Smoky Hill Museum and the city of Salina celebrate the 150th birthday of Salina’s founding with a huge opening bash, featuring free music, free food and speeches.

A plaque in the lobby of the building proclaims:

This property has been
placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
US Post Office 1938
LEFT: Land A tall clean-shaven, strong, solid fellow looks toward the west, calm and serene. His large hands hang by his side and he holds an axe against his right leg.
RIGHT: Communication The woman and child face east. Wearing a dress, the woman has her back slightly arched and arms slightly raised, high cheek bones and shoulder length hair. The barefoot boy has short hair, innocent angelic features, and is wearing shorts and a t-shirt.
The figures are carved from the same Indiana limestone employed for the body of the building and is 8 feet high x 30 inches wide and projects 13 feet from the building.
Illustrations by Pamela Harris

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What did the Museum building used to be?

In 1935 Congress appropriated money to build a new post office in Salina, Kansas. The site chosen was the southeast corner of Eight Street and Iron Avenue, adjacent to the Romanesque red sandstone post office built in 1896.

Work was begun on the structure on July 12, 1937, and completed in 1938. The art deco structure was designed by Lorimer Rich. The façade features two stone statues on either side of the front door to represent a typical farm family. Designed in the 1940s and signed by Carl C. Mose, St. Louis Missouri, the figure on the left is a man, identified as “Land.” To the right is a woman and child titled “Communication.”