A C of E campus story
John E. Peterson
Thursday, November 2, 2006
THE RECENT publicity about the demolition of Kenyon Hall on the old College of Emporia campus brought a story to my mind. And the moving of the National Teachers Hall of Fame off the campus helped, too. Perhaps my story will be of interest to some of you and and it may even give some of you a new story about the area. It would, if I had my way.
Back in the late 1980s, I had officially retired, but I still had a connection with Emporia State, got a bit of money and did various projects for the institution. My relationship could not be called phased retirement. That had not yet come in though, I suppose, my arrangement was much like that.
The College of Emporia campus was on the market. The religious group, The Way International, which had been using it as a college after the College of Emporia went out, was also leaving it. What to do with that campus right in the middle of town became a big question?
One of the possibilities was that the federal government was interested in taking it over and turning it into a minimal-security prison. There would be no fences or walls or cells. It would just use the campus as a place to confine minimal-risk people who had been sentenced for minor-type crimes.
The federal government had such a facility in Yankton, S.D. it had been Yankton College before the college faded out. It was arranged for the Emporia City Commission to go to Yankton to look at that facility and to talk to some of the Yankton citizenry about their feelings toward it.
Joining the five-member commission members would be a few others. Someone from The Gazette, someone from the radio station, a Chamber of Commerce representative and someone from the university. I was asked by President Glennen to be the university representative. Perhaps I was actually ordered to be. I do not recall which it was. Regardless, I thought it sounded like fun and was happy to go.
We left from the Emporia airport in a small plane in the morning. Soon we were in the Yankton airport and met by a couple of cars to transport us about. We were shown around the prison — the converted former college campus — during the morning. And, of course, we saw the prisoners.
At noon, we had lunch in the big dining room of what had been the old college union. We ate with the prisoners. There was one just a couple of tables away who was an Emporia man. He was a businessman who had done something illegal and was now paying his penance for his misdemeanor.
Most of the afternoon was spent talking with citizens of Yankton about their reactions to having a minimum-security prison in their small community. Their comments were favorable about it. There were no problems. If any prisoner broke a rule, he would be shipped off to a real penitentiary, so they did behave well.
The general feeling was that it was a positive for Yankton. It provided jobs and other advantages. There was only one citizen who spoke against having the prison there. He did not like the idea of a prison in his community.
Toward the end of the afternoon, we were driven back to the airport. We had to sit around there for awhile because something minor was goofed-up in our plane. But we soon took off and got back to Emporia before dark. Our day at the prison was done.
As all of us in Emporia know, the federal minimum-security prison never came to Emporia. I never knew why. There was just too much objection to the idea, I suppose.
Today the old C of E campus is lots of things. The north side of it, which was the athletic field area, is a lovely residential area on each side of Presby Drive. The drive is so named because the College of Emporia was a Presbyterian college. Behind the residential area is a nice little park.
The old dorms have been torn down and replaced with apartments and a care center. There is now a handsome new dentist’s building, Birch Telecom is in the Union Building, Kenyon Hall is still standing and Bethel Baptist Church is in the former campus church. One old building is now the Emporia Christian School and another houses the local radio station and other things.
The magnificent old Anderson Library is the Archives unit of the Emporia State library. And, of course, the National Teachers Hall of Fame was in another of the buildings. Without doubt, the old C of E campus is a much nicer part of Emporia today than it would be if it were a prison.
What happened to the old Yankton College campus, however, was not too bad. Yankton, S.D., is better off with it as it is than if the area had simply been allowed to deteriorate. My memory of it is favorable. My memory of that trip to see it is even more favorable. I am glad I was told to be the university representative to inspect it. I would be happy to do it again, if I had my way.
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