40 years ago: City approves plans for South Park, downtown ‘arcades’

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Jan. 24, 1974:

  • Plans were approved today for improvements to South Park, including the elimination of the baseball diamond. The park’s walkways were to receive a new layer of asphalt with new redwood edging, and the fountain then located on the east side of the street was to be moved to the center of the area. Playground equipment would be moved slightly west, the baseball diamond sodded, and the backstop, bleachers, and lights transferred to Lyons Park in North Lawrence.
  • The city this week also approved plans for two downtown “arcades” on the west side of Massachusetts Street in the 700 and 800 blocks. These would be “pedestrian malls” with planters, benches, and high-intensity lights. The walls would remain unpainted for now because of the added costs involved, but Commissioner Barkley Clark suggested “pop art” designs could be done free by local artists.
  • Kansas University Chancellor Archie Dykes announced this week that Delbert M. Shankel, now an associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, would become KU’s first executive vice chancellor effective Feb. 1. Dykes said he believed Shankel would provide “imaginative and forceful leadership for the Lawrence campus.”