KINSLEY — Participants in the Kinsley Library’s Kansas Architecture series will enjoy two special activities at the last session from 2-5 p.m. on Sunday, April 2, at the Edwards County Historical Society Museum.
Series scholar Edwin Carlson will conduct a bus tour throughout Kinsley describing the various types of architecture in the buildings and homes. He will share interesting and sometimes colorful tidbits about the lives of the people who built, worked and lived in the edifices.
Carlson is senior architect with Hollis and Miller of Overland Park. He grew up in Kinsley and is an expert on its history and people. He has provided valuable original-source research to the library archive.
“This is a reprise of a tour Ed created and first conducted in 2010,” said library director Joan Weaver. “His extensive knowledge of Kinsley and its people makes this a thoroughly researched and most entertaining tour.”
The other presenter will be Barbara Oringderff, founder and editor of the Kansas Territorial magazine. She will be speaking about sod construction in the historical church on the museum grounds. She is the author of “True Sod,” a detailed, beautifully illustrated book on the sod buildings of Kansas.
The group will then tour the sod house which is enclosed within the museum building at the Edwards County Historical Society.
Before starting the Kansas Territorial magazine, Oringderff produced a program on KUPK-TV, “Reflections on Southwest Kansas”; she wrote a collection of 100 articles published by Garden City Press and Finney County Historical Society; and her syndicated column, “Reflections on Southwest Kansas,” ran in the Garden City Telegram and other newspapers.
The Kansas Architecture series is being partially funded by the Kansas Humanities Council, a nonprofit cultural organization that connects communities with history, traditions, and ideas to strengthen civic life.
People who have not attended one of the previous sessions are required to register online at www.kinsleylibrary.info, at the Kinsley Library, 208 E. 8th St., by phone, 620-659-3341, or at the event. A $10 series registration fee will be collected at the door from all first-time attendees.