Shawnee Indian Mission
Fairway
The Shawnee Indian Mission school opened in October 1839 in what is now Fairway, and Native American children from many tribes were sent there to learn academics, agriculture and manual arts. At its height, the mission boasted 2,000 acres, 16 buildings and nearly 200 enrolled Native American students.
Today, three historic brick buildings remain on the 12-acre site: the East, West and North buildings.
“The East and North buildings housed the Native American children that came to school here,” site director Jennifer Laughlin said. “It was essentially a boarding school; they had classes here as well as resided here.”
The North Building houses exhibits that tell the story of emigrant Indians in Kansas and has a conference room that can seat up to 20 people. The East Building, which recently became available for event rentals, houses the mission’s visitor center, store and exhibit space. Galleries can be reserved for receptions for up to 100 people when the site isn’t open to the public, either after-hours Wednesday through Saturday or Sunday through Tuesday. Among the exhibits, visitors can see the original school bell from 1839 as well as “a beautiful walking cane” carved by the 19th-century Shawnee Chief Charles Bluejacket.
The mission also has a large outdoor lawn space for events.
Wellington Memorial Auditorium
Wellington
In December 1918, Wellington resident and attorney Ed Hackney launched efforts to construct a “building that will be of service to the people.” Three years later, construction began on what was then known as Liberty Hall. The civic auditorium and gymnasium opened in 1922 in the Kansas town just 35 miles south of Wichita.
Wellington Memorial Auditorium, as it’s known today, still serves the community as the town’s largest event venue and “the go-to place,” said Annarose White, facility director and director of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce/Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“It’s been the town’s community gathering place for years and years.”
The main hall has a stage and a concrete floor that is larger than a basketball court. The hall is partially ringed by fixed theater seating, including seats in a second-level balcony. The open floor area makes it flexible for trade shows, fundraising banquets and awards ceremonies, and the hall can hold about 1,300 people. The 600-square-foot Veterans Room is also available for smaller events.
The city, which owns the auditorium, recently invested about $500,000 into ADA-accessibility upgrades and renovations, and the adjacent Heritage Park, which is also city owned, has an outdoor stage and can be reserved for events.
www.wellingtonkschamber.com/memorial-auditorium
McPherson Opera House
McPherson
The McPherson Opera House was destined for a date with a bulldozer and would have become a parking lot were it not for the efforts of dedicated volunteers in the 14,000-person town of McPherson.
The three-story, 900-seat theater opened in 1889 to a full house. A 1913 remodel added a Western-themed mural over the stage. A late-1920’s renovation removed the second balcony and reopened the opera house as a movie theater.
When the last tenant moved out of the building in 1983, it sat vacant until it was nearly bulldozed to make way for a parking lot. But in 1986, volunteers launched efforts to save it from demolition, and over the next two decades, the McPherson Opera House Company raised money and restored the theater in stages, completing the work in 2010. The restoration rebuilt the auditorium’s second balcony and upgraded the seating to modern standards, so it now seats 488.
In addition to reserving the auditorium, groups can also rent the theater’s 1,350-square-foot ballroom, which has a prep kitchen, and two 50-person community rooms on the lower level. Two 30-person-capacity rooms and the lobby in the Mary Anderson Arts Center work well for meetings, lunches, dinners and receptions before a show.
