WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A proposal to convert Lincoln Park on South Broadway into a Kansas Firefighters Memorial was revealed during the Kansas Firefighters Service on Sunday. The Kansas Firefighter Museum Board has been considering the idea for years, only seriously considering it in the last few months.
The museum, which is at Lincoln Park, was the first fire station built in Wichita and is now the official Kansas Firefighters Museum. The project could mean big changes for the museum and the park. It’s a longtime dream of Kansas Firefighter Museum Board President Tod Newlin.
“[We’re] kind of in the infancy stage, but this is as far as we’ve gotten in a long, long time,” Newlin said. “It’s always been an unofficial state memorial, but we want to make it an official state memorial.”
The change would make the entire park firefighter-themed; it would replace the current equipment, add a fire-themed splash pad and expand the museum.
“We have so much stuff in storage, so it’s just hard to display every piece of firefighting history,” Newlin said.