KSHPO - Kansas State Historic Preservation Office

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

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

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

WHAT’S WHAT IN TAX CREDITS – August 4 is Assistance Dog Day. Find out who’s a good girl at the Dog House of the Edgar W. Howe House, in Atchison, Atchison County.

The Edgar Watson Howe Home is a two-story red brick structure rising from a native stone foundation. The brick is laid in common running bond and the stone in random ashlar pattern. The house is irregular in plan with a two-story octagonal tower projecting from the north side and a three-story octagonal tower on the south. A large porch with brick pillars spans the entire east front. An iron railing encloses the space between the pillars. The shingled hip roof has dormer windows, and there are miniature spires at each end of the ridges. The roof overhangs the brick wall below and is supported by decorative brackets. Coupled brackets are used at the corners. Windows on both floors are of the double-hung type and are rectangular. The windows rise from stone sills and are capped with curved stone lintels. The lintels have simple designs except for those on the east facade, which are ornamented with carvings and a keystone. The exterior of the home is believed to be little changed throughout its history.

A small frame outbuilding located to the rear of the house is similar in character to the main house and is known as the Dog House. It is believed to have been completed in 1900.

Rehabilitation of the Dog House included roof and window replacement, exterior finish repairs and painting, and interior finish repairs. This work was supported by a Heritage Trust Fund grant. Similar work on the House proper earned Kansas Historic Tax Credits. Learn more about the Edgar W. Howe House and read the informative National Register nomination in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=005-0260-00004

Have you seen a "Historic Preservation in Progress" sign in your community? Look for these when you are traveling around Kansas to see how historic properties are utilizing grant funds from the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office.

Find out about funding programs for preservation: https://www.kansashistory.gov/14613

Calling all preservationists! The Kansas Historic Preservation Conference is taking place October 8-9 in Wichita. Got a cool project you'd love to share? Want to help inspire preservation in Kansas?
Submit a session proposal via the form below.
Deadline extended through August 5th!
https://tinyurl.com/ykpp4uby
Watch our website for more conference details at: https://www.kansashistory.gov/14644

Kansas Preservation Conference - Kansas Historical Society Kansas Historical Society

WHAT’S WHAT IN TAX CREDITS – July 30 is National Support Public Education Day. An educated populace is a boon to everyone at the Sunnyside Elementary School, Wichita, Sedgwick County.

Sunnyside School is a 1-½ story building in the Sunnyside Addition, east of downtown Wichita. Although the school was built in four phases – in 1916/1917, 1919, 1923 and 1931 – it retains its symmetry on a north/south axis. The north (front) elevation was completed in 1917 as a dumbbell-shaped four-classroom school. The 1919 addition, which extended south from the south-extending bay on the west side, housed an additional two classrooms. The 1923 addition mirrored the 1919 addition, extending from the south-extending bay on the east side.

Sunnyside Elementary was constructed with hollow clay tile faced with rough and smooth red brick and rough brown brick. There is a red soldier-coursed band at grade. A field of red Flemish bond with two colors of red brick rises to a brown soldier-coursed band. The field brick above the brown band, which is dark red laid in regular courses, is interrupted in places with brown soldier brick and stone. A tooled stone cornice, perched on pairs of decorative stone brackets, sits atop two rowlock courses. The parapet brick, which matches the field brick, is interrupted by stone details at the locations of pairs of cornice brackets. The building is capped with stone coping. Two masonry chimneys rise from above the roofline. Window openings have brown brick stools.

A substantial rehabilitation converted the school to housing and earned federal and Kansas Historic Tax Credits. Learn more about Sunnyside Elementary School and read the informative National Register nomination in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=173-5880-08866

Updates are being proposed to federal preservation regulations (Section 106) that will impact historic places in Kansas. Read the latest updates from the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions - https://ncshpo.org/news/

Could this be the end of Section 106 as we know it?

A proposed rewrite of 36 C.F.R. Part 800 could fundamentally reshape how the federal government identifies, evaluates, and resolves effects on historic properties.

NCSHPOs initial summary outlines the proposal's potential implications for historic preservation and more specifically, for the Section 106 consultation framework established by the National Historic Preservation Act and potential impacts on SHPOs, Tribes, and local communities.

Link in comments

National Trust for Historic Preservation
National Alliance of Preservation Commissions
National Preservation Partners Network
American Cultural Resources Association - ACRA
Preservation Action

FROM THE KHRI ARCHIVE – July 28 is National Waterpark Day. Grab your goggles and meet us at the Big Dipper Swimming Pool, in Garden City, Finney County.

The Pool was hand dug by staff and community volunteers in 1922. It is 330 feet long and 220 feet wide with a depth from 18 inches to 9 feet. It has a capacity of 2,880,000 gallons of water. The surviving bathhouse was constructed in 1937 as a WPA project.

The Pool and adjoining park have been upgraded many times in their history. Learn more about the Big Dipper Swimming Pool and read a Comprehensive Survey Report in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=055-1950-01728

WHAT’S WHAT IN TAX CREDITS – July 24 is Pioneer Day. Remember your rugged forebears in the Main Barn at Pioneer Bluffs Ranch Historic District, Matfield Green, Chase County.

This is a two-story, gambrel roof, frame barn that sits on a rusticated limestone block foundation. The building has a western facade orientation. German lap siding clads the building. A gable roof cupola vent crests the building's roof. Originally painted grey with white trim and a wooden shingle roof, the building is now white with a tin roof. The shingles remain around the base of the cupola. The metal roof cresting is retained.

A gambrel roof wall dormer projects from the center of the western roof slope. A sliding wooden plank door pierces the wall dormer, it replaces two 4/4 double hung windows and provides access to the second story hay loft. Four 2/2 double hung windows fenestrate the western elevation. Three wooden plank stall doors and one full wall height wooden plank machinery door provide access on the western elevation. "Pioneer Bluffs Since 1859" is painted in black below the second story sliding door. Period photographs of the barn show "Pioneer Bluffs" painted in white without the date.

A current project is earning Kansas Historic Tax Credits for exterior wood repairs and painting. Learn more about the Pioneer Bluffs Ranch Historic District and read the informative National Register nomination in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory: https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=017-0000-00195