Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Musser)

Everyday, children get lost in the fun of playing at Hobbs Park. Tony Doria, Lawrence sophomore, can remember Hobbs Park being the place to play in elementary school. “Our school’s playground got boring fast. During recess we’d run over to Hobbs Park for the better playground” Doria said. While Doria’s enthusiasm for better swings and slides may have slowed down as time passed, other local residents’ passions continue to keep running.

James Grauerholz, Burroughs Creek Area Plan (BCAP) study committee member, has filed his passion for playgrounds with Lawrence City Commission. As one of the leaders of the east side neighborhoods, Grauerholz hopes to add more green space to Hobbs Park. How? With the addition of Sale Barn site at 911 East 11th St.

Lawrence’s Sale Barn site found it’s beginnings through John Speer, an abolitionist, and a founder of Lawrence. Speer established a farmstead shortly after arriving to Lawrence in 1854 and soon began publishing one of the first newspapers of Kansas, which led to today’s Lawrence Journal-World.

Speer was an avid abolitionist, and suffered greatly for his beliefs. On August 21, 1863 Speer lost two teenage sons and his entire publishing office during Quantrill’s infamous raid. Though narrowly escaping assassination, Speer’s abolitionism continued through the Civil War.

Once the Civil War ended, Speer formed a railroad partnership that became known as the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Rail Road. The tracks were built along the eastern edge of Speer’s land in 1868 and south to Ottawa. Eventually, the railroad endeavor failed and bankrupted Speer. In 1883, Speer left Lawrence and head west, spending his final years in Denver, Col.

Speer’s land was divided and subdivided after his bankruptcy. In the late 1930s, the Lawrence Livestock Sale Barn opened. The three-acre site served Lawrence-area livestock producers for 50 years before the changing market conditions caused its collapse in the spring of 1995.

The Sale Barn site became under new ownership in 1995. Mastercraft, Inc., owned by the Schwada family, purchased the land for industrial zoning. The new owners removed large amounts of soil for their company’s other construction projects. In 1996, the Schwada’s received a permit to demolish the rundown old sale barn. Currently the site is vacant.

For over three years, Mastercraft, Inc. has renewed its industrial zoning site plan. According to Grauerholz, Mastercraft, Inc “had approval for building, but they never broke ground, they just kept renewing.”

According to Michelle Leininger, Area/Neighborhood Planner for Lawrence Douglas Country Metropolitan Planning Office, continuous renewals may be a thing of the past. For now there are no statutory permits to stop owners from constant renewing, but there is a New Land Development Code coming to Douglas County. This code will provide an 18 month site plan, allowing only one six month extension. For companies like Mastercraft, Inc. this means that without breaking ground, the paper trail will have to start all over again.

The Burroughs Creek Area Plan study committee has already stopped the Schwada family from another industrial zoning extension. In Feburary of 2005, BCAP opposed Mastercraft, Inc.’s late request for a belated extension of the Sale Barn site. City commissioners sided with BCAP, finding Mastercraft, Inc. extension request past the due date. The extension was denied and is now up for sale for anyone will to pay a hefty chunk of change.

Grauerholz is hoping that Hobbs Park’s recent qualification as a historic site will influence the city to purchase the Sale Barn site. Since Hobbs Park was granted a city level historical site listing, then 250 square feet of land is allowed to be qualified. This means the Sale Barn site is well within the distance to also be apart of the historical site listing.

In May, Kansas Department of Transportation will announce the winner of the TE Grant. Many eastern Lawrence residents are hoping the Hobbs Park Expansion project will be titled the winner. With the financial help of the TE Grant, the city of Lawrence will have a higher chance of purchasing the Sale Barn site.

The TE Grant will help out Mastercraft, Inc. as well. In 2000, Mastercraft, Inc. was approved for industrial zoning, and had plans to make a warehouse. Over five years later, the Sale Barn site is nothing more than a pile of dirt. Neighborhoods took over the area instead of factories, which makes it difficult to sell the idea of a factory, office spaces, or warehouses. The TE Grant will give the city enough resources to take the industrially zoned land out of Mastercraft, Inc.’s hands and turn it into park property.

Almost a quarter of a million dollars will be granted to the winning project. For Hobbs Park, this means more than just slides and swings. The Sale Barn site could become part of Hobbs Park, adding even more history to the area. The added land is more than a playground for the children of Lawrence, it's history in the making.