Topeka, Kansas
East of Bonner Springs the lush forests begin to give way to farms that were carved from the trees long ago. Corn harvest seems to be over as hints of fall begin to peek out of the green.
Staying off the interstate my path skirts fields of soybeans north of Lawrence, Kansas. The buildings of the University of Kansas barely rise above the tree line to the south.
The land opens up even more as the Kansas River Valley spreads out at the entrance to the western plains.
I enter Topeka from the north. The north side of the Kansas River is relatively flat and was settled early on as a ferry crossed the river from the south at that spot. Little else prompted settlement in the area so the first cabin wasn’t built until 1854 when a group of nine men established the Topeka Town Association. A small town grew on the banks of the Kansas River. Today north Topeka (or NOTO, as it is known) is the scene of some of the oldest neighborhoods in town. Prior to flood control measures, this area flooded regularly so from early times two “towns” evolved, North Topeka, site of the railroads and commerce, and downtown Topeka, stretching up the low bluff that slowly rises on the south side of the river. NOTO is in the process of evolving into an artists’ enclave of little shops and restaurants.
Because the terrain was more favorable for building the railroads the north side became home to the railyards and train depot. At the peak of the railroad dominance of the national transportation network the Union Pacific built Overland Station, a stunning train depot between the railroad tracks and the river. Completed in 1927 the train station was used until the late 1980’s though passenger service stopped in 1971. It sat empty for many years, badly damaged by a fire in 1992, until a non-profit took ownership of the building and began restoration. This picture shows the building in the early 1990’s after the west wing was destroyed by the fire.
Today the south side presents a magnificent entry. Across a plaza is a veteran’s memorial.
The station had three main areas: a large center reception area, baggage and handling in the west wing, restaurant and dining room in the east wing. Today the west wing houses the entrance, gift shop, and small displays.
The east wing was not accessible on the day of my visit so I took a picture through the window on the door.
The star of the depot is the central reception hall. An upper mezzanine on the north side provided passengers with a waiting area above the busy main floor.
Art deco stairwells lead up to the mezzanine.
A view from the mezzanine allows one to see the elaborate trim around the main doors to the station.
On the far side of the mezzanine a small display showcases the elaborate service that first-class customers enjoyed back in the day. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway used a distinct pattern on its’ china, named the “Mimbreno” pattern.
Luxury passengers on the Union Pacific enjoyed dining on china designed with the “Desert Flower” pattern.
Four major railroads provided service in Topeka: the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, and Rock Island. The view of the rear of the building from the other side of the railroad tracks is not quite as elegant. The restored building rises above abandoned railyards.
Downtown Topeka rises south on higher ground across the Kansas River.
At the same time that Topeka was starting to flourish the issue of slavery was coming to a head in the Kansas Territory. Topeka declared itself home to the free-state movement and in 1855 John and Mary Ritchie came to Topeka to support the movement. The Ritchie House, built in 1856, quickly became a stop on the Underground Railroad (one of 23 such safe havens for fleeing slaves in Topeka.) The brick home, oldest in Topeka, still stands on SE Madison Avenue in what became known in subsequent years as the “Ritchie Addition”, a historic black neighborhood in Topeka.
Samuel and Jane Harper were one of the black couples the Ritchie’s helped. After escaping slavery in Missouri in 1859, they arrived in Topeka as “passengers” on the Underground Railroad.
Forward nearly one hundred years and Topeka found itself again at the center of the fight for equality by African Americans. The federal policy of “separate but equal” held sway in much of the nation during the decades after the Civil War. Topeka was diligent in it’s’ implementation of the policy. In the 1920’s Topeka voters passed a grand school construction program to promote a first-class educational system and the benefits spread across the segregated system. A state of the art elementary school, Monroe Elementary, was built in 1927 in the Ritchie Addition neighborhood to serve the black children in the neighborhood. It featured spacious classrooms, a kindergarten, space for manual arts and home economics, and a large auditorium/gymnasium. Today it is a national historic site.
The neighborhood surrounding Monroe remains much as it looked 70 years ago.
An earlier court case had resulted in the court-mandated desegregation of the junior and senior high schools in Topeka, but the elementary schools remained segregated. At the same time lawyers from a national organization, the NAACP, were looking for test cases across the nation to use to challenge the federal laws that legalized segregation. They found a strong, involved black community in Topeka, and five black families stepped forward to sue the Topeka Public School District to end segregation. A young student at Monroe, Linda Brown, became the face of the lawsuit as her father, Oliver Brown, became the lead plaintiff in lawsuit entitled “Brown vs. Board of Education.”
The complaint was first heard and denied at the US Courthouse in downtown Topeka in 1951 (now for sale if you’re looking for an investment opportunity!).
