Old Cowtown Museum

Keith Wondra, Barb Myers

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781467117432
• eBook ISBN: 9781439657768
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Old Cowtown Museum originally started as a shrine to the pioneers and founders of Wichita. It later reinvented itself according to Hollywood's version of the Old West. After the peak of Western films, the museum once again updated its theme to reflect Wichita's agricultural history. In recent years, Old Cowtown Museum has become a nationally recognized and accredited living history museum. A product of 1950s Old West nostalgia, it has become one of the most beloved of all of Wichita's museums and institutions. Inside this book is the story of how Old Cowtown Museum became the regional and cultural attraction it is today, along with images of the museum throughout its 66-year history, including people, events, and stories, many of which have never been published before.

One

FOUNDATION

Dick Long was editor of the Wichita Eagle morning edition in the 1940s and the primary force behind the formation of Historic Wichita, Inc. in 1950. The nonprofit was responsible for the purchase, remodeling, reconstruction, and upkeep of the buildings “deemed to have historic merit” to the city’s history. Long was the president of Historic Wichita, Inc. from 1950 to 1961. (Courtesy Old Cowtown Museum and the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum.)

Historical articles written by Dick Long in the 1940s led to a bid by Victor Murdock to buy the first permanent church building, located at 605 North Main Street. This was the First Presbyterian Church, originally built in 1870. It had been sold to the Catholic Church in 1875 and was purchased in 1886 by Millie and Wesley Hodge. By World War II, the building was utilized as a boardinghouse, and Millie Hodge declined Murdock’s offer. However, in 1948, Dick Long heard that the building had been condemned, and he was able to purchase it and the building next door for $400 in 1952. (Above, courtesy Wichita Eagle; below, courtesy Keith Wondra)

When the boardinghouse, formerly known as the First Presbyterian Church, was purchased for $400 by Dick Long in 1945, the building next to it was given to him as well. Until recently, it was thought that this was the church’s parsonage. In fact, it was the home of Wesley and Millie Hodge, one of the earliest African American families in Wichita, who arrived in 1876. Millie, a member of Calvary Baptist Church, owned and operated the boardinghouse until her death in 1935. It was located at 607 North Main Street before it became one of the four founding buildings of Old Cowtown Museum, along with the First Presbyterian Church, jail, and the Munger House. (Above, courtesy Wichita Eagle; below, courtesy Keith Wondra.)

Wichita’s first jail, or calaboose, was built at Second and Market Streets in 1871 and moved to Twelfth and Main Streets in 1874. The Wichita School District sold the building, which was being used for storage, to Historic Wichita, Inc. for $1, so that a new playground could be built at that location. The only renovations needed to the jail were new locks, which were donated by Fred J. Cooley, and keys, donated by Wichita Key, Lock and Safe Company. The jail was named the Wyatt Earp Memorial Jail in 1955 as part of the opening ceremony of Cow Town, with George Earp, first cousin of Wyatt Earp, in attendance. In reality, Wyatt Earp was hired by the city after the jail had already become a storage shed. (Above, courtesy Wichita Eagle; below, courtesy Keith Wondra.)

The Munger House, the first permanent structure built in Wichita, was erected by Darius S. Munger in 1869. Located at Ninth Street and Waco Avenue, it was used as the first post office, hotel and meeting place. W.C. Woodman bought the home from Munger in 1874 and renovated it into what he named Lakeside Manor. Dr. Dalton Fuller bought the renovated house in the 1920s and moved it to Back Bay Boulevard. The building was acquired by the Eunice Sterling Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1944. The chapter donated it as shown above to Historic Wichita in 1952. It is the only building at Cowtown that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. (Above, courtesy Wichita Eagle; below, courtesy Keith Wondra.)

In 1951, Historic Wichita, Inc. leased 23 acres of land from the Wichita Water Company. As seen this c. 1951 aerial view, the land was north of the Big Arkansas River and south of the Wichita Water Company. Sim Park is in the upper left, with the land Old Cowtown Museum is on surrounded by the black arrows. (Courtesy Wichita Eagle.)

In the 1930s, the Wichita Water Company built six well houses north of the Arkansas River to be used as emergency wells. When Historic Wichita, Inc. leased the land, it inherited the well houses. Over the years, they were torn down, with only this one remaining. (Courtesy Keith Wondra.)

The replica of St. John’s Episcopal Church (seen above), also known as Wichita’s first school, was constructed in 1953 and sponsored by McCormick Armstrong. The church originally met in the Munger House with Rev. John Rice Hilton, until the original church was built from oak logs in 1870. The two-story building at 712 North Market, constructed in 1893, was also moved to Cowtown in 1953. The move was sponsored by Steffen’s Dairy, with the intent to make the first floor a drugstore and the second floor a replica of a land office. However, a windstorm in 1953 knocked the building down (seen below), so it became the one-story Bon-Ton Drug Store.

After the windstorm blew down the second story of the drugstore, plans were modified due to insurance only covering one story and not the damaged second story. The building included one of the first soda fountains in Kansas, which came from Junction City. The piece of the second story was used to erect the building that would become the Barber Shop (now the Land Office) on the left. In 1996, the structure was moved west of the general store, and it became the McGinn’s Feed and Seed. (Above, courtesy Treva Mathur; below, courtesy Keith Wondra.)

The Children’s Corner Creative Emporium was built on-site in 1954 as home to the Cow Town Fire Station No. 1, which housed the museum’s volunteer fire department. It was the second building erecte...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Foundation
• 2. Living History
• 3. Events and Groups
• 4. Myth and Reality
• 5. Decline and Resurgence
• Bibliography