Wichita State University - Parnassus Yearbook (Wichita, KS)

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h 0 cour en 0 the Wichita Hi orica! Museum Eccentric Hotel Is The Heart Of Old Town Fred R. Haines was busy unloading a dozen cases of canned orange juice he had just bought for the hotel. He had read in the paper about the freeze in Florida and knew prices would be raised. 'Last time fa freezel happened, we didn't think to do anything about it, he said. 'The price went from 35 to 45 cents. Most of these people, they can't really afford it when prices jump like that.' Haines has been with the Eaton for 11 years. He started as a maintenance worker and is now the manager. He said he enjoys his job, that often he will stay late, talking with some of the residents. 'Most people hate to go to work, I love it. I can't wait to get here. Pm tickled to death to have found a job I like and get paid for it.' The lobby is well maintained. Many of the residents spend their days sitting on worn naugahyde couches next to floor ashtrays, looking out the plate glass windows. Some of the residents are permanent, others are temporary, having been sent there by service organizations like the Red Cross, and still others are just passing through. The Eaton has long held a reputation as a hang out for derelicts and society's casualties. Haines said that view is not necessarily true. The residents themselves frown on someone being publicly drunk. 'There is some drinking going on,' Haines said, 'but we won't allow any troublemakersf' Haines has evicted residents. One man was told to leave after he continually got drunk, invited his 'buddies' up to stay the night, and set a mattress on fire, probably by a cigarette. 'But he'd just received his welfare check, so I didn't feel bad about it.' Most of the permanent residents are content to spend their time liv- ing from day to day, establishing a routine, and letting stories build up around them. For example, scraggly Ben Cooper is said to be an ex- editor of the Wichita Eagle, or a college professor, or a capitalist with enormous wealth. He won't talk about himself, in- stead, answering sharply and full of curses should anyone address him, but he constantly mutters. He does not have a drinking problem but may have emotional problems. He walks all over dowtown and is nicknamed Walkie-Taikie by some of the other locals. The Eaton stands in the heart of what is known as Old Town, running along Douglas Ave. from Washington to Topeka streets. The Old Town Association asked the city last summer to designate the area a Local Historical District to help development. Developers, city officials and people with a love for the area feel the hotel could be the crux of Old Town's future. The hotel, first named the Carey Hotel after john Carey, its original owner, opened on New Year's Eve, 1887, right at the end of the city's boom period. It was a first-class establishment, but was near the railroad station where a notorious red-light district thrived. Ben Eaton took over the hotel in 1899, a year before six-foot, 185-pound Carrie Nation smashed the hotel's bar, using a cane, weighted with an iron ring, and stones hidden in her umbrella. In 1909 the hotel was refurbished and in 1910 renamed the Eaton. its glory waned some during the Depression but it was in the late 1950s when the place really started to fade. The railroad men and truckers quit staying there, and the hotel resorted to a haven for elder- lyresidents and people on the burn, usually with a drinking problem. Haines said a lot of colorful characters have resided at the Eaton over the years but it was never full of wines. The stigma is due in part to Naftzger Park - called Wino Park by some -- which is where the street people hang out. The park is direct- ly across the street, and on hot or cold days, the street people will drift over to the Eaton seeking relief. 'lid tell John Naftzger. 'Why don't you put in a goddamn drinking fountain? ' said Gus Gossard who managed the hotel for 28 years before Haines took over. Fd get tired of them coming in the east door and the only way to stop them is to station a guy in a red velvet jacket theref' The people trying to upgrade the area feel that part of the problem with getting people down to Old Town is the image the transients pre- sent. By improving the Eaton it ishoped the transients will no longer stay around. Lynda Tousley, city liason for Old Town, said that as the area develops, some will be forced out by the activity newer businesses bring. But Ron Fischer of the department of Social and Rehabilitation Services doubts whether those peo- ple will move out. He said the street people will relish having a better class of people from whom to panhandle spare change. Gossard doubts whether the Eaton will be refur- bished soon. The owners will wait and see what new business moves in before investing. 'It's sort of the chicken and the egg type of thingf' And that still leaves the question unresolved about what will hap- pen to the residents of the Eaton who are caught between a false image and new urban frontiers. 'They have no place else to go, Haines said. I think we help out those people who are struggling and trying.

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W! TH' .f fm 1 X S 9-'Zn Q 'Pv' X W tt. E. , I 3 l 5 Q r Ft EM K ! 1' jL54k4 ' '-f,x1..' ,1 .' ,. 4' 1. 1' 2 .' 252 gif' 1 K4 A A. 4? ,k',I:,',i.,'q,g', ??f?'3'ffffTV' i 2' xfxps xi C3 -f'I 'f ? ,x 7 if 1, Y' 'N-. E V.. m QTIEWLEL x CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Construction was completed on what was originally the Carey Hotel in 1887. Photo taken circa 1909 remember steam engines, don't you, Pop? Marion Miller of 97-year-old transient C.E. No, I got here on the bus. 2l2f85 staircase leads to the upper stories oc- by hotel co-owner Phil Kasaebaum, perma- nent residents and other uhortfterm guests. 1122185 The 'Eaton' tiles in front of the door were laid dur- ing the 1909 remodeling. ll27!85 Manager Fred Haines nms the show at the Eaton. 212185 Marion Miller lights himself a Winston. l!28l85 French art nouveau lamps replace the original fix- tures at the bottom ofthe stairs. ll22f85 ,. .. . gfgg ,, ., 1 !,li liaise 5,1 , 14131 2.1 .. 1 ,1,1 1, :,1 'dii il'1 1',?5,i.f4.14.l1Qr7.I . I rr 1 ': wr 1 , UL . 1- I ,1 photos by Madeline McCullough kmruu 'Gig ' in-xnxx 7