Thurgood Marshall, lead lawyer for the NAACP, argued the combination of five desegregation cases from around the nation under the title “Brown V. Board of Education” before the US Supreme Court and in 1954 Chief Justice Earl Warren read the verdict:
“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
Monroe Elementary was desegregated and operated as an elementary school until 1975. The building passed into private hands until 1991 when it was purchased by the Trust for Public Land. In 1992 President George H. Bush signed legislation establishing the Brown V. Board of Education National Historic Site. The first floor of the Monroe Elementary School is now a series of galleries combining artifacts and video to tell the story of segregation leading up to the Brown lawsuit.
Pictures of classrooms from black Monroe Elementary and white Randolph Elementary in 1949.
Kindergartens were not knew in Topeka. The first kindergarten for African American children was established in 1893 in Topeka.
Monroe had a large sunny kindergarten space.
Unfortunately, as with many sites documenting events since the dawn of film, photographs simply can’t relay the power of the visitor experience as much of the information is relayed via video. Monroe School is definitely a powerful stop for anyone interested! A bright spot in the neighborhood is this massive mural on an industrial building across the corner from Monroe Elementary.
Just northwest of Monroe Elementary, on the other side of I-70, the dome of the Kansas State Capitol Building dominates the sky.
The visitor’s entrance hall is on the basement level, framed by the large blocks of stone that make up the majority of the building.
The central rotunda rises five stories to the dome above.
On the first floor and those above twin staircases rise on either side.
Interestingly, the circular openings on each floor are not the same size, varying from floor to floor.
The legislative chambers for the Senate and House of Representatives face each other across the rotunda.
A view out a window to the east side looks out over the central city.
The heart of downtown is Kansas Street. Office buildings line the sides with a number of decorative arches spanning the street.
One of the highlights of a trip to Topeka actually takes place south of the city center in, of all places, the local Harley-Davidson dealership which occupies a 1936 building constructed for the county as a works’ project during the depression.
The dealership has been owned by the same family for three generations and over the years developed a reputation for it’s’ restoration of vintage Harley Davidson motorcycles. A collector of Evel Knievel paraphernalia was looking for someone to restore Knievel’s 1974 Mac truck and trailer and the dealership in Topeka accepted the challenge. The restoration of the truck became the genesis for the development of a museum devoted to Evel Knievel. The museum occupies the lower floor of the building, one enters from the lower parking lot.
Bobby Knievel (aka “Evel”) was born in 1938 and raised by his grandparents in Butte, Montana. In 1953 Bobby attended a “Joie Chitwood Thrill Show”, a show consisting of various “death-defying” automobile stunts. He was inspired and started doing stunts on his bicycle and subsequently on his motorcycle. In 1956 Bobby was in jail after crashing his motorcycle at the end of a high-speed police chase. While in the Butte jail a fellow prisoner named William Knofel was in an adjacent cell. Knofel was well known to the police as “Awful Knofel” (“awful rhyming with “Knofel”). The guard on duty commented that he had “Awful Knofel” and “Evil Knievel” in his custody that night. The nickname stuck, but Bobby changed the spelling to Evel so that he would not be considered “evil.” He returned to Butte after a stint in the army and had a progression of jobs: security business, creation of a semi-pro hockey team (the Butte Bombers), a guide for hunters and fishermen. All ended with Knievel involved with the law for one or another violations. Finally in 1962 he turned to motorcycle racing and opened a Honda motorcycle dealership in Moses Lake, Washington. The museum has a replica of Evel’s 1966 Honda CL 305 Scrambler, his first stunt bike that he used to jump over a box of rattlesnakes and a tethered mountain lion.
Knievel started his own stunt show and began to tour around the west. “Evel Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils” debuted at the National Date Festival in Indio, California where Evel performed wheelies, crashed through plywood walls, and jumped over two pick-up trucks.
He rose to national fame after a performance at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, using a 1967 Triumph motorcycle that appears to have disappeared. A replica is in the museum.
A succession of galleries document performances over the next couple of years.
The public’s interest eventually waned and the last jump of Evel Knievel’s was at a poorly attended event at Hollywood Speedway in Hollywood, Florida, in 1981. The center piece of the museum is the restored 1974 Mac truck and trailer that Evel used to travel on his tour.
The final section displays the “celebrity” of Evel Knievel and his reach into the American culture, even if it was for a brief period of time.
A highlight of a visit to the Evel Knievel Museum is a 4D Jump Experience. You climb on a stationary motorcycle, put on virtual reality goggles, and experience jumping over 16 police cars. The technology is amazing and it really feels like you are doing the jump.
The final gallery details one of the most famous Evel Knievel stunts, his failed attempt to jump over the Snake River Canyon. The parachute on his rocket opened prematurely and Evel crashed to the bottom of the canyon, all on live television. (I can remember watching it!)
As with most museums, you exit through the gift shop. What makes this one a bit unusual is that the gift shop includes an entire floor of Harley Davison motorcycles…
Another stop on the road filled with diverse, interesting experiences:
Next up: Uncle Frank
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