Travel Log: Salina Kansas
This post is part of a series on a recent road trip through parts of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Of all the towns my friend Rich and I visited, Salina Kansas offered the most “done” main street (aka Santa Fe Ave). But before I get into the interesting 1970s streetscape I want to share some other parts of town with you. On the edge of downtown Salina is the old railroad industrial area.
Grain elevators, like so many of these towns, are adjacent to the numerous railroad tracks. You can pretty much judge the size of a town by the size of its grain elevators.
As the above shows, much of the main street in Salina is pretty conventional: wide street with buildings of various heights and sizes. But then you look straight ahead and get one of those WTF moments:
Yes, you are seeing a large open web type metal structure over the street. They have three of these.
One of the three, the middle one as I recall, crosses the street at an angle. We talked with some local residents that moved to Salina in the late 1970s that indicated the downtown street had already been done by then. A nearby Air Force base was closed in 1965 so maybe this was done to help keep the downtown from dying off completely. These three crossings have had pedestrian signals added but the main intersections do not have any pedestrian signals.
These crossings lead to small “plazas” where buildings once stood. By crossing through the plazas you access parking lots where buildings once stood on the backs of each block.
Above is one of the plaza areas, each was designed differently with different functions.
Again, the buildings that once stood on the other half of the block (opposide the alley) were razed for parking areas such as this one. We were there after 5pm so it is hard to judge how active the street was during normal office hours. The after work crowd was certainly not rushing to downtown.
Another way to access the parking in back is through a couple of tunnels. These were created within buildings by removing a storefront space.
Back to the crossing structures. Above is a view as you cross the street. The small old theatre in the background to the right is now a CPA firm.
This buidings gets the first prize for uglist remodeling seen on my trip. Just horrible…
Directly across the street, however, is one of the most attractive buildings I saw on the trip. The detailing, massing and relationship to the two streets is outstanding.
I saw a few cyclists getting around downtown on their bikes. Auto traffic was almost non-existent so cycling around town should be easy. He still should be wearing a helmet.
The 3-story building above has a restaurant and bar. Outdoor space was created on the ground and second floors by setting the windows & doors back from the facade. This was the most lively area during our brief visit.
For more information on Salina Kansas see the city’s website, google maps, the wiki entry or more of my 227 images on Flickr. I plan to do some research on Salina to better understand the history of the makeover of Santa Fe Ave.
I am a former resident of Salina, although many, many years ago. It was nice to see the pictures and I was trying to pick out familiar landmarks, but it has been a long time. Thanks for posting these.
Living in China for three years, I have forgotten how empty streets in small town North America can be.
Thanks for the pictures of Salina!
My husband was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas and we lived in Salina from 1975 to 1978. When we left, Santa Fe Ave did not have those ugly metal structures, so they must have been “created” at a later time. I have lived on the East Coast (New Jersey) for the last 22 years with lots of traffic and polution and would love to see streets with little traffic again, that would allow me to feel safe on a bycicle! Salina has so many beautiful parks, I stopped their on a roadtrip last year and was amazed of how the town changed! Unfortunately, urban sprawl has not spared Salina, I have seen the same thing happen here on the East Coast, but it seems as if the City planners are hard at work and are trying to revive the downtown area – I wish them good luck and who knows, maybe some day someone will have those metal “things” removed, they really don’t fit in to the downtown picture at all!
will go back some day to see for myself!
I was born and raised in Salina, and lived there for 32 years before moving to Colorado. It was home for those years and it will always be home to me no matter where I live. The pictures are tremendous and bring back so many memories of growing up in this midwestern city. How the city has changed over the years hopefully for the better. The metal structures across Santa Fe avenue downtown have never impressed me and why they were installed I will never know. There are a few places you evidently did not get to photograph that I wish you could have included in this spread. It is also interesting to see some of the architectural detail that you photographed that many of us may have missed in living so close to it all the time. Jilka Furniture and Vernon’s Jewelers appear to be the only store names that have been there as long as I can remember. Although the Stieffel name is now attached to the Fox-Watson theatre, it used to be the name of the biggest department store on Santa Fe Avenue. The pictures of the industrial area were very interesting. My father had a business in that area so I know it well. Thank you for taking these photos and sharing them with all of us. For those of us who have fond memories of Salina, they were a treat to view and reminisce over. If you ever go back I can give you some other views that you should include in your portfolio which should include The Cozy Inn Cafe, a true Salina landmark.
David Parker
Born in Salina in 1924 loved the town and people . Family moved when I was 16 so didn’t get to finish the last semester as a senior. Population at that time was 20,000. Movies Paramont, Strand. and the bloody bucket. Kress Store, and woolworth. Sietz (not sure of the spelling) drug store around the corner of Iron. Had a great swimming pool in the park. A college at the each end of Sante Fe. The old Smokey was a river then and flooded darn near every year. Gosh your pics bring back memories. Thanks much.
You do have some great pictures of Salina. I do agree with David Parker that you need to include the “Cozy Inn”, it is located at 108 N. 7th. People never forget “Cozy Inn”. And of course the “United building” just to the south of the Cozy Inn. I believe the metal structures you refer to on Santa Fe were installed when downtown was dying off and businesses were heading more south. There was talk of putting a roof over Santa Fe for about 3 blocks and enclosing it to be more like a mall environment. Nothing came of that except the structures. I love hearing about the history of Salina and looking at old pictures at what used to be there. Enjoy your travels!
You have some great shots of downtown Salina! I just wanted to say things about two pictures. First is the ugliest remodel job. That IS a horribly ugly looking place, I give you that, but it wasn't really redone for beauty. It houses the domestic violence shelter. The Stiefel theater that you mentioned, directly north across the street, was remodeled in the last few years. It was formerly known as the Fox Watson theater. I've seen and heard of MANY fond memories. It seems that when it was redone it wasn't for the better though 🙁 Many old buildings have been torn down and replaced with parking lots, empty lots or parks. Check out this Facebook group.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?g…
It has almost 400 shots, old and new, of places and things that have happened here!
Vikki Mendenhall, born 1980 in Beeville TX, moved to Salina June 1994 and been here since!
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I loved your photos of the place I call home. Although my family and I moved from there to Hays in the late 50's and eventually ending up in Colorado, I still had many oportunities to visit Salina because our family still lived there.
I can still hear the little steam engine in the park by the Smokey Hill river when I stood on my grandparents porch on 5th. Watching the cars cruise Sante Fe in the 60's and if I close my eyes I can feel the humidity and hear a buzz from an air conditioner motor.
I agree with one writer regarding the Cozy. You really should have got a picture of this little hole in the wall hamburger joint.We always stopped, rather it was just getting or just leaving Salina, and by a couple of bags of burgers.
I was last there in Oct. 1998 and really need to pay another visit.
Thank You for the memories.