Leoti, Kansas Municipal Auditorium and City Hall; Museum of the Great Plains

This structure was built in the late 1930s and early 1940s to serve as Leoti's second city hall and a space for community events. The building was a product of Great Depression-era collaboration with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, although it took several years for city council members to agree on logistics and for construction to be completed. The building, constructed with locally sourced stone, became a vital community hub until 1965. During those years, it hosted holiday parties, dances, and performances, as well as more somber events such as military funerals for local soldiers who lost their lives in wartime. Following some renovation in the 1990s, the Municipal Auditorium has served as the home of the Museum of the Great Plains and the Wichita County Genealogical Society.

Many of the counties in Western Kansas were settled for farming, and Wichita County was no exception. The land here was very flat and fertile, leading homesteaders from Garden City to settle here in 1885 and many others to follow suit. Although the town never became as big as the founders had hoped, it grew steadily, soon becoming an agricultural community with amenities such as several banks, stores, attorney's offices, real estate firms, and hotels. Leoti was defined in its early history by its hard-working citizens who prided themselves on raising their crops despite storms, drought, insects, wind, and fluctuating agricultural conditions.

The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression posed severe hardships for the people of Wichita County. This led area workers to request assistance from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, which was founded with the dual purpose of helping struggling communities while providing work for the millions of people who lost their jobs thanks to the economic crash. Wichita County's first collaboration with the WPA was in October of 1935, with plans for the "Construction of Reservoirs County Wide." In November of the same year, plans were drawn for the second project, the Leoti Municipal Auditorium and City Hall. The city council took some time to agree on specifics, but in 1938, work began on the new structure.

Tearing down the older, smaller city hall began in March 1939, and construction on the new hall followed. Stone for the building was locally sourced, coming from the Frank Rody Quarry in south Logan County. Front-page stories in the Leoti Standard newspaper kept locals updated each week on the progress of the new building. The basement was the first piece finished, and when the main story was completed in 1942, a huge crowd attended in celebration.

Municipal Auditorium housed community gatherings until 1965, when events moved to a new location near the fairgrounds. The American Legion held its meetings in the basement, and the main story housed events such as Christmas parties, dances, band performances, and even military funerals for those who lost their lives during World War II and the Vietnam War. Once events moved to a new location, the fire department operated in the building until 1979, when it moved to a new building. Finally, the city hall moved to a larger building with more office space in 1990. Today, the Wichita County Historical Society leases and maintains the old Municipal Auditorium and City Hall. After some restoration, the building began to house the Museum of the Great Plains and the Wichita County Genealogical Society.

Walk, Karen. Municipal Auditorium & City Hall - National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Kansas State Historical Society. Accessed December 2nd, 2023. https://www.kshs.org/resource/national_register/nominationsNRDB/KS_WichitaCounty_MunicipalAuditoriumandCityHall_Listed030719.pdf.