The Commodore Hotel was just north of downtown Wichita and not far from the Pan American and from our house at 350 N. Topeka. It had just opened when R.E.M. Porter wrote King.
From the Kansas Historical Society:
- The Commodore Apartment Hotel is located at the north end of Wichita's downtown commercial district [222 E Elm Street / 601 N Broadway Avenue].
- The rapid
development of multiple-family housing in Wichita was essential in the
1920s, when the city's population nearly doubled. Local leaders
attracted the attention of the Hurley-Park Investment Company of Tulsa, a
partnership of Secretary of War Patrick J. Hurley and builder and
realtor Robert R. Park. Soon Hurley-Park, which was simultaneously
developing Tulsa's Ambassador Hotel, was making plans to build the
Commodore Apartment Hotel.
- They hired Kansas City-based architect Nelle Elizabeth Peters, who specialized in apartment buildings and hotels, to design the Commodore Hotel. It was completed and opened in 1929. At nine stories, it is the tallest building in this part of downtown and is constructed of reinforced concrete with brick and terracotta detailing reflecting the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The building is identified by a prominent rooftop sign that reads "COMMODORE." The building was nominated as part of the "Residential Resources of Wichita" multiple property nomination for its local significance in the area of architecture.
Another side note: Just south of the Commodore Hotel is the First Presbyterian Church. That's where I went to weekday Bible school - a voluntary program in the Wichita public schools that bussed children to a nearby school once a week. I remember one year only one child in my class did not go to weekday Bible school. I don't think the program lasted the whole school year. Those were the years just before Madalyn Murray (O'Hair) fought the courts for separation of church and state.
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