Multimedia Reporting (Bradford)

A Castle in Lawrence

Click here to view an audio slideshow about The Castle Tea Room renovations.

One of Lawrence’s historical gems is about to shine a little brighter.

The Castle Tea Room, located in the heart of the Oread neighborhood at 1307 Massachusetts St., will soon undergo renovations that will turn the landmark into a twenty-first century jewel.

The former home of John N. Roberts, distinctive by today’s standards and unique when it was built at turn of the twentieth century, was used as a restaurant by the castle’s most recent owner, Libuse "Libby" Kriz-Fiorito, who died in 2004.

"We want to be able to have the house continue," Suzie Taylor-Meadows, historian for the Castle Tea Room Foundation board. "In fact, Libby demanded that it continue to serve other people."

To honor Libby’s wishes, renovations must be made. Planned renovations include an elevator, a new heating and cooling system, and handicap accessible bathrooms.
To raise the money for the castle’s refurbishment, the board is hosting a tagged estate sale of Kriz-Fiorito’s belongings from Thursday, July 19 to Saturday, July 21. The sale will coincide with the sidewalk sale in the shopping district of Massachusetts St. and will conclude with an auction of Kriz-Fiorito’s possessions from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

The castle means so much to so many and its rich past the castle’s rich past spans over a century. In 1892, a successful businessman named John N. Roberts began building a home for himself and his family. Two years later, it became one of the epicenters of the Lawrence social scene.

For a span of 24 years, from 1919 to 1943, the house changed owners several times, and was even at risk for demolition when the Assembly of God church bought it and planned to build a new church on the property. Finally, in 1947, Kriz-Fiorito intervened, bought the house, and turned it into the restaurant and social hotspot that Lawrence residents grew to cherish.

"So many people have such a stunning emotional connection to this building,” said Taylor-Meadows. “They have a huge emotional connection to the castle and they have a huge emotional connection to Libby."

For over 50 years, Kriz-Fiorito literally lived at work in the Castle Tea Room, operating the restaurant on the home’s three floors and residing on the top floor of the castle. The restaurant became a social setting for all sorts of community events in Lawrence. From sorority dances in the third floor ballroom to bridge club meetings, Taylor-Meadows said that the castle became one of Lawrence residents’ most loved treasures.

The brilliance of the castle attracted teacher Jan Green to volunteer with John Hughes - the man overseeing the tag sale next week - and help him sort through the treasure trove of possessions that fill Kriz-Fiorito’s home, from an old wedding dress to Green’s favorite find, a butter mold.

"I like antiques so I love this," she said. "I told John once ‘this is like Christmas!’ This stuff is like treasures."

Green’s fellow volunteer Sue Van Zuiden agreed. The homemaker said she loved the thrill of finding antiques that Kriz-Fiorito owned.

"I like opening boxes and going ‘oh, look at this!’" she said.

Taylor-Meadows said she hoped to see the castle reopen to the public by 2008. Not everything will be the same, though. Fire codes prohibit the use of the Castle’s third floor, and the Tower Room, where guests of the Roberts family used to sleep, will be used exclusively for board meetings and not for public events.

Despite some minor changes, the board still hopes to uphold the mission of the Libuse Kriz-Fiorito Historical Foundation: "to maintain the physical structure of the castle for future generations; to preserve and promote the castle’s unique history and heritage; and to maintain access to the castle for the public’s use, enjoyment, and education."

Sifting through antiques and valuables that Kriz-Fiorito once cherished and reminiscing on how much the Castle Tea Room has meant to the Oread neighborhood and Lawrence, Taylor-Meadows summed up the feelings of so many as she reflected on the castle’s importance.

"It just doesn’t get much better than this," she said.

Click here view a slideshow about the Jayhawk Cross Country Camp

“Mid-Distance here!”

“Cross Country over here!”

A mass of campers gathered at the Jayhawk Cross Country and Track and Field Camp, held from July 15 to July 19, gathered in the parking lot across from Naismith Hall, their home for the next five days, to be divided into their respective sporting events. After they found their groups, Milan Donley offered a welcome to the campers in Hadl Auditorium in the Wagnon Student Athlete Center.

“We want you to have fun and make friends,” said Donley before reviewing the safety rules in the dorms. The camp had three other important objectives. The first is that the campers learn more about their sport.

"It isn’t just running and jumping and throwing,” said Donley.

The second objective was to learn what it takes to be successful in a particular event, which hinges on the third objective – that each of the students finds out what type of athlete they are and how they can get to the next level in their training and competition.

Education was key to a camper’s full experience during the week. Asking questions about the sport and even about coach’s experiences and opinions was crucial to success.

Tom Hays, the pole vault and high jump coach for the camp, said that the best athletes are “Athletes that I don’t have to motivate; that motivate themselves.”

After their welcome meeting, the groups went to their own areas for training sessions with their coaches.

Doug Clark has been the coach of the Jayhawk Cross Country Camp for eight years now.

“I think that’s one thing that’s kind of unique,” said Clark of the unique running environments that the camp provided to its athletes. “What we do is van the whole group to a place where our team trains,” he said. “We literally have a few dozen places we run.” Other camps simply run the athletes from their home base every day.

Clark said the camp focuses not only on mileage, but also on running techniques like flexibility and range of motion that can be overlooked when high school runners log summer miles in preparation for their seasons.

“If you don’t practice it, a lot of your skill deteriorates,” said Clark.

Each day, the coaches presented exercises to get the athletes running at their full speeds – even if everyone at the camp is at a different skill level with varying degrees of speed and fitness.

“Anybody going to go 9 [miles]?” Clark called out to the group of 43 cross country campers on the gravel running path on the levy by the Kansas River. This week, the athletes chose their own distance and there own speed for each run.

In the course of five days, the cross country campers ran eleven workouts – one on the first day, three per day for the next three days, and one on the last day. And so, with the brilliant heat of a July afternoon baking the gravel running path on the levy by the Kansas River, 43 young athletes took off for their first run in the sun.