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Soon-to-close bar has rich campus history

The Crossing used to be a soldier’s cafeteria, hippie hangout

By Mark Dent

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

A beer-pong table sat in the corner, unused Tuesday night at the Crossing. The dart board was left alone, too. Out back, two KU students and two of their friends sat on a leather couch drinking beers and smoking cigarettes. The only sign of life inside came from the two bartenders watching the Kansas State, Notre Dame basketball game on TV.

Soon, the bar will be emptier than it was early Tuesday night. The Crossing is scheduled to close forever Dec. 20, although management said there was a possibility it could remain open in the spring, and would likely be demolished soon after.

The look and name have changed throughout the years, but the building now known as the Crossing has been a part of Lawrence since the 1920s. From a cafeteria for soldiers in the 1930s and 40s to a hangout for hippies in the ‘60s and ‘70s to a laid-back, pre-game drinking establishment today, the Crossing is a major part of the University’s history.

A place for the soldiers

The earliest map on which a building is listed at the property of the Crossing comes from 1927. The name and use of the structure was unknown, but Zach Ingalls, a Lansing sophomore, works at the Watkins Museum at 1047 Massachusetts St., and has researched the history of the building, said it was used for commercial purposes.

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KANSAN FILE PHOTO

The Crossing prepares to close its doors later this month.

By the 1930s, its use and name were clear. The building was called the Rock Chalk Café, and its primary business was serving food.

“It was kind of like a cafeteria for students,” Ingalls said.

The Rock Chalk Café also catered to soldiers who lived in nearby military barracks shortly before and after World War II. Menus were specially designed to feed them. One menu from 1937 includes the caption “Troops Still on Garrison Ration” at the top. Then, it lists a pork and beans dinner made for 100 men.

The Rock Chalk Café was open most of the day and served delicacies such as the tomato and mayonnaise sandwich, 35-cent T-bone dinners, waffles and even 25-cent banana splits.

As the years went by, Rock Chalk Café transformed from a place for the soldiers to a place for those who would burn draft cards so they would never become soldiers.

Hippie Happenings

The year of 1970 brought more turmoil to the KU campus than any year had before or has since. Protests calling for black rights and the end of war in Vietnam led to shooting deaths, the burning of the Kansas Union and fire bombings. According to Chancellor Laurence Chalmers even gave students the option of finishing the spring semester early to join a political activity.

Gabriel Casner, a Kansas City, Kan., graduate student, said the crowds who incited those protests often hung out at The Rock Chalk Café and the original Gaslight Tavern, which was located where the Kansas Union parking garage stands today. Two of the biggest “hippie groups” were the Kaw Valley Hemp Pickers and the Lawrence Liberation Front. They ate, drank and smoked marijuana at the Rock Chalk Café.

According to the book “This is America? The Sixties in Lawrence, Kansas,” a large protest took place outside of the Rock Chalk Café in July of 1970 after Tiger Dowdell, a member of the Black Student Union, was shot and killed by police. Another KU student, Nick Rice, was shot and killed during the protest.

“That’s a period of time the University doesn’t look too kindly on,” Casner said. “It’s kind of a black eye.”

The Rock Chalk Café wasn’t just a hangout for hippies in the 60s and 70s. Other students went there to enjoy $1 pitchers, 25-cent draughts and free popcorn.

John Geer, a 1970 Kansas graduate, lived next door to The Crossing at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house (Hawk’s Pointe III is there now). After study hours every night, Geer said his fraternity brothers would run to Rock Chalk Café to drink a beer and order a cheeseburger or dump truck, a platter of fried ground beef, onions, hashbrowns and cheese mixed together.

Although Geer said his fraternity was usually the only Greek organization that ever joined the hippies at the Rock Chalk, the two groups blended together like the ingredients of the dump truck.

“There wasn’t ever any tension between the two groups,” Geer said. “You had the fraternity guys with the left-wingers, and everybody got along just fine.”

A Modern Era

According to the Oread Daily, an underground daily newspaper in Lawrence in the 70s,Kansas Attorney General Vern Miller ordered Rock Chalk Café to be closed in the mid-’70s because of all the protests associated with the bar. During the next few years, the building changed owners several times and continued to be a bar and restaurant. In the 1980s, it became Hawk’s Crossing and finally the Crossing as it’s known today.

The Crossing is best known for its Stop Day eve parties and as a place to drink, hang out and play beer pong before going to other bars. Paige Crosswhite, Louisburg sophomore, Mo Primdahl, Chicago freshman, and their two friends James Korgie and Taylor Thorup were the only four people there Tuesday night at about 8. They go to the Crossing to “pre-game” on weekends and because of its location.

“It’s available,” Crosswhite said. “You can easily walk to it.”

Thomas Fritzel, a Lawrence developer, recently purchased the Crossing and has planned to tear it down to build Oread Inn, a seven-story hotel. The proposal for Oread Inn still needs to be approved by the City Commission, but city commissioners expressed approval for the idea and wanted to study it more before making a decision.

If and when that happens, it will mark the end of a building that has been a part of Lawrence for more than 75 years. Hippies, soldiers and today’s students have all enjoyed the establishment, either as the Rock Chalk Café or the Crossing, and it will be missed.

“It just has the true college atmosphere,” Ingalls said. “It’s something college students would remember when they graduated. If you take that away, what are they going to reminisce about?”

— Edited by Luke Morris

Comments

Soon-to-close bar has rich campus history

I heard Tina and Ike Turner used to play at the Crossing when they came through Lawrence.

Soon-to-close bar has rich campus history

I'm sad to read about such a special place on campus is going to be torn down to put up a 7 story hotel. I'm not sure about why developers are wanting to put a hotel so close to campus. The Crossing is an icon for gameday football, relief that finals are over and a beer before noon. Here's to a place that we won't forget!!!

Soon-to-close bar has rich campus history

Is Compton behind all of this somehow??? On a different note, it's a true shame that portions of the existing structure will not be preserved. A newer, larger bar/restaurant could expand upon the site, while preserving the structure's historical value. It seems the new owner would want to maintain the "Crossing" brand and capitalize on many patrons versus being able to only serve a relative few in a hotel setting. It is necessary for that site to continue to provide a much needed, close to campus, relaxation point with limited parking.

Soon-to-close bar has rich campus history

I remember many great times at the Rock Chalk Cafe. I lived next door at the Pi Kappa Alpha house 1964-1967. My fraternity brothers and I would often go there for beer and the owners famous "Truck Stop" ...hash brown potatoes, ground beef, cheese and hot sauce. Nothing quite like it with an ice cold beer. As I recall, the cafe was off limits to pledges but can't really remember for sure...that was a few years ago. That must have been just before the hippies started hangning out there because I don't remember any through 1967.

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