Baldwin City and Baker University Walking Tour

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Baldwin City's Palmyra Masonic Lodge building is one of the most distinctive structures on High Street and was the second building constructed for the fraternal organization. Chartered in 1859, the Masons of Baldwin City originally met in the Castle Hall building at Baker University in their early years. After a wood-frame structure built for the lodge in the late 1860s was destroyed in an 1891 fire, this structure was completed in 1894. The first floor was designed to hold commercial and retail space while the second floor served as the lodge's headquarters. The building was modified to industrial uses in the 1940s. It now holds an insurance agency and a cooperative education agency. The second floor held the lodge hall (south end) and dining room (north end) and was later used for meetings of the American Legion who owned the building from 1919 to the mid-1940s. The second story now contains Palmyra Lofts after the building's 2014 renovation converted the building to apartments.

2. Old Castle Hall, Baker University

Old Castle Hall became the first building on the campus of Baker University in 1858. Old Castle was used for classes until 1871 and later served as a mill and then a dormitory. The building was restored in the 1950s, added to the National Register in 1971, and today serves as a museum. The museum interprets the history of Baker University and the surrounding town and vicinity. Next to the building is a replica of a log cabin, the Kibbee Cabin. It represents the meeting of Methodist ministers where founding of the college was discussed; the meeting was in what was called then the town of Palmyra (later renamed Baldwin City). On the opposite side of Old Castle Hall stands the former general store and post office building of Palmyra. The wood frame building was moved here in the 1970s to preserve it. Blood's Grocery served as a stop on the Santa Fe Trail in the mid-nineteenth century.

3. Baldwin City School Gymnasium and Auditorium

This gymnasium and auditorium was an addition to the Baldwin City School funded by a 1942 Works Progress Administration project designed to provide employment during the Great Depression. The school itself was constructed in 1922 and the new gymnasium and auditorium cost $72,000 to build and features the Streamlined/ Art Moderne style of architecture. Minor changes were made in the late 1980s. The main entrance faces south toward Chapel Street and the north edge of the Baker University campus. The Old Baldwin School Gymnasium and Auditorium was listed in the National Register in 2015 as part of the multiple property nominations of Historic Public Schools of Kansas and New-Deal era Resources of Kansas, along with the associated neighboring former high school building which is now home to the Schoolhouse Lofts apartments.

4. Parmenter Hall, Baker University

Parmenter Hall's distinctive tower above its mansard roof makes this Baker University building easy to spot from Dearborn Street, tucked behind a modern campus building. Also known as Parmenter Memorial Hall, the building was constructed from 1865 to 1871. The building's claim to fame is that President Abraham Lincoln donated $100 toward its construction; this is supposedly the only such donation Lincoln made. On display on the second floor is the Baldwin State Bank ledger from President Lincoln's donation toward the construction of the building. Parmenter Hall was listed in the National Register in 1977. The second floor is now the campus art gallery.

5. Case Library, Baker University

Case Library is a native limestone structure built from 1904 to 1907 near the southwestern corner of the Baker University campus, facing Eighth Street. The building was designed by a professional architect from Vincennes, Indiana; the plans were altered by a Baker professor before construction. The two-story, semi-rectangular neoclassical building's hipped roof is hidden by a parapet wall. The building's central three-bay pedimented pavilion projects from the nine-bay main façade. Lighter-colored limestone is used for the water course, belt courses, the pavilion's base, and part of the entablature. While the outside of the building retains a high degree of architectural integrity, the interior basement and two floors have had many alterations, including a major renovation in 1969.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Baldwin City and Baker University Walking Tour

Created by Clio Admin on June 21st 2020, 4:38:18 pm.

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This short walk around downtown Baldwin City and Baker University includes structures such as Old Castle Hall which was built in the Territorial Era century for Kansas' oldest continually-operating institution of higher education. the tour includes several buildings related to the history of Baldwin City in addition to Baker University historic landmarks. Be sure to also visit the town's historic train station to the west of this tour and Black Jack Battlefield to the east. The Battle of Black Jack was one of the earliest major episodes of violence in the era known as Bleeding Kansas as John Brown and his Free State militia fought a pitched battle against pro-slavery forces as both sought to shape the future of Kansas and the nation.

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Baldwin City and Baker University Walking Tour

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