WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – After serving primarily as a storage space for more than 50 years, the Riverside pagoda is getting a new purpose.
The Friends of the Kansas Wildlife Exhibit is leading a capital campaign to restore the historic building. So far, the group has raised about two-thirds of the $250,000 needed for the project.
“This was built as a concession stand in 1911, and then in 1913 it became restrooms,” Zadi Owens, the program chair of the Kansas Wildlife Exhibit, said. “The pagoda has been primarily storage since 1935. It was used for fundraising to build the Sedgwick County Zoo for about four years in the mid-sixties, and besides that, it has literally just been storage.”
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Once the renovations are complete, the pagoda will serve as an educational and community space…