Martin Cemetery – Stafford County- photo Kan. State Historical Society
Kansas Historical Society
TOPEKA — At its regular quarterly meeting held at the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka on Saturday, Aug. 8, the Historic Sites Board of Review voted to forward seven nominations to the office of the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places in Washington to be evaluated by its professional staff. If staff members concur with the board’s findings, the properties will be included in the National Register.
The National Register of Historic Places is the country’s official list of historically significant properties.
Among the nominees is
Other nominees were: Martin Cemetery – US-50 Highway, St. John vicinity, Stafford County
The Martin Cemetery is nominated for its local significance in the areas of Exploration/Settlement and African American Ethnic Heritage. This small half-acre burial ground south of St. John in Ohio Township holds the remains of members of the Joseph Martin family. It is significant as the only known vestige of a unique group of African American settlers from Illinois. Their houses of worship are gone, and their descendants have moved away. The cemetery, however, remains as a reflection of their contributions to the history of Stafford County. The cemetery includes the graves of approximately 20 people, though only a few are marked.
Francis Byron (Barney) Kimble House – 720 Poyntz Avenue, Manhattan, Riley County
The nominated property was home to Barney Kimble and his wife, Mary Ann, from 1912 until Barney’s death in 1920. It is a two-story limestone, Queen Anne Free Classic style house with Colonial Revival influences. The form and layout also relate to the American Foursquare with a large hipped roof over the core of the house and smaller intersecting gables on all four sides. The nomination includes the main house and two limestone outbuildings (a stable and a barn), a grouping rarely found within the Manhattan city limits, particularly in an area that has seen growth and change throughout the 20th century. The Kimble House is nominated as part of the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century Residential Resources of Manhattan multiple property nomination for its local significance in the area of architecture as a vernacular interpretation of the later Queen Anne Free Classic style.
Papes Barn, 890 Ellis Avenue, rural Ellis.
The Papes Barn, constructed circa 1910, is nominated for its local significance in the area of agriculture as it relates to Ellis County’s early agricultural history and the family farm economy of the early 1900s.
The limestone barn also is nominated for its architectural significance as a vernacular gambrel-roof barn, which was specifically designed for hay storage essential to raising livestock. Czech immigrants Ignaz & Josephine Papes were part of a six-family settlement south of the town of Ellis in Smoky Hill Township.
Their barn is one of two surviving resources associated with early Czech settlement in the township. It is nominated as part of the Historic Agriculture-Related Resources of Kansas multiple property nomination.
Great Bend AAF Hangar – 9047 N 6th Street, Great Bend, Barton County
The Great Bend Army Air Field (AAF) hangar is directly associated with the federal government’s wartime aviation operations from 1939 to 1945. Constructed in 1942-1943, the concrete, wood, and metal squadron hangar was designed by the Army Corps of Engineers for the maintenance and modification of aircraft as part of a national defense strategy that placed air fields in south central and southwest Kansas. The well-preserved hangar is the oldest remaining resource from Great Bend’s World War II air field and is therefore nominated as part of the World War II-Era Aviation-Related Facilities of Kansas multiple property nomination for its statewide military significance.
Great Bend AAF Norden Bombsight Storage Vaults – 9047 N 6th Street, Great Bend, Barton County
The Great Bend Army Air Field Norden Bombsight Storage Vaults, built in 1943, are utilitarian concrete structures designed by the Army Corps of Engineers for the storage and issue of the Norden Bombsights during World War II. These vaults were constructed as part of a national defense strategy that placed air fields in south central and southwest Kansas. The structures are nominated as part of the World War II-Era Aviation-Related Facilities of Kansas multiple property nomination for its statewide military significance.
Fulton High School and Grade School – 408 W. Osage Street, Fulton, Bourbon County
The Fulton High School and Grade School is comprised of three buildings. Designed by Wichita architect Fred G. McCune, the 1917 Progressive Era school building is a two-story brick example of a Town Graded School, which was built during a period of standardization in the education system. In 1936 a gymnasium/auditorium was attached to the north side of the brick school. This gymnasium, constructed as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, contains salvaged limestone from the demolition of an 1882 school building at the same location. The third building at the site is a free-standing, one-story cafeteria constructed in 1964. The property functioned as a combined high school and grade school until 1966 when the high school consolidated with Fort Scott; the elementary school closed in 1978. The property is nominated as part of the Historic Public Schools of Kansas and New Deal-era Resources of Kansas multiple property nominations for its local significance in the areas of architecture and education.
Evangelical Lutheran School – 308 N. Indiana Street, Sylvan Grove, Lincoln County
The Evangelical Lutheran School is located on the east edge of Sylvan Grove, directly north of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The two-and-a-half-story building reflects the Prairie School style of architecture and is constructed of native limestone, a common building material in this area during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The school is associated with the early German Lutheran immigrants who settled in this area, following the efforts of Christ Kruse, a railroad man from Chicago known as a community builder and founder of Lutheran churches. The 1913 school, designed by Salina architect C.A Smith, replaced an earlier building at the same location. The parochial school operated every year except one between 1913 and 1981. At the start of the 1918-1919 school year, Lincoln County’s Council of Defense closed the Evangelical Lutheran School due to anti-German hysteria during World War I. The school is nominated for its local significance in the areas of architecture and social history.