photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Watkins Museum Director Steve Nowak, Jace Jacob at Spyder Art Construction and Karl Ramberg, who restored the wren, unveil the restored wren for the new exhibition on Monday, December 9, 2024.

Two 500-pound concrete wrens have had a significant flight path around Lawrence for several decades, but one has landed at the Watkins Museum of History, where it will permanently reside.

On Monday, the museum held a reception for a new exhibition featuring the recently restored wren, part of a pair that ended up being all that remained of the “WREN Building,” which sat on the northeast corner of Eighth and Vermont streets, before the building was torn down after a fire in December 1966.

The exhibition was curated by University of Kansas museum studies students Amanda Pope, Madison Preuett, Evelyn Theall, Luke Wilkinson, and Omotayo Agunbiade, who collaboratively shaped the narrative of the two wrens and the building they once perched on.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Stephen Hill, grandson of Justin D. Bowersock, helped give a presentation on the history of the concrete wrens that used to sit in front of the “WREN building” on Monday, December 9, 2024.

The WREN building – formerly the YMCA building and later a radio station and home to other businesses and apartments – had been bought after Richard C. Jackman acquired full ownership of the Bowersock Mills & Power Company in 1922, after his co-owner Justin D. Bowersock died that same year. Two concrete wrens placed on either side of the main entrance.

As the Journal-World reported, the wrens made their way to South Park in 1970, but were damaged by vandals in 1971 and taken to Lawrence Fire Department’s Station No. 2 for repairs.

From there, the wrens paths get a little turbulent. One was found near the railroad tracks at Midland Junction in North Lawrence in the early 1980s. It’s unclear how it got there or to what coop the other wren had flown, though reports that it had been spotted recently in Topeka were debunked by Steve Nowak, executive director of the Watkins, who said the Topeka wren was never in Lawrence.

Tom Swearingen and Marvin Conner took the wren that was found by the railroad, and it remained between the two families until Don Martin traded a deer rack for it in the early 2000s. When Stephen Hill, grandson of Bowersock, learned of the wren’s location in 2010, he decided to help in an effort to get the bird restored after it suffered years of chipping, a broken tail and a broken beak.

Hill spoke at the reception on Monday, and he said with the 150-year anniversary of the Bowersock Mills & Power Co. this year, this was the perfect time to see the wren fixed up.

“The wren was a beloved symbol for downtown Lawrence,” Hill said. “People would bring their children year after year to play around these wrens … This was a beloved symbol that many people introduced to their children, and their children never forgot.”

Karl Ramberg, a local artist, was contacted about restoring the wren in 2023. He said that a big element of the restoration was the way the wren would be painted, because they didn’t know what colors were used decades ago.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Karl Ramberg reflected on the process of restoring a historical Lawrence figure, a concrete wren that used to sit outside of the “WREN building” on Monday, December 9, 2024.

“The photos were all black and white photos,” Ramberg said. “You could sort of surmise color in some of them, (but) it was unclear what we were looking at in the photos (for) what the original artist did.”

Ramberg settled on brown overall, a yellow belly and black and white stripes on the tail as he worked the wren back into shape.

“I particularly want to thank (Don’s wife) Maria and Don because they cared for this thing for so many years, and you know, it could have just faded away, but instead, they cared about it,” Ramberg said. “It’s just a real treat it’s with us and that this history is with us.”

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The 500-pound restored concrete wren was unveiled on Monday, December 9, 2024.