Carthalite, like that on the faces decorating Wichita's Minisa Bridge, was the focus of a 10-page spread in American Bungalow magazine.

Carthalite, like that on the buffalo (right) decorating Wichita's Minisa Bridge, was the focus of a 10-page spread in American Bungalow magazine.

Wichita ? The colored cast concrete known as Carthalite that adorns the Indian heads on the Minisa Bridge has been the subject of local comments and concern in recent weeks.

But, as an art form, it’s also attracting attention beyond the city limits.

Some Wichitans are concerned because a bridge reconstruction project – which is made more complex and longer by the presence of the Indian heads – will cause detour headaches on West 13th Street near North High for months.

The colorful heads, however, are just one example of Wichita’s colorful Carthalite decorations featured in a recent 10-page spread in American Bungalow magazine.

“It’s so visually striking,” said John Luke, editor of the magazine, based in Sierra Madre, Calif. “It appears that Wichita is the only city in the world that we’ve been able to find so far that has this particular type of cement work, and it has been preserved, and that’s praiseworthy. It’s just very beautiful stuff.”

Luke said he has received a large response from readers impressed with the images of the Carthalite that was used to decorate mostly brick buildings between 1927 and 1940.

Among the images shown in the magazine are the earth- and sky-colored geometric patterns around the Dockum Building at Douglas and Hillside. Other notable examples are the airplanes flying through the clouds at the Kansas Aviation Museum, the rays emanating from the walls of the public restroom in North Riverside Park, and the doorway of a brick bungalow at 14th and Coolidge.

Eleven examples of Carthalite were noted in the magazine article, and a few more have come to light since.

Carthalite’s history

Barbara Hammond, planning analyst for the Wichita Historic Preservation Office, wrote the article for American Bungalow and found the latest example just recently while driving by the E.G. Stevens Tobacco Co. at 110 S. Walnut. The Longfellow School at 2116 S. Main is another new discovery.

Hammond began searching for Carthalite in Wichita last year when writing a historical-places proposal for the former pharmacy at Central and Grove. When she learned that the building had Carthalite in it, she started investigating what Carthalite meant and where it was located.

Here’s what she found:

When the Cement Stone & Supply Co. went into business in 1905 in Wichita, it manufactured molded architectural elements of natural gray or white concrete and called the products Carthalite to differentiate them from similar ones made by other companies.

In the mid-1920s, the company (the precursor to today’s Lusco Brick & Stone Co.) devised a method of incorporating brightly colored Carthalite motifs within a background of gray or white as decorative trim on an assortment of buildings in Wichita.

Carthalite incorporates particles of sand, crushed rock and/or crushed glass into cement with mineral pigments.

From a distance, it looks like the glazed terra cotta that you would see on structures such as the Petroleum Building, 221 S. Broadway, but that is only colored on the surface, like paint, Hammond said.

Architectural innovation

Many of the Carthalite designs are geometric in form, typical of 1920s Art Deco style; others are curvilinear designs with wavelike forms; and still others follow the smooth streamlining of Art Moderne styling. Finally, in contrast to those repeating patterns, the mural on the Airport Administration Building (now the Kansas Aviation Museum) is a free-form bas-relief sculpture.

“It is a remarkable example of an indigenous and historic architectural innovation of surprising, and surprisingly simple, beauty that, according to some architectural historians, may be unique to the U.S. – and to Wichita,” Hammond wrote in American Bungalow.

Following the article, Hammond has heard of one probable use of Carthalite outside Wichita, and that is on a telephone company building in Meade. Because it was designed by Wichita architect Glen Thomas, who also did the Minisa Bridge and the Synagogue Ahavath Achim, which both feature Carthalite, Hammond thinks that the Meade example likely is Carthalite, too. Luke said he had heard of no other examples.

When the Minisa Bridge is rebuilt starting in mid-January, the Indian heads and bas-relief buffaloes decorated with Carthalite will also be restored by artisans, said Kathy Morgan of the preservation office. If the heads hadn’t been there, the bridge could have been totally torn down and replaced, said Gary Janzen of the city’s engineering office. As it is, the rebuilding will take longer so that the heads are preserved.

The restoration of the heads themselves will occur after the bridge has reopened, because they are on the walkway.

“It’s been fun to see something about Wichita in print and just the people who have called in,” Morgan said of the Carthalite project. She and Hammond have worked on additional stories for American Bungalow, about Wichita’s bungalows. Luke said the story should appear in about a year.