The Manhattan chapter of the American Women's Club formed in 1909 and constructed its clubhouse in 1911. Women's clubs grew popular during the Progressive Era, focused on not only providing women with greater educational, professional and political opportunities, but also serving the community. The American Women's Club, a national organization, was created by E.G. Lewis and his publishing company. Members were required to sell subscriptions to his company and, when they met their quota, would receive a bungalow house in return. The company folded before the Manhattan clubhouse was finished, forcing the local organization to obtain more funds to finish the project.
The Kimble House is a two-story limestone structure that was built in 1911-12 for Francis Byron "Barney" Kimble and his wife, Mary Ann Kimble. The Kimble family proved highly influential in Manhattan. Barney's father, Samuel Kimble, moved to the Manhattan area in 1857 from Ohio to work as a carpenter and stonemason. Sam, Sr. built a limestone farmhouse for his family west of Manhattan. By the time he died in 1890, his farmstead had exceeded 2,200 acres. In 1894 Barney's brother, Judge Sam Kimble, Jr., built a limestone home he called "Kastle Kimble," and in that same year, Barney constructed a limestone home west of Manhattan known as "Kimble Cliff." The historic Kimble House enjoys a Queen Anne style with distinct Colonial influences; the Kimbles owned the property until the late 1940s.
The Wharton family built this home in 1897 using limestone from a nearby quarry for the structure's entire first floor. After moving to Manhattan from Pennsylvania in 1890, E.A. Wharton married a native of Manhattan. Ura Wharton had been given this land from her uncle, and the couple decided to build there house on the family plot. Shortly after the couple married in 1895, E.A. opened a successful dry goods store and he was was active in local politics. The home passed to Ura's sister, in 1941 and then was used by the Christian Science church for two years during the 1950s before transitioning back to a private residence, which remains its function today.
Finished in 1928, this historic home was built for Mattie M. Elliot, one of the founders of the Carnegie Library in Manhattan. Elliot served the library from 1903 to 1929, a period of growth for the city. Floyd O. Wolfenbarger, a prominent Manhattan architect who went on to become president of the Kansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, designed the home while completing his Bachelor's of Architecture degree at Kansas State University. The home utilizes a English Tudor Revival design, a style that grew popular during the late nineteenth century and rivaled the Colonial Revival and other ornate styles by the 1920s. The historic home served as a rectory for St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church for several decades in the late 20th century and once again serves as a single-family home.
This historic library opened in 1904 thanks in part to a matching grant from Andrew Carnegie and community funds. The library opened with a collection of 1,000 items and with Mary Cornelia Lee as the library's first director. She served nearly forty years, while the library building was constructed nearly fifty years after Manhattan established its first library association during Kansas' territorial period. That era of Kansas history was famous for violent struggles, something industrialist Andrew Carnegie knew well; his steel company used a variety of methods to pacify their workforce. An 1892 strike at one of Carnegie's mills culminated in hired "detectives" killing several striking workers. Later in life, Carnegie embraced the role of philanthropist, spending ninety percent of his fortune (more than $330 million in 1915 dollars) on community projects, including thousands of libraries. More than sixty of those Carnegie-funded libraries were erected in Kansas, including the Manhattan Carnegie Library building in 1904.
Construction of this six-story building began in 1925 and completed the following year. Building owner and leading Manhattan businessman Harry P. Wareham stated that it was his intention to create the city of Manhattan's first "skyscraper." While his building and hotel could not compete with the skyscrapers of the Big Apple, this steel-reinforced building "had no equal" in the city of Manhattan Kansas according to the local newspaper. The hotel included dining rooms and a lobby on the main floor and 150 hotel rooms on the second through fifth floors. The top floors housed what would today be known as "luxury apartments," including a private residence for the building's owner. Today, the building is home to Harry's Uptown restaurant on the first floor (named in honor of Harry P. Wareham) and apartments on the upper floors.
The Manhattan Community House opened in 1918 and served the community for a century before transitioning into a modern office and loft building. Its principal purpose when it opened involved catering to troops and their families during World War I. Troops training at nearby Camp Funston and Fort Riley stayed at the Community House and used it as a place of leisure, while families came there to check on the status and whereabouts of those who had already traveled overseas. During World War II, the USO used the Community House. After the war, the building transitioned into a community and recreation center, which remained its chief purpose until the modern renovation took place after 2019.
This historic Manhattan home was the birthplace of famed playwright, screenplay writer, author, and journalist, Damon Runyon in 1880. Runyon's short stories became the basis for the famed Broadway play, Guys and Dolls, along with sixteen Hollywood films that were adapted from his screenplays. Runyon's father not only built this home, but he also founded The Mercury newspaper which was published in Manhattan for more than a century. Damon's grandfather was among the town founders as he helped determine the layout of the original townsite during the Bleeding Kansas period before the Civil War.
The establishment of Kansas State Agricultural College (later Kansas State University) in 1863 and arrival of the Kansas Pacific Railroad into Manhattan in 1866 helped spur a rise in migration into the area. The Strasser House represents the start of increased residential construction during the 1870s, hence its stone masonry construction. Most of the home's early occupants came to Manhattan from Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, and Ohio including Phillipena J. Strasser, a widow, who had the house built in 1874 before she remarried and moved one year later.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
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This short walk through the heart of Manhattan begins at the headquarters of the city's women's club and several other historic Kansas homes before moving on to downtown historic landmarks such as the Carnegie Library and Wareham Hotel. Be sure to also look in Clio for landmarks and museums on the Kansas State campus and the city's historic train depot.
