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Old Prairie Town at Ward-Meade Historic Site is a -acre open-air museum, park and historic site located in Topeka, Kansas.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.visittopeka.com/listings/Old-Prairie-Town-at-Ward-Meade-Historic-Site/85/ )〕 Old Prairie Town is a county entity, operated by the Shawnee County, Kansas Parks and Recreation Department with a Recreation Program Supervisor and additional staff plus volunteers. The complex includes: * -acre Ward-Meade Park Botanical Gardens. The gardens were designed by the Topeka Garden Clubs and is now under the care of a full-time horticulture staff of Parks and Recreation. * The restored 1874 Ward-Meade Mansion, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. * The replica of the Ward’s cabin. * A developing turn-of-the-century town square called “Prairie Crossings Town Square” and includes: * * 1891 Victor Schoolhouse from Rossville * * Santa Fe Depot and Caboose * * Lingo Livery Stable (which houses an Oregon Trail exhibit) and the newly built Lingo Tack Shop * * The original Charles M. Sheldon study * * 1880 Everest Church * * Mulvane General Store, with the bank teller’s cage from Georgia Neese Gray’s bank. This serves as the gift shop and visitors center. * * Potwin Drugstore, with a working soda fountain and physician’s and dental offices on the second floor. Ice cream and soda fountain treats are served in the drugstore. ==History== The site was originally the homestead of the Anthony A. Ward family, who settled there in the 1850s and who were among the earliest settlers of the area that later became Topeka. The Ward-Meade house is considered the first mansion built in Topeka. Construction began in 1870, the same year as the first wing of the Statehouse. Anthony Ward was a wheelwright who held the sand rights on the Kansas River near his house. He sold sand to the builders of Topeka and made wheels for wagons that carried settlers to California. The Wards also taught and worked with the Native Americans who lived in the area. On April 16, 1874, John Mackey Meade, a civil engineer, came to Shawnee County from Virginia to survey the route of the Santa Fe Railroad. He married Jenny Ward, a daughter of Anthony, and they inherited the Ward House when her parents died. The Meades raised seven children in the house, which was owned by members of the family until it was purchased by the City of Topeka in 1960. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Old Prairie Town at Ward-Meade Historic Site」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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