Market Centre in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

was built in 1918 as the Lassen Hotel. It was designed by architects

Richards, McCarty & Bulford Richards, McCarty & Bulford was an American architectural firm. The General Services Administration has called the firm the "preeminent" architectural firm of the city of Columbus, Ohio. A number of the firm's works are listed on the National R ...

. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1984. The 11-story building originally had an L-shaped plan for floors 3 to 11. It was expanded in 1922 by adding a wing that gave the stricture a U-shaped plan. with The building has a 2-story annex that is not included in the NRHP listing. In 1954 a satellite studio of Hutchinson-based television station

KTVH KTVH-DT (channel 12) is a television station in Helena, Montana, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside CBS affiliate KXLH-LD (channel 9). Both stations share studios on West Ly ...

opened in the building. This was the first television station to open that covered Wichita, the state's largest city. KTVH's attempts to provide service to Wichita, in what would become a running theme in the first three decades of station history, rankled the stations licensed there.

KAKE KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and ...

radio and television petitioned the FCC in November 1954 to order KTVH to stop identifying as a "Wichita station"; it declined to do so. In 1956, KTVH moved its Wichita facilities out of the Lassen and into quarters formerly used by the defunct KEDD. The hotel operated as the Lassen Motor Hotel until July 1, 1969, when it was renamed the Radisson Wichita Hotel. In 1971, it was purchased by the Defenders of the Christian Faith and was operated as a retirement home with offices and retail space. It was the subject of the Kansas Supreme Court case, ''Defenders of the Christian Faith v. Board of County Commissioners'', 219 Kan. 181, 547 P.2d 706 (1976). In 1983, work began to convert the structure to an office building. By 1986, it was functioning as offices, renamed Market Centre. In 2015, the offices were vacated in preparation for a conversion of the structure into 110 apartments. The work never began, and the structure is for sale, as of 2022.

References

Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas Hotel buildings completed in 1918 Buildings and structures in Wichita, Kansas National Register of Historic Places in Wichita, Kansas {{Kansas-NRHP-stub

See also

References