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Celebrate the Holiday Season in Abilene!
The first weekend in December starts a month of holiday activities. The information below showcases activities planned for December 1 & 2. Make plans to visit Abilene and enjoy all of these wonderful five-star activities!
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2018 Holiday Homes Tour
Tickets are $10 (all ages) and will be available at the Abilene Visitors Center, 201 NW 2nd and the Dickinson County Heritage Center, 412 S Campbell St, during the event.
For more information, contact the Abilene CVB at (785) 263-2231, or 800-569-5915.
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Tour Preview: 906 N Buckeye
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When Ken Hansen moved his dentistry practice to Abilene in 1986, his children were still in school in the Kansas City area, so until the end of the school year he was to stay in Abilene during the week, and be home on weekends.
"One day he came home and said, 'You've got to see this house. I've passed it for a month or six weeks and it's gone up for sale,'" recalled Donna.
They had already spent some time looking at other houses on the market, but nothing really moved them.
"So I came to see it, and I felt like he did," Donna said. "I felt like this was our home. It has become our home. We love it."
Tax records indicate the house was built in 1898 - the valuation jumped from $60 that year, to $660 the next. The parcel also changed hands twice. The lot had been owned for many years by C.J. Hawk, the deputy county treasurer, and his wife, Anna, when they deeded it to Eliza Hawk, C.J.'s mother, in 1890.
In August 1898, she sold the property to Henry C. Lower, who on the same day passed it on to William H. Hoon. It's not clear from the tax records if the house was built before or after these ownership changes.
The house was still in great shape when the Hansens bought it, but they knew they wanted to make personal modifications. And while Ken is a dentist by trade, he is a craftsman at heart.
"We do all the work in this home," he said. "Nobody's ever done anything for us."
It's no exaggeration to say the work has never ended.
"We've been working on this for 33 years," Ken said.
One reason is that Ken is very particular and minds details. In order to replace uniquely shaped trim, he had wood-shaping tools custom-made. Many off-the-shelf pieces cannot be directly installed because when the house was built, two-by-fours actually measured 2 inches by 4 inches; today they are much closer to 1 5/8 by 3 5/8.
"Everything is fully dimensional lumber in this home," he said. "Nothing you buy [today] is for full dimensional lumber."
And then there is the upstairs bathroom. Years ago Donna saw a photograph of a very attractive bathroom, and thought that some day the upstairs bathroom might look a lot like that.
In 2013, the project made its way to the top of the to-do list. Ken pointed to the yellow trim tiles in the bathroom.
"Those yellow tiles that you see? You cannot buy those," he said. "You can buy the tile, but you cannot get it in that color. She wanted French Country Yellow. I could not find it. Worldwide. Could not find it."
When he was much younger, Ken built model airplanes, and he often used automotive paint on them. It's much more durable than household paint. You can get automotive paint in French Country Yellow.
"We were told it would never work," he said. He bought the tile anyway. "I said, 'It's going to work.'"
He soaked the tile in muriatic acid long enough that it acquired a satin finish. The paint adhered perfectly. It's one reason the bathroom took six years to complete, he said.
For all the work that has been done, though, it's the less tangible things that the Hansens treasure the most.
"The reason I love this house is because the grandchildren love it," Donna said. "When they would come when they were small, they would run around here," she gestured to the path between the kitchen and front rooms, "and then they would go down the back stairway on their bellies, screaming all the way down."
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Tour Preview: 900 N Buckeye
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When Joe and Pam Sanfilippo moved to Abilene a few years ago they appreciated the
many older homes here.
"We had been looking," Pam said. "When we first moved here we had rented a home and knew that we wanted to buy. We just loved the older, historic homes, and the character that they have."
In 2015 the stately Victorian home at 900 N. Buckeye came onto the market.
"I had looked at a lot of houses, and then this one came up," Pam said. "This one struck me."
It's grand from the outside, with its wrap-around porch and second-story balcony, but the inside is magnificent.
