From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for June 5, 1988:

Local beer-loving residents were one step closer to having a brewery right in Lawrence. After 11 years of planning, Chuck Magerl was hoping to open the “Free State Brewery” by the end of this year. The plan for the brewery, the first in Kansas in many decades, included major renovation of a building at 638 Massachusetts, once the depot for the Kansas City, Kaw Valley and Western interurban electric railway and (more recently) the bus station for Greyhound and Continental Trailways. A site plan for the business was to be presented to the Lawrence City Commission on June 14, and the city planning staff expected no problems in its route to approval. The new owners of the building, Charles Oldfather and David Millstein, spoke about the extensive renovations that would transform the space not only to a brewery and pub but also a small theater space and a separate area (the depot’s old waiting room) that would be available for rental to another business.