To the editor:

Steve Jansen’s Oct. 20 local history piece “Historic former church still gets plenty of use today” is fine, as far as it goes. But there is a “rest of the story” to consider when this “former church’s” future was the subject of ongoing controversy.

In the early 1990’s, Arly Allen, of the Allen Press family, decided the structure at 11th and New Hampshire streets should be torn down for investment purposes.

Our community responded with outrage, and the effort to save the church was eventually successful through the efforts of the Lawrence Preservation Alliance and especially the late Tripp Anderson and his family.

The following Wikipedia entry tells the rest of the story:

“(The church) was at one point slated for demolition, but after a 4-year legal dispute, was purchased by Ashlar LC and restored, through efforts of the Lawrence Historic (sic) Preservation Alliance and Kansas State Historical Society. …

On Nov. 6, 1993, Governor Joan Finney ceremonially reopened the building to its new life. In 1995, it was placed on the National Historic Register.”

Eventually, Lawrence elected leaders and business interests came to embrace our rich historic heritage, but it was not without LPA efforts in the 1990s.

Steve Lopes,

Lawrence