"The arch doorways, they are so wonderful," Pam said when asked what she likes most
about the house. "And the transom windows I love."
The house was built in 1898 by Samuel and Alice Smith. Both were from Boiling
Springs, Pennsylvania, but had moved to Kansas separately. Samuel was a young lawyer who would be Abilene's city attorney, city clerk, police judge and county attorney.
They passed the home on to their daughter, Mary, who owned it until 1958.
According to a history put together in 1999 by owners Bob and Lynn Webb, the wrap-
around porch was removed in the 1940s. The Webbs put one back on, following the
original design. They also took down interior paneling that had been installed in the
1970s and replaced it with wallpaper that looked like it came from the 1890s.
The Sanfilippos have made relatively few changes. The kitchen counters are now granite, carpets have given way to wood floors, and wallpaper to bare walls.
"It was in great condition but there were some things we wanted to update," Pam said.
One of the house's interesting features remains an enigma: the tin ceiling in the kitchen
has been hand-painted. Some people claim it is the work of Arch Davis, one of Abilene's most accomplished artists; others say it was painted much more recently.
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Tour Preview: 310 NE 5th
The modest bungalow home at 310 N.E. 5th Street was likely built in the fall of 1905 by
John L. Jacoby. Today it is owned by James and Sabrina Holland.
The builder, John L. Jacoby, was a native of Pennsylvania and served in the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. Corporal Jacoby was captured by the Confederates at Gettysburg and, once released, was medically discharged from the Union Army.
In 1879, the family moved to Russell, Kansas, and then to Solomon in 1885. In 1895,
they moved to Abilene. After building the house, the Jacobys lived there until 1911.
This two-bedroom, one-bath home on a full block basement had an addition to the rear of the home; the Hollands converted it into a kitchen.
The original woodwork, walls, windows and porch details have witnessed several
families moving in and out over its 113 years. The family to live there the longest was
William and Maude Fick, who lived in the home from about 1946 to 1979.
The Holland family have owned the home since 2004 and currently offer the home for
short-term (Airbnb) rental and affectionately refer to it as "The South 40."
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Tour Preview: 407 N Vine
When Rob and Dawn Hammatt were asked what they like most about their home at 407 N. Vine, they didn't have time to answer.
"The kitchen!" came the immediate response from, well, the kitchen, where contractor Justin Hickens (aka Wizard of Odds and Ends) was working late toward completing its
renovation.
After the laughs and knowing looks passed: What is the most unusual feature of your
home? Again, it took only an instant. "The kitchen!"
Without question the kitchen is one of the most dramatically changed rooms in the house the Hammatts bought last year when Dawn was hired to head the Eisenhower Library and Museum. It may have the only countertop in Abilene that comes with its own remote.
"The countertops are 1 ΒΌ inch glass," says Rob. Embedded lighting can be controlled via a remote.
But what attracted the Hammatts to the house was its core.
"We bought it because the street was beautiful, and the house had a lot of character on the outside," Rob explains.
The Prairie Style house was built in 1907 by Mary Keller. Over the past 110 years
owners included Drs. Harry and Millie Bennett, Homer and Stella Strowig, Henry and
Catherine Wise, and Les and Ann Young. Recently the 300 and 400 blocks of North Vine street were designated a historic district and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
"It is a good, solid home," says Dawn.
One of the first steps was to hire an expert in the color schemes of historic homes. They ended up repainting the exterior using six colors.
"It was nice to have him guide us through the process," Dawn says.
Inside, the Hammatts added a flurry of modern touches. There is the kitchen, of course,
which features not only clear glass countertops, but a flooring material used in airport
terminals (made with recycled aluminum, glass and quartz). The dining room light fixture is a white orb that can change in size.
Dawn calls it the Death Star.
"We like simple, clean lines," Rob says. "In every room, the woodwork was painted the
same color as walls. Now you'll see everywhere it's a different shade of gray, with white
trim."
