What to See in Atchison - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in Atchison, Kansas. The Amelia Earhart Birthplace is a historic building and museum that was the birthplace of aviator Amelia Earhart. It is located at 223 N. Terrace in Atchison, Kansas, United States.

The house was built in 1861 in a Gothic Revival style and is on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. In 1897 Amelia Earhart was born in the home, which belonged to her maternal grandfather, Alfred Gideon Otis (1827–1912), a former judge, president of the Atchison Savings Bank and a leading citizen in Atchison. The Earharts attended nearby Trinity Episcopal Church where Amelia was baptized. The birthplace was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and is now a museum featuring memorabilia and artifacts about Amelia Earhart. The house served as a private residence until 1984 when a local citizen, Dr. Eugene J. Bribach, contributed $100,000 to the Ninety-Nines to acquire the property. Since 1984 the building has been maintained by the Ninety-Nines, an international group of female pilots of whom Amelia was the first elected president.^[1]

Memorial park in Atchison, Kansas. The International Forest of Friendship is an arboretum and memorial forest beside Lake Warnock in Atchison, Kansas. It is a memorial to the men and women involved in aviation and space exploration, and open to the public daily.

The forest was started in 1976 by the city of Atchison and the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots. Fay Gillis Wells is credited as founder and original co-chairman. The forest contains trees representing all 50 American states and the 35 countries where honorees reside. Each tree has its own flag, and many have unique associations, including trees from George