gambling, and prostitution. It was later incorporated as West Wichita in 1880.Just northwest of the Douglas Street bridge, built in the 1870s, two neighboring saloons fanned a flame of rivalry between their owners. Rowdy Joe Lowe and his wife Rowdy Kate owned one establishment while the other was owned by E.T. "Red" Beard. Red became jealous of Rowdy Joe's business success and started a "slow-motion" shootout with Joe in 1873. According to local lore, Red walked over to Joe's, shot him, and returned to his saloon. Joe wasn't badly hurt so took the time to have a few drinks, then walked over to Red's place and shot Red and two bystanders. Red died two weeks later; Rowdy Joe was charged but acquitted because both men had been drinking. He left town to avoid charges from the other two shooting victims.
Blackbear Bosin's studio
PLAY AUDIOThe Keeper of the Plains has become one of the most enduring modern symbols of Wichita. Its creator, Blackbear Bosin, established his art studio at this location from 1972-1980. Now occupied by Delano BBQ, they feature information about the artist inside for diners to enjoy.One of the founders of the Mid-America All Indian Center, Blackbear Bosin's family was Kiowa on his father's side and Comanche on his mother's side. He was named after his great-grandfather, “Sate-Kon-Gia” (Blackbear), a chief of the Kiowas. Bosin was a native of Oklahoma who came to Wichita in 1941 as an aircraft employee. In 1944, he enlisted in the Marines and served in the Pacific Theater. While in Hawaii, he developed his painting skills. When he returned to Wichita he worked at McConnell Air Force Base, where his artistic talent was recognized and he worked in the visual aids service.Blackbear Bosin designed the Keeper of the Plains sculpture, and it was installed in 1974. He received numerous awards for his art through the years, and the Mid-America All Indian Center has the largest public collection of his art. He died in 1980 at the age of 59.Photos courtesy of the Mid-America All-Indian Center
City Scavengers
PLAY AUDIOFrank Smith and George T. Tuders were the owners of Smith & Tuders, City Scavengers, located at 500 West Douglas. At the turn of the last century, city scavengers were responsible for many of the more dirty jobs around the city. The scavengers were responsible for collecting the trash from houses and businesses, collecting the dead animals off the streets, managing the stray dog population, and, since there was no sewer system, cleaning the many out-houses and cesspools. They also advertised in the newspaper that they wanted dead horses and cattle to haul free of charge. Many of these malodorous items ended up on the island of Elba. This small, sand island was located on the Arkansas River south of Douglas Avenue past the Maple Street Bridge. In the summer, when the wind blew from the southwest, which it often does, it could be smelled downtown.
CC Hatfield Horse Shoers
PLAY AUDIOPrior to the automobile, horses were the main form of transportation in Wichita. Horses were ridden, pulled freight wagons, and guided the early street cars across town. All these horses needed constant care of their hooves. In 1910, a good horse shoer could earn $3 a day working in a shop. C. C. (Clarence) Hatfield Horse Shoeing Shop, located at 400 West Douglas, was one of the several horse shoers in town. Hatfield also advertised in the want ads that he could clip and boot your horse and would fix any faults. By adjusting the metal horse shoes, the shoer could fix many of the horses foot and leg problems. Shoers had blacksmithing skills and often worked to repair buggies and wagons. Once automobiles arrived, they frequently worked on them, too.
Travel Air Airplane Manufacturing
PLAY AUDIOWichita is called the “Air Capital of the World” because of the number of influential airplane designers and builders who started here. In the early years of the airplane industry, the largest such company in Wichita was established here. Travel Air was founded in 1925 by Lloyd Stearman, Walter Beech, and Clyde Cessna, along with Walter Innes Jr and Daniel Sayre as financial partners. Travel Air quickly became the predominant airplane manufacturing company in Wichita. Their flight testing field was located northwest where the Westside Athletic Field is now located. In 1927, the factories in Wichita accounted for 20% of the total US production of planes, with Travel Air making more than half of those. Over time, the original partners decided to separate; Stearman moved to California and Cessna started his own company in Wichita. In 1930, Travel Air consolidated with Curtis-Wright Corporation and became the “Travel Air Division” of Curtis-Wright and moved to East Douglas Street. The successor of this company eventually became Beech Aircraft.
Running of the Doves
PLAY AUDIOSome trades flourished in Delano, and "soiled doves" or "painted ladies" did a brisk business along the Chisholm Trail. In 1872-73, an event called the Running of the Doves took place where the ladies were loaded in wagons, carted off to the Arkansas River, and took off all their clothes to race back to the saloons on foot. Cowboys and customers bet on the fastest ladies and cheered them on from along the route. Risqué entertainments such as these were quite popular at the time. While some women did quite well for themselves in this trade, overcoming rough backgrounds and impoverished pasts, others were taken advantage of and treated badly. An 1887 grand jury investigation in Wichita examined the claims of nearly 300 prostitutes in the area, who asserted that they were being used in a scheme that ultimately prevented them from making any sort of real money in their line of work. Hotels and boarding houses in Wichita would charge a prostitute one price for her own room and board, but when she arrived at her "place of business" they would charge a completely different rate for her use of the room with clients. The network of price fixing ultimately took advantage of the "soiled doves" and resulted in their having to pay over 60% of their income just for housing.While much about the Old West is glamorized in contemporary movies and literature, it was far from a perfect place according to many accounts from those who lived it.