Most of the art on the walls was created by either Rob or Dawn. One exception: a print
Rob bought for Dawn that is (fittingly) titled "Twilight."
And some of the historic features are the Hammatts' favorites. When they remodeled the upstairs bathroom, they took care to preserve the green and white tile. And while they added a central air-conditioning unit for the upstairs, they are delighted by the primary heating system - steam-heated radiators.
The Youngs had the radiators sand-blasted and then painted Cadillac gold.
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Tour Preview: 501 N Spruce
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It's not many church congregations that survive 150 years. Even fewer do that ahead of the
community they are part of.
First Baptist Church, 501 N. Spruce, turns 150 this year. It was founded in 1868, a year before Abilene was incorporated as a third class city. This was the period that gave rise to the legends, some undoubtedly true, about the wild and lawless town of Abilene that boomed for several years under the newly enabled cattle shipping business.
According to church history, the first service of future congregation members was on August 25, 1867. There were two services that day - the morning meeting was in the home of James Sexton; the evening meeting was in the home of Timothy Hersey, whose house at 1st and Vine was the first to be built in what would become Abilene.
"Early church support was earmarked for missions, because it was the frontier," says Pastor Jack Gilstrap. "Rev. J. R. Downer applied to Bible Home Mission Society (now American Baptist Home Mission Societies) for assistance. They paid a significant portion of his salary because they considered all this a mission. This was the frontier."
Indeed it was. Less than two weeks after those initial meetings, the first 20 boxcars of cattle shipped out of Abilene and on to Chicago.
By the spring of 1868, fundraising had started to build a 22' by 36' church. That summer the Smoky Hill Association formed, uniting five congregations located between Junction City and Salina, and met in the newly-built church, located at SW Third and Cedar.
"It was an excellent meeting," the church history reports. "None of the friends from Solomon City were present owing to the Indian massacre which occurred in the Solomon Valley."
When the church was dedicated on Sept. 13, 1868, it was the first church building in Abilene. It was shared with Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian congregations because they did not yet have their own church buildings.
On Dec. 21, 1868, the church officially incorporated. Other mainline Protestant congregations were not the only ones to use the church.
In November 1870, Thomas "Bear River" Smith, who had been marshal for just five months, was brutally murdered when he tried to arrest a farmer accused of killing a neighbor. Smith was a practicing Catholic.
"The priest conducted the funeral mass at the church because it was the only church building in town," Jack said.
By 1880, the Baptist congregation was ready to move further north in Abilene. It sold the church to the United Brethren congregation, which moved it to SE 2nd and Kuney, where it is still used to this day.
By 1883, a new church building was completed at on the northwest corner of NW 5th and Spruce. That building lasted more than 50 years but in 1940 was condemned.
"They were already planning on building another church," Jack said. "The walls had become unstable from water damage. They had been talking about building a new building but they weren't ready to do it. And then a war began."
The congregation was left without a building or materials to put up a new one. It was time to innovate.
In June 1942, the church bought the Garfield school kindergarten annex for $1,625, and moved it to its present location, on the northeast corner of NW 5th and Spruce. The congregation started using it for services while it looked for an expansion plan.
That took shape a few years later when an army chapel at Camp Philips near Salina was damaged in a fire. The Baptist congregation bought it, salvaged the materials, brought them to Abilene, and built the rest of the church using plans drawn up by church members.
"This congregation didn't have the option of building a truly modern building, because they had to build their building at a time when you couldn't build a building the normal way," Jack said.
The steps of the two ladders in the baptistry came from Model A running boards.
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Tour Preview: 412 S Campbell
Before Kansas became a state, before the Civil War even broke out, Martin and Dorthea Volkmann, with their five children in tow, left Wisconsin in 1857 and headed for Kansas.
It took 11 weeks to make the 500-mile trip. When they arrived in what is now eastern Dickinson County, they set about felling cottonwood trees, hewing them into logs, and
erecting a two-room cabin.
Today that cabin is at the Dickinson County Heritage Center, 412 S. Campbell.
