Together with the Wichita Wind Surge

Our favorite local baseball team is back this week for a home stand against Tulsa and we don’t want you to miss out on some of the promos so here is a quick run down:

• Thursday 5/21 - Turbo Tubs Night

• Friday 5/22 - Military Appreciation Night

• Saturday 5/23 - Margaritaville

Wichita Boathouse

Another day, another deep dive inspired by ​Veloace​.

A few years ago, our friend highlighted the Boathouse. One tidbit he included about the original Boathouse got me thinking that I don’t know much about the history of either Boathouse.

Buckle up folks, here. we. go.

To be completely honest, I always thought the Boathouse was supposed to be some historic building close to Wichita’s heart, but really never looked into it.

First off, the building sits over 100 feet from the water. It does showcase a boat so the name isn’t completely off base, but still a little bit odd.

Second off, this building wasn’t created at the turn of the 20th century or something, it was built in the 1990s. It opened in 1994.

Before I get ahead of myself, let’s go back to the beginning.

The History of the Boathouse

Riverside Boathouse

A quick google search does not give much info on the Riverside Boathouse, but diving deep into past newspapers does give some insight into what was happening back in the day.

You can see here in this 1928 photo looking east across the Little Arkansas River at the Riverside Boat Co which was formerly known as Israel's Boathouse or the Murdock Avenue Boathouse.

The Riverside Boathouse was founded near the intersection of Murdock and Waco, in the late 1890s.

Originally, started in 1898 when Robert and Carl Israel began renting out six rowboats to “keep them out of trouble”, the business evolved into the Murdock Avenue Boathouse before eventually turning into the four-story Riverside Boathouse.

For years it was one of the region’s most popular centers for recreation and socializing that included speed boat races to open the season, swimming, canoe rentals, and tilting contests (Wichita Eagle 1931).

It even drew crowds of 25,000 people in its heyday.

The boat rental business and its original small structure, grew in size and commercial enterprise for more than 50 years before it was demolished during the "urban renewal" efforts of the 1960s.

You can see it here in 1900:

Back in the 1960’s, part of the $20 million, 44-acre Park Plaza urban renewal project was demolishing the Riverside Boathouse and surrounding buildings. The Boathouse was set to be one of the first buildings to be torn down, but as of March 24, 1967 it was one of the few buildings left standing.

The Boathouse was set to be replaced by a new river level dock including a new boat rental facility and marina which I'm not sure ever happened.

As of July 16, 1967 the building was still standing and was finally torn down in 1968.

All that is left today is the partial concrete wall next to Murdock bridge in central riverside park.

There were plans in the 1970’s to fundraise $100,000 to create a new boathouse that would serve Wichita State, the community, and high schools, but from what I could see, it never got off the ground.

The Wichita Boathouse Up to Today

Fast forward to 1994 and the concept of a new boathouse became reality.

Bill Koch (of the Koch family tree) helped out with a large donation as he wanted to showcase the America^3 yacht, Jayhawk, and related memorabilia.

Originally, it did serve as an actual boathouse with exhibits about the Arkansas River as well as renting out sailboats, canoes, and skiffs.

This was viewed as a big step for downtown Wichita revitalization (sound familiar?) as our city would take an old abandoned brick building and renovate it to bring a boathouse back to downtown.

The design was based on the Riverside Boat Co building.

This project was seen as “the ideal public-private project” built on public land with private money:

"It will operate with private money and proceeds, but in every sense it is a facility designed to open the river to more and better public use. It will draw people downtown, not just from Wichita neighborhoods but from across the region." - Reid Ashe, Publisher

This new boathouse never quite caught on like the original in the first half of the 1900s, and a waterfront portion was never built.

In 2005, it closed and was falling apart.

Local builders almost pressured the city into demolishing it for corporate offices (🙄) as part of the WaterWalk Project (that’s a whole deep dive in itself).

2010 and a $650k donation came around from Bill Koch to renovate the building which reopened as an event venue and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and has done so since.

Ironically, the boathouse has now served those roles longer than the boathouse role.

Boathouse Events

You may have been to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, but if you’ve been to the Boathouse you were most likely attending a private event or an event like ​Xclusive Events​ Final Friday which is always a blast (and is happening next Friday!) that consists of art and live music as well as food and booze trucks. Free to attend!

The Future

Would it be a Wichita Life Deep Dive if we didn't think bigger?

The building itself isn't in terrible shape, but what if we extended it to the water and filled it out to truly be boathouse boathouse. Naw mean?

Why can't we complete the vision that never quite came to be? This would also complete another dream of mine for Wichita to have a restaurant on the river, which almost came true back in the 1990's, but never quite made it over the hump.

Here is what a new boathouse could look like:

I will leave you with a quote from the April 23, 1994 Wichita Eagle when we still had hope in a true Boathouse:

"And it is, finally, a marvelous way - through recreation, entertainment, and education - to make use of the Wichita community's best natural resource." - Reid Ashe, Publisher

And another from August 18, 1997:

"To reach its full potential, the boathouse needs to be part of something bigger." - Mark B West, President of the Arkansas River Foundation

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What do you want to see us go deep on in a future deep dive?

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