Dear editor,
David Toland passes out information pamphlets on Saturday evening concerning the Northrup-Warren house (Landmark House.) If you have one put your hand over the Landmark House. Looks like a graham cracker box in front of a saltine box. I thought it might look better from another vantage point. I stood behind the Landmark house and the Bowlus looked like a penitentiary. Drive north on South Buckeye Street and look at the Bowlus, see if that’s the first impression of Iola and the Bowlus you want people to see. We know how important first impressions are. It will take $50,000 of landscaping to help 50 tons of concrete parking and the east side of the Bowlus looks anything like a fine arts center.
Fifty years ago theaters were built to blend with their neighbor buildings. They were supposed to become a part of a whole. We waited 50 years for the front of the Bowlus to look like a fine arts center.
We already have a house that shouts good taste and refinement and is waiting to be used as office space and small event space for the Bowlus.
If our schools move north the Bowlus won’t be in such demand. Small events can be held at the Landmark House, easier to supervise goings and comings, and will be more accessible for handicap people.
Why accentuate the negative when we already have a positive?
Kathryn Ronay,
Iola, Kan.
Letter to the editor — August 12, 2014