It's one of the regular features of the Homes for the Holidays Tour, a potent reminder that no matter how opulent and sophisticated, all homes share some basic objectives.
The first floor was the family area. Here they cooked, ate and socialized. The second
floor was the bedroom. (A family of seven, remember.) It was probably partitioned using
ropes and blankets to afford a measure of privacy.
The only source of heat was the stove in the kitchen. To keep winter winds out, cracks
were chinked with a mixture of mud, clay and animal hair.
Over the years, the cabin was modified by its owners. Several additions and
improvements were made that eventually completely enclosed the cabin. The outer layers were removed in 1985, and the cabin was relocated to its current spot.
Refreshments will be served at the Heritage Center during the tour.
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Night of Christmas Magic
Candy Cane Lane and Holiday Activities & Treats throughout Downtown Abilene
Saturday, December 1
3 - 8 p.m.
Attendees are invited to pick up their Candy Cane Lane bags, map and schedule of activities at 418 NW 3rd St (corner of 3rd and Mulberry).
Activities already scheduled include Candy Cane Lane, a window decorating contest, ornament decorating, holiday movies, stories and photos with Santa, strolling costumed carolers, flower pot decorating, a snowball toss, face painting, art projects at Santa's Workshop, a reindeer food station, Griswold Family photos, and more!
Old Abilene Town Christmas
Saturday, December 1
3 - 8 p.m.
See the decorated Merchant Hotel and shop in the General Store.
Downtown Carriage Rides
Saturday, December 1
4 - 7 p.m.
Abilene Civic Center
Mayor's Holiday Tree Lighting & Visits with Santa
Saturday, December 1
6 p.m.
Abilene Civic Center
Abilene Area Chamber of Commerce Turkey Toss
Saturday, December 1
7 p.m.
KABI Radio Station
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Not Another Christmas Letter! The Musical
Not Another Christmas Letter!
The Musical
November 30 - December 9
It's that time of year again! Time to spend your loved ones an overly-positive, possibly embellished, and definitely cherry-picked rundown of your year! Featuring a score written by Wichita Native Laura Bergquist,
Not Another Christmas Letter! The
Musical finds the laughter and music within all of our holiday traditions.
Rated G
Showtimes:
Friday, November 30 - 7:30 P.M. (followed by Afterglow)
Saturday, December 1 - 7:30 P.M.
Sunday, December 2 - 2:00 P.M.
Tuesday, December 4 -
2:00 P.M.
Wednesday, December 5 - 2:00 P.M.
Thursday, December 6 - 7:30 P.M.
Friday, December 7 - 7:30 P.M. (followed by Cabaret)
Saturday, December 8 - 7:30 P.M.
Sunday, December 9 - 2:00 P.M.
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Christmas Afternoon Tea Party
Christmas Afternoon Tea Party
Saturday, December 1
11 a.m. or 1:30 p.m.
Visit Abilene's Victorian Inn for their 8th annual afternoon party. Reservations required. Call (785) 263-7774 for more information.
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Abilene Municipal Band Holiday Concert
Sunday, December 2, 2018
2:00 P.M.
Come enjoy the sounds of the season as the Abilene Municipal Band performs classic and modern Christmas pieces! Bring the family and enjoy this free concert at the Eisenhower Visitor's Center auditorium!
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Christmas in the Cabin
The Dickinson County Historical Society
will host its annual Christmas in the Cabin program on
Sunday, December 2, 2018
from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Heritage Center.
Plans are for a family to be in the Volkmann Cabin, Santa Claus will be here for the kids to tell him what they would like for Christmas, there will be horse-drawn wagon rides, free carousel rides and refreshments.
The Faith Lutheran Church of Abilene will be presenting the live Nativity in the Prichard Barn.
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Seelye Mansion Holiday Tours
Abilene's historic Seelye Mansion is exceptionally beautiful during the holiday season.
Tours Daily!
Monday-Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Sunday 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m
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