Heritage Commission backs Dunbar School nomination for state and national registers

The Salina Heritage Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the former Paul Lawrence Dunbar Elementary School be considered eligible for listing on the Kansas Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places and to forward that recommendation to the Salina City Commission for a resolution of support ahead of the State Historic Sites Review Board meeting on Feb. 1.

A city staff member told commissioners the building, on the north side of East Elm Street between Second and Front streets, was constructed in 1921–22 and was designed by Oklahoma City architect William T. Schmidt. The building served as a segregated elementary school for Black children under the separate-but-equal laws in place at the time, the staff member said. Enrollment dropped after Brown v. Board of Education, and the school closed in 1955; it later served St. Francis Boys Home until about 2003 and is currently owned by CKF Addiction Treatment, which prepared the nomination form attached to the commission packet.

The nomination submitted by the property owner argues the site meets two National Register criteria: association with events that contributed to Salina's historical development and architectural significance as the work of a recognized…