Making sure these stones aren’t thrown away

By Amy Geiszler-Jones

George Platt, associate professor emeritus of public administration, is trying to make sure what’s left of the university’s first building, which burned in 1929, isn’t destroyed or forgotten.

Whenever he can, he shares with alumni, faculty and Wichita-area folks the story of Fairmount Hall’s beginning in 1887, its destruction in 1929, what happened to the building’s stones back in 1932 and what may happen to them now, when WSU’s parking plan moves forward as planned.

The stones of Fairmount Hall were used to build a bridge at WSU’s predecessor, the Municipal University of Wichita, as part of the university’s contribution to the nation’s celebration of George Washington’s bicentennial in 1932. While the classes of 1931 and ’32 had planned to pay for the bridge’s construction, it was the city-owned university that footed the bill.

“The bridge was designed by Professor Clayton Staples, who was a very popular regional artist with a certain national reputation,” said Platt, who has a strong passion for WSU history. Staples also was the art department director.

“He designed the bridge going back to the Romanesque style of the building. I think he is to be tremendously credited with preserving the concept of the building.”

The George Washington Bicentennial Memorial Bridge, which now links Alumni Drive to the parking lot south of Levitt Arena, was once part of a picturesque part of the campus. It was built over an intermittent stream that led to a lake large enough to accommodate row boats. When Levitt Arena was built in the mid-1950s, the lake was filled in to make way for parking, and the stream banks were filled, leaving little of the bridge in view, said Platt, who served as the university’s planner from 1969-87.

Under the current parking plan, the bridge would be removed to make way for 60-70 new parking spaces. Because Alumni Drive would be rerouted, the bridge would no longer link to a road, Vice President for Administration and Finance Roger Lowe pointed out. Lowe and his staff have worked extensively on developing the parking plan.

“We have had discussions with President Beggs on it and as of now there has been no firm decision as to what’s going to be done with it,” Lowe said.

“If it is decided that the bridge is going to be moved and that the component parts would be retained and stored, perhaps a committee could be established to think about what might be appropriate uses for the remaining component parts. But that decision has not been finalized yet.

“We as of now don’t have the engineers contracted to do the engineering studies so it will be some period of time before we finalize the plan, and they may themselves have some ideas about it,” said Lowe.

WSU’s historic preservation committee and the George Washington chapter of the Kansas State Society Sons of the American Revolution have recommended preserving the bridge or its component parts in its original setting or elsewhere on campus.

Both groups indicated in letters to administrators that the golf course would be an acceptable site. Platt, a member of the historic preservation committee, also is suggesting a site near Wilner Auditorium, which would bring the stones closer to the original site of Fairmount Hall.

“There are a couple of things that will be required if you’re talking about moving it,” he said. “One is that to do that you begin with a commitment to properly dismantling it and restoring it in one operation. It’s not acceptable to just put the stones in storage. The history of historic preservation has demonstrated that far too often putting something in storage is forgetting it.” Possible sites would need to be selected and artistic renderings of the bridge in those settings would need to be drawn.

Platt also recommends public hearings because WSU is a public facility and experts such as preservationists, historians, architects and artists could be involved.

George Platt, who has a strong passion for WSU history, wants to make sure the bridge near Levitt Arena, built with stones from the university’s first building, isn’t lost forever when WSU’s parking plan moves forward.