HISTORY AT 21ST & TOPEKA BOULEVARD Built for Functionality When Shawnee County built its new maintenance building in 1935, it was part of a grand complex that included the Kansas Free Fair grounds (where the Kansas Expocentre is located now). It cost $30,000, part of which came from county funds and part from Federal Emergency Relief
Administration labor. President Herbert Hoover created the Emergency Relief Administration in 1932 to address the job crisis of the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt renamed it F. E. R. A. and in 1935 it was replaced by the Works Progress Administration or WPA. This federal aid was well used in Topeka and Shawnee County, and many of those buildings and projects are still in use today. According to the Topeka Daily State Journal, “the coun-
ty FERA office show county-sponsored projects for a total of $837,608.14 have been approved and are or soon will be under construction.” More than half a million dollars of that total was work relief labor. For the maintenance building, 165 men were employed about six months and the stone came from local quarries. The steel and cement were purchased locally as well. The architect was Topekan W. E. Glover.
Full of Character In the 1990s, county officials decided this big-hearted guy of a building was showing his age and perhaps they should look to a younger substitute. His character, however, was intact and that attracted Wichita investors who wanted a unique location for their restaurant, Willie C's. According to the Topeka Capital Journal's Jim Baker, they chose the building for its “aged, industrial appearance. The architecture sets the mood. . . . .” For five years, bright neon illuminated the corner of 21st and Topeka Boulevard beckoning passers-by in for unforgettable potato soup and a fun, nostalgic atmosphere. Lunch crowds were strong, drawing from downtown and nearby businesses. The company could not match the evening supper crowds of Wanamaker, however, and eventually closed. Even before they locked the door, Harley engines were rumbling over the prospect of occupying the limestone landmark.
Harley Style “We dreamed about this building,” said Bruce Zimmerman, president of Topeka Harley-Davidson, with a smile. “We were looking at it while it was Willie C's.” Again, the building's architectural character was the draw, as well as the
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Summer 2012
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