Hobbs Park Memorial Press Coverage

1860’s home to be moved to Hobbs Park
		January 7, 1998, Lawrence Journal World ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS: Tuesday night, Lawrence city commissioners endorsed plans to relocate an 1860’s-era home from 909 Pennsylvania to a site in Hobbs Park, where it will be renovated into a monument to Lawrence’s early history. The Hobbs Park Memorial Committee asked for and received a four month extension on its $130,000 plan to transform a home once targeted for demolition into a center for education at the park. “It’s really an ideal location for this type of structure,” said Marty Kennedy, who drives past the park and home at least once a day. “It is a very unique structure, and it represents East Lawrence quite well.” Commissioners want the committee to settle several issues such as: financing commitments, maintenance responsibilities and long-term use provisions. Until then, commissioners were willing to take possession of the house from owner Val Romero and agreed to plans for moving the home to the south side of a parking lot at Hobbs Park, 10th and Delaware.

Lawrence activist battles to preserve historic home

June 8, 1997, Topeka Capital-Journa
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS: LAWRENCE -- Lawrence preservation activist Mark Kaplan has his own theory about the importance of Douglas County to the history of the Civil War. "The Civil War started in eastern Kansas," Kaplan said last week, "and the whole of American history leading up to the war plays out here." Although some historians might argue with Kaplan's interpretation, the theory explains why the Lawrence filmmaker maintains an intense interest in preserving sites in Lawrence that relate to the city's Civil War period. To bolster his position, Kaplan points to the destruction of Lawrence by pro-slavery guerrillas as early as 1856 -- nearly five years before the war's first official shots were fired at Fort Sumter, S.C. In Douglas County, the armed conflict over the slavery question continued into 1863, culminating in Confederate bandit William C. Quantrill's August raid on Lawrence, a bloody event that left 150 mostly unarmed citizens dead. "People talk about the bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City in 1995 as the worst act of civilian violence in American history," Kaplan said. "But Quantrill's attack on Lawrence actually represents the worst civilian massacre in United States history." Kaplan recently joined forces with fellow Lawrence resident Jim McCrary in an effort to save a decaying stone residence at 909 Pennsylvania on the city's east side. The old structure might actually pre-date Quantrill's attack on Lawrence, McCrary says. "Some people say the house is falling apart, and we say, "Yes it is, and it should be treated as such,' " McCrary said. "Here in Lawrence, all the emphasis on preservation seems to be in other parts of the city and not in the working-class areas of east Lawrence." The structure was included on this year's list of the 10 most-endangered historic places in the state, released recently by the Kansas Preservation Alliance. McCrary and Kaplan would like to see the structure relocated to nearby Hobbs Park as a local memorial to the Civil War at a potential cost of about $200,000, McCrary estimated. The two men have persuaded the property owner to hold off on demolishing the structure, at least for the next two weeks, McCrary said. "If this were Virginia or Pennsylvania, or some place like that, these Civil War sites would be visited by hundreds of thousands of people," McCrary said. "But out here, there seems to be less overall historic awareness. The "George Washington-slept-here' mentality on the East Coast isn't the same here." The 909 Pennsylvania structure turned up in the No. 10 spot on the list of threatened historic sites. Topeka's Dillon House, located on the grounds of First Presbyterian Church in the 800 block of S.W. Harrison, was listed in seventh position. Church pastor Neil Weatherhogg said last week a church facilities committee would consider a possible plan to refurbish the 1913-vintage structure in the next few months.