KUlture: The city of Lawrence

By Aly Van Dyke

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Lawrence has a history of contradictions. The city prides itself on tradition, yet was founded on revolution. New Englanders established the city on the ideas of liberty, only to face injustice in the hands of its neighbors to the east. And today, outsiders often stereotype the city as flat and boring, though one walk up Mt. Oread could quiet both claims.

Along with its history of contradictions, Lawrence has a history of progress despite setbacks, of determination, of resilience—traditions that continue to move the city forward today.

“Lawrence very much takes a lot of its identity from what happened in its past,” said Jennifer Weber, Civil War historian and assistant professor. “Here’s a town that was sacked more than once that insisted on coming back, undaunted, to stand up against pro-slavery forces.”

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Photo by Matt Bristow

The Round Corner Drug Store, located on the corner of Eighth and Massachusetts street, is the oldest drug store in Kansas. Originally located at 634 Massachusetts St., the building was burned down during Quantrill’s raid in 1863. Throughout its history, the business has changed ownership only three times.

On an early August evening in 1854, 113 years before Fraser Hall’s seven stories towered over Lawrence, the city was only a camp of 25 tents atop Mt. Oread.

The settlers, New England Emigrant Society, brainstormed Yankeetown, Excelsior and a few other names for the city before landing on Lawrence, after the expedition’s sponsor, Amos Adams Lawrence, according to early Lawrence historian Elfriede Fischer Rowe’s book “Wonderful Old Lawrence.”

After the naming of the city, Lawrence rarely reached a decision peaceably for the next decade. The violence that plagued the city’s streets was a product of pre-Civil War tensions, leading up to the outbreak of the American Civil War and the devastating Lawrence Massacre of 1863.

In the four-day raid led by Missourian William Quantrill, Lawrence lost about 200 residents and had to rebuild from the ground up once again. In fact, Lawrence’s motto, “From Ashes to Immortality,” became a testament to the resilience and fortitude of those early pioneers, as are the remaining homes, buildings and landmarks scattered throughout the city. Krista Gampper, Iola senior, said the buildings seen around campus and the city have an importance some tend to overlook.

“The present is really connected to the past,” Gampper said. “We’re where we are today because of what happened then. Learning about it reminds us where things started so we can learn from our history.”

With five buildings on the National Register of Historic Places- Bailey, Dyche, Green, Spooner and Strong halls – the University campus offers some insight into the city’s past. But Lawrence’s vibrant history is hardly contained in solely in the University.

One of Lawrence’s first streets, Massachusetts, still showcases many of the buildings from the city’s reconstruction after the Civil War. According to Lawrence Community Connections, not all of the shops sell the same goods they did in years past.

Strum guitars in Mass Street Music, but remember that more than a century earlier, Lawrence residents would walk to the same location to buy candy from Vick’s Place.

Rummage through books in The Dusty Bookshelf, but realize that at the turn of the 20th century, audiences gathered there from across the West to view movies in the region’s first movie theater, Nickel Theatre.

Cure your ailments with the medicines at Round Corner Drug, but appreciate that the first Lawrence residents could do the very same thing in 1855. Today, this pharmacy stands as the oldest drugstore in the entire state.

Lawrence has 46 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And while these buildings stand to remind residents of the city’s history, local historian Katie Armitage said Lawrence has retained more than the buildings of its past.

“From the very beginning, Lawrence has had a young population,” she said. “And from the time of the early settlement, people here have always been very engaged in the issues of their time.”

The circumstances have changed from Lawrence’s rough beginning, but that doesn’t mean Lawrencians have forgotten the city’s struggles. Today’s residents and students continue to hold their heads high, honored to walk the streets of a city that stood for justice amid persecution, for courage during destruction.

— — Edited by Melissa Johnson

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