Survey Report Tennessee Town Topeka, Kansas: Intensive Phase II Survey - 2020

Keenoy Preservation; City of Topeka

This report summarizes the results of an intensive architectural survey of properties in a portion of the Tennessee Town neighborhood of Topeka, KS. This survey is Phase II following a previous survey of another portion of this neighborhood. The survey report covers methodology, results of the field survey, and provides recommendations to the community including possible nomination of a downtown National Register historic district. The report also provides maps of surveyed properties and a bibliography. Inventory records are available at www.kshs.org/khri. From the Introduction: "In 2019, the City of Topeka issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to conduct a Phase II Intensive Survey of the Tennessee Town neighborhood (Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas), situated approximately one mile west of downtown Topeka (Figure 1). Tennessee Town’s origins date to 1879 when Exodusters – many from Tennessee – established a community on the City’s western edge that soon thereafter became known as Tennessee Town. The Phase II survey area reflects the southern half of Tennessee Town as described below. The Phase I survey, which addresses the northern half of the neighborhood, was completed in 2019. This document specifically addresses the Phase II survey, completed in 2020. The Tennessee Town Phase II survey area is bounded on the north by SW Munson Avenue, on the east by SW Clay Street, on the south by SW Huntoon Street and on the west by SW Washburn Avenue (Figure 2). Fieldwork completed in 2019 documented 115 properties within the study area. Two properties in the Phase II survey area are documented as constructed during the nineteenth-century. The neighborhood’s heaviest era of development (in relation to properties at least 50 years of age) occurred during the 1920s. While most properties are residential, the neighborhood also supports three commercial buildings, an electrical substation, a (former) public school building, four churches, a park, one clinic and 17 vacant lots. Appendix A provides a complete list of the inventoried buildings, architectural styles and proposed eligibility determinations. One property, Shiloh Baptist Church at 1201 SW Buchanan Street, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP, 2018). Four properties within the survey area are recommended as potentially eligible for the NRHP. These include a building currently used as a residence that originally served as social hall and briefly a kindergarten (Jordan/Union Hall) at 1177 SW Lincoln Street; Lane Chapel at 1200 SW Lane Street; an early twentieth-century commercial complex at 1314-1318 SW Huntoon Street and Buchanan School at 1195 SW Buchanan Street. This latter resource, Buchanan School, was identified by the Kansas State Historical Society/Historic Preservation Office (KS-SHPO) as eligible for the NRHP in 2007. The survey area does not support a potential NRHP-eligible district. The survey project was funded by a Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) grant received by the City of Topeka from the KS-SHPO) and the National Park Service (NPS). The project was awarded to and completed by Keenoy Preservation (Ruth Keenoy and Terri Foley) of St. Louis, Missouri. The purpose of the survey was to document properties in the Tennessee Town neighborhood that appear potentially eligible for the NRHP and to determine whether the neighborhood may support a historic district. This document provides an historical overview and contextual discussion about the neighborhood’s development and growth, as well as an architectural analysis of properties within the survey area. Also discussed within this document are NRHP recommendations and suggestions for future preservation activities based on the Phase II survey report findings." Table of Contents: Figures and Tables Introduction Methodology Historical Overview of Tennessee Town Neighborhood Architectural Analysis Survey Results and Recommendations Bibliography Appendix A: Table of Surveyed Properties Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the Kansas State Historical Society, administered by the State, Tribal, Local Plans and Grants division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (grant number P19AF00217).

Survey Report Tennessee Town Topeka, Kansas: Intensive Phase II Survey - 2020

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