Downtown Topeka Historic Resources Survey

Rosin Preservation, LLC

From introduction: "The City of Topeka (City) contracted Rosin Preservation, LLC to conduct an intensive-level survey of historic resources along North and South Kansas Avenue in Topeka and North Topeka. Kansas Avenue has long been Topeka’s primary commercial thoroughfare. It was the heart of the original town site established in 1854, and remains the core of the city’s central business district. The survey area includes roughly twenty-four blocks flanking Kansas Avenue in Topeka, Kansas. Twenty blocks are south of the Kansas River; four blocks are north of the river (Figure 1). Historically, this street spanned the Kansas River, connecting the commercial areas on both sides of the river.1 The study area includes all of the resources on South Kansas Avenue between Crane Street and 10th Avenue. Also included are resources on numbered cross streets between SW Jackson Avenue and SE Quincy Avenue from 4th Street to 10th Avenue, as well as resources on the east and west sides of SW Jackson Avenue between SW 4th Street and SW 10th Avenue and the east and west sides of SE Quincy Avenue between SE 6th Street and SE 10th Avenue. The survey area in North Topeka includes all of the resources lining North Kansas Avenue between North Gordon and North Norris Streets. The survey examined a total of 221 buildings. While previous survey work addressed selected individual buildings along Kansas Avenue, usually in conjunction with an individual nomination to the National Register of Historic Places or as part of an informal survey project, such as the 1996 survey of North Topeka, the City now wishes to evaluate all resources within a defined survey boundary in order to generate a more comprehensive picture of commercial development patterns along Kansas Avenue and to identify resources that may be eligible for financial incentives for preservation, such as state and federal historic tax credits." Project funding was provided in part by a 2011 Historic Preservation Fund grant to the City of Topeka (project number KS-11-006) administered by the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office (grant number 20-11-31923) administered by the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Topeka, Kansas is a Certified Local Government.

Downtown Topeka Historic Resources Survey

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