David Robinson
Remember the good ol’ days of shopping in downtown Wichita? I 
recall getting off the #1 College Hill bus in front of Kress and heading across the street going south. First stop was drooling at the windows of Russell Stover Candies with it’s beautiful bright blue mirrored walls. That building is now being converted into an AC Hotel by Marriott, a luxury boutique destination.
Next stop farther south was Innes Department Store. With its formal Tea Room at the top and the Sunflower Room downstairs, Innes was such a wonderful store. A ride down the escalator from top to bottom included floor after floor of views of tempting goods from the entire global marketplace. The Innes building has been beautifully restored and is now the new nonprofit Kansas Health Science Center and Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine. Classes started the first of August with 72 students.
Across the street from Innes is our much-loved Henry’s Even if you couldn’t afford to shop for clothes there, you always loved window shopping. This building is also being restored and will be the Wichita State University Culinary School with an event center and at least one restaurant. It is very near completion.
There are other great changes downtown that many of you have never seen. Fidelity Bank did a wonderful job on restoring the original Carnegie Library and it is now part of the bank’s complex. (Below)
The office building on the southeast corner of Broadway and Douglas housed the main Dockum Drug Store, site of the sit-in at the soda fountain in 1958, one of the first in the U.S. is now the Ambassador Hotel. (Below, Dockums in 1958)
(Below, Ambassador Hotel Lobby in 2022 at the Dockum site)
Also on south Broadway was the old Continental Bus Depot which is now a very attractive office for SPT Architects, a firm that has been involved in many downtown renovation projects, including Union Station. (Below, SPT Architects new office)
Hopefully, you will come to Wichita for the Class of 1960 East High School 62nd Reunion and will drive downtown to see some of these remarkable changes!
Very interesting changes that I have missed since 1960! I hope you can take us to other locations in the city. I may never be able to return to Wichita, so these snapshots and comments are treasures! Much has changed. My family always loved to eat at the Brown’s Grill on Hillside across from Wesley Hospital. I also remember going to the “zoo,” which was unprotected animal cages in Riverside Park. What has happened to the Uptown theater on East Douglas or the Crest near Douglas and Oliver? David, you are our eyes! Keep looking and reporting.