By Brian Jewell

In many states, Lawrence and Leavenworth would be considered bedroom communities, mere suburbs of ever-expanding Kansas City, situated just a few miles to the other side of the Missouri border.

In Kansas, however, this is not the case. Though they enjoy proximity to one of the Midwest’s most thriving large cities, Lawrence and Leavenworth exude a sense of individuality and pride all their own.

Groups visiting eastern Kansas will find Leavenworth full of small-town charm and enjoy the college-town cool of downtown Lawrence. I spent a day touring the two communities this spring, with nary a mention of Kansas City.

Lawrence
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when towns across the country were succumbing to suburban sprawl, the independent-minded citizens of Lawrence made the very wise decision to keep their center of commerce in the center of town.

Now that many cities are desperately trying to revitalize their downtowns, Lawrence is 30 years ahead of the trend, with one of the nation’s most organic and homey downtown shopping and dining destinations.

“We’ve never needed to be revitalized,” said Susan Henderson, public relations director at the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Downtown has always been our premier retail location. Most of the stores downtown are still locally owned, and we don’t have any malls.”

Much of the credit for Lawrence’s youthful individualism is due to the University of Kansas, the state’s largest educational institution, which makes its home in town. The school is also responsible for some of the city’s foremost attractions.

Among the newest and most exciting facilities on the KU campus is the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, a combination archive and museum for scholars and travelers that details the public and private life of the state’s well-known native son

“It’s kind of a quasi-presidential library,” said institute representative Linda Prichard. “Dole has the largest collection of senatorial records, and they’re all stored here.”

In addition to providing scholars with detailed access to information about the senator’s political career, the institute features a variety of displays and exhibits that trace Dole’s development from life on a Kansas farm to his unsuccessful presidential bid in 1996. Several video exhibits even explore Dole’s more lighthearted moments, such as his appearances on television’s Saturday Night Live and his starring roles in Visa and Pepsi commercials.

Constructed in 2003, the building also has several patriotic touches: visitors enter under a Memory Wall, which contains 1,000 black-and-white photos of Kansas World War II veterans. There’s also the world’s largest stained-glass window depicting an American flag, which is flanked by two beams salvaged from the wreckage of New York’s World Trade Center.

If you visit the university, be sure to schedule a stop at the Spencer Museum of Art. Based on a 1920s collection of 6,800 paintings owned by a private donor, the museum has grown to include more than 24,000 pieces of artwork.

“We’re considered one of the top university art museums in the country,” said Kristina Mitchell, director of education at the museum. “The collection really spans the whole of art history. We’ve got everything from ancient Egyptian art to 21st-century modern works.”

Highlights include a large collection of works on paper, including Japanese prints, as well as works that depict Kansas history.

Leavenworth
A short drive northeast of Lawrence, Leavenworth is a picturesque small town best known for its federal penitentiary. And though you wouldn’t expect a town to intentionally draw attention to its prison, the folks of Leavenworth make the most of it for the sake of tourism.

“When groups come to town, I greet them in a convict’s outfit, and I give them a button that says ‘I did time in Leavenworth,’” said Connie Hachenberg, director of the Leavenworth Convention and Visitors Bureau. Groups then make a photo stop outside the massive brick-and-barbed-wire pen, although tours of the facility are not now available.

The prison theme also continues during meals in town. In the middle of lunch with my hosts, I was surprised by a performance by the Possum Hollar Quartet, a barbershop foursome dressed in convict’s stripes who burst into the restaurant singing a variety of classic choruses.

To escape the jailhouse theme, many groups in town visit Fort Leavenworth, a military installation where army officers receive training and education. The fort is home to the Frontier Army Museum, as well as a moving monument to the Buffalo Soldiers, African American cavalry units dating from the Indian Wars.

Former Secretary of State and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell spearheaded the effort to install this monument while he was stationed at Fort Leavenworth.

Groups will find more nostalgic entertainment at the C.W. Parker Carousel Museum downtown. Newly opened this spring, the museum features a variety of 19th-century carousel pieces and apparatus, including a primitive 1850s-era hand-cranked wooden carousel.

Groups can also take a ride on a fully restored 1913 carousel made by famed merry-go-round builder C.W. Parker.

For more information contact:
Leavenworth Convention & Visitors Bureau
Connie Hachenberg, Director
518 Shawnee, P.O. Box 44
Leavenworth, Kansas 66048
Phone: (913) 682-4113  FAX: (913) 682-8170 
E-mail your special requests

Revised: 08/24/05.