Chisholm Trail Marker & Sculpture
PLAY AUDIOOn the west side of the Douglas Street Bridge is a monument to the Chisholm Trail and half of the sculpture "Two Steers" by artist John Kearney. The other half of the sculpture is outside Maize South High School. The bull sculpture is a reminder of the cattle drives along the Chisholm Trail in Wichita from 1872-1876.In 2017, the Chisholm Trail turns 150 years old. Its name comes from Jesse Chisholm’s trading post on the Little Arkansas River, to the north of the future city of Wichita. His trading route extended from Wichita south into Indian Territory, and as cattle drives from Texas began in the 1860s, his trail was used to bring longhorns to the railroads for shipment east. In Wichita, the trail crossed where the Masonic Home now is located, then north on Seneca Street to Douglas Street. It continued east on Douglas to cattle pens located near 330 S Commerce Street. The longhorns were shipped from a railroad depot north of Douglas near where the railroad overpass is located near Union Station.Chisholmtrail150.org/trail-history/Kansas-trailKansas.com/news/local/article167027672.htmlwww.kansas.com/news/local/article1098632.html
Ackerman Island
PLAY AUDIO(This site was located north of the bridge.)In Wichita’s early days, there was a 56 acre island in the middle of the Arkansas River which extended from close to the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers almost to the Douglas Street Bridge you are standing on. It was known as Ackerman’s Island, after the owner Joseph Ackerman. He owned a packing house opposite the island on the west bank and had purchased the island to expand. A fire at the packing house as well as the panic of 1891 prevented this.In 1905, the Wichita Amusement Park Company opened “Wonderland Park” on the island, which was to be “the Coney Island of the West.” The many attractions there included a Coliseum which could seat 2,500 people and also served as a roller skating rink, a carousel, a roller coaster, billiard hall, bowling alley, Irish Café, Cessna’s Tour of the World, a Carnival, penny arcade, Fun Factory, dancing pavilion, and the Wonderland Park Theater. Among those appearing at the park were William Jennings Bryan and John Phillip Sousa. A big electric sign near the south side of the island could be seen the length of Douglas Street to College Hill. Later a ball park was added on the south end.Wonderland Park operated from 1905 until about 1918. After that it was used by industry. In 1933, the city manager Bert Wells suggested filling in the west bank by taking soil and sand from the east side of the island. (The west channel only carried water in wet weather; otherwise it was primarily stagnant pools.) This became a project of the Civil Works Administration, putting 1500 unemployed men to work for 1.5 years, using pickaxes, shovels, and wheelbarrows. The cost was $750,000, primarily money from the federal government during the Depression.
Lawrence Dumont Stadium
PLAY AUDIO(Look south, along the west bank of the river for this site.)During the Great Depression, many Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects were created in Kansas. One of them was the Lawrence Athletic Field, built in 1934 as a local WPA project. It was named after Mayor Charles Lawrence, who died in 1934 after championing the project. At the time, baseball was prohibited in the city limits and games were played on Ackerman Island to skirt the rules. Later, Ray “Hap” Dumont, a local sports writer and well-known baseball promoter, brought semi-pro games to the park. He founded the National Baseball Congress Tournament in 1935, and paid Satchel Paige $1,000 to bring his Bismarck Churchills semi-pro team from North Dakota to play in the first NBC Championship. Paige struck out 60 batters and won four of the games. The NBC tournament is still held here each summer, and many former and future major league players have played in the tournament. The stadium was renamed Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in 1978.
Douglas Avenue bridge
PLAY AUDIOEarly on, there was a need for a bridge to connect Douglas Avenue across the Arkansas River. In 1872, the Wichita Bridge Company was formed and charged a toll to travel the bridge. This didn’t sit well with citizens, and complaints mounted. Many people chose to ford the river rather than pay the toll! Smaller bridges were established to the north and south to circumvent the toll bridge at Douglas.For five years, the bridge caused problems. A letter to the Eagle in 1873 noted that produce was being diverted to Hutchinson because of the high costs of the bridge toll. Since there was a short span of time during the year that the river couldn’t be forded, the bridge came to be known as a poor investment. The problem was resolved in 1877 when the city and county joined forces to purchase the bridge for $5,000, each paying half. This ended the toll problem and traffic now flowed freely above the Arkansas. (If you're ENDING the Delano tour here, you'll want to cross the street to begin the Historic Downtown Tour.)
