College Hill Historic Resources Survey

Rosin Preservation, LLC

From introduction: "The City of Topeka (City) contracted with Rosin Preservation, LLC to conduct the first phase of an intensive-level survey of historic resources within the College Hill neighborhood. Originally developed by board members of nearby Washburn College, this roughly sixty-nine-acre area contains a cohesive residential neighborhood that emerged as one of the city’s first suburbs. The houses that line the east and west sides of College Avenue comprise the College Avenue Historic District (District) at the core of the College Hill neighborhood. The District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. Determining the possibility of expanding the boundaries of the District requires an understanding of the context of the entire neighborhood as well as an evaluation of extant resources. The City of Topeka Planning Department divided the College Hill neighborhood into four separate areas to be surveyed in phases. As the first phase of the project, Rosin Preservation surveyed Areas 1 and 2. Survey Area 1 occupies roughly fifty acres west of College Avenue and contains 153 primary resources (Figure 1). Survey Area 2 occupies roughly nineteen acres east of College Avenue and contains 67 primary resources (Figure 2). These rectangular survey areas contain resources typical of a residential neighborhood, primarily single-family residences. The majority of the primary resources, defined as single-family residences, multi-family apartment buildings, or commercial buildings, maintain their historic functions. Nearly seventy-five percent of the primary resources have auxiliary resources such as garages or outbuildings. The primary resources represent a range of construction dates, from 1893 to 2007. The majority were constructed between 1910 and 1929. They reflect the growth of the city, as families moved away from the commercial center and into less developed areas. They also reflect the growth of Washburn College as it developed houses on vacant land around its campus as an additional source of income." Project funding was provided in part by a 2014 Historic Preservation Fund grant to the City of Topeka (project number KS-14-004) administered by the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office (grant number P14AF00104) and 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.

College Hill Historic Resources Survey

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