These 2 sites significant to Topeka's Black history are up for historic register

Nick Chiles, a prominent Black Topeka newspaper editor in the early 1900s, is buried at Topeka's Mount Auburn Cemetery.

So are Negro Leagues baseball player and manager "Topeka Jack" Johnson and former slave Sylvia Harris , who was reported to be 115 years old when she died in 1928, says the the form submitted to nominate that cemetery at 916 S.E. California Ave. in Topeka for inclusion on the Kansas Register of Historic Places.

The Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review will consider putting two prominent sites in Topeka's Black History — Mount Auburn Cemetery and Second Missionary Baptist Church, 424 N.W. Laurent — on the register when it meets Oct. 5 in Wichita. A Zoom link for the meeting is at www.kshs.org/14633 .

Other places being considered for the register are Bernard's Restaurant & Catering at Hutchinson, Friends Place and the James C. Malin House at Lawrence, the Sears Roebuck Building at Garden City, West Elementary at Osawatomie, Mac Wesley Chapel at Coffeyville and Dawson Farmstead at Valley Center.

How do properties get added to the register?

The governor appoints the 11 volunteer professionals who serve on the state review board for the register.

To be eligible, structures generally must be more than 50 years old.

Decisions on which properties to put on the register are based on such factors as whether they have any documented historical or architectural significance, how they have changed over time and whether they have maintained their architectural integrity.

Properties on the state and national registers are eligible for incentives that include tax credits and government grants that can be used to preserve or rehabilitate them.

Inclusion on the register also ensures that the state historic preservation office will have a voice in whether the properties may be altered or demolished, though units of local government have the final say.

Why is Mount Auburn Cemetery historically meaningful?

Mount Auburn Cemetery's ethnic heritage is historically significant in that it was the "only city cemetery that was established by a private entity exclusively for black Topekans," its nomination form says.

More than half the people buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery are Black . The cemetery's nomination form says the earliest known burial there took place in 1888 while the cemetery was formally established in 1909.

Mount Auburn's case for being added to the list is bolstered by its being "an excellent representation of a planned cemetery landscape embracing the principles of the Lawn-Park Movement," the form says.

Why is Second Missionary Baptist Church being nominated?

The nomination form for Second Missionary Baptist Church says it was built in 1924 while its nearby parsonage at 416 N.W. Laurent was constructed in 1951. The parsonage is part of the area being considered for inclusion on the register.

Since its formation in the 1870s, the church, its pastors and congregation have played an integral role in the lives of Black Topekans and residents of the Redmonsville community where the church is located, the nomination form says.

The Second Mission Baptist Church building maintains a high degree of its architectural integrity, it adds.

Knotty pine paneling was installed in the church's Fellowship Hall after Topeka's devastating 1951 flood, the nomination form says.

The Kansas Historical Society is seeking to have the cemetery and church named to the state register and also nominated to be on the National Register of Historic Places, said Patrick Zollner, that organization's executive director.

The National Register is the official list of the nation’s places worthy of historic preservation. It is administered by the National Park Service, which is part of the Department of the Interior.

What else will the board consider?

The board on Oct. 5 will also consider approving a Multiple Property Documentation Form "historical context" document regarding African American Resources of Topeka.

"The Multiple Property Documentation Form is a cover document and not a nomination in its own right, but serves as a basis for evaluating the National Register eligibility of related properties," says the Kansas Historical Society website . "It may be used to nominate and register thematically-related historic properties simultaneously or to establish the registration requirements for properties that may be nominated in the future."

Occasionally, a context document will be prepared to help the historical society understand and document historic resources of a particular type, method of construction or facet in history, said Jamee Fiore Krivenko, the state's national and state register coordinator.

"The city of Topeka applied for one of our grants to research and document resources across the city related to African-American history," she said. "Within the contexts are common property types associated with the theme, which include potential evaluations of those properties (such as how a particular property contributes to the theme)."

She said Second Missionary Baptist Church and Mount Auburn Cemetery are two properties that "meet the significance and resource types found in the context," which can be accessed at www.kshs.org/14633 .

Contact Tim Hrenchir at 785-213-5934 or threnchir@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: These 2 sites significant to Topeka's Black history are up for historic register