Gage Park: A Park for our City

Topekans have relaxed away summer hours at Gage Park for 109 years.
Heirs of Topeka businessman Guilford Gage gave a portion of his farm to the city in 1899, specifying its use as a public park.
The Topeka Zoo has long been a favorite destination for families. Twin lion statues greeted visitors at the entrance, and a bear statue stood near the Reptile House. The zoo featured polar bears, otters, and Peka-Sue—a very large hippopotamus. Monkey Island City was built of rock in 1934 by Civil Works Administration, a federal agency providing jobs during the Great Depression. The city was complete with a monkey mayor’s office and a monkey drug store. A moat and lagoon surrounded the exhibit.
The old Gage Park swimming pool was originally a swimming hole at the site of a depleted coalmine. The pool had a mud bottom, even after the city improved the site. The area was filled in after Blaisdell Pool opened in 1956, and is now the parking lot for the zoo. However, the original bathhouse is still used by Helen Hocker’s Bath House Players, a Topeka Parks and Recreation program.
The Reinich Rose Garden opened in 1930, and Doran Rock Garden was added the following year. Near the horseshoe pits at the south side of the park, children once used an old fire engine as a climbing frame. The engine is now renovated, and often is driven in Topeka parades.
Although the park’s carousel was installed in 1986, it was built in 1908 by The Herschell-Spillman Co. of North Towanda, New York, and is celebrating

its Centennial this year. Mayor Bunten has proclaimed “2008 is Year of the Carousel at the Park.”
Currently Gage Park closes at night, but it was used for public sleeping during record breaking heat waves in 1934 and 1936. Hundreds of area residents brought bedrolls to the park, hoping to catch night breezes and sleep well despite the heat.
In 1999 the Shawnee County Historical Society published A Park in the Country: The Park’s Century, edited by Douglass Wallace, as its Bulletin #76. The volume boasts 200 pages with illustrations and historical photos. An online search for “List of Bulletins, Topeka” will lead to details about purchase of this Bulletin and other previous SCHS publications.
Also, an online search for “Ritchie House Project” will serve up a report on progress in restoring the John Ritchie House of central Topeka, an historical landmark and tourist destination. Kansas tax credits are available to donors through the end of 2008.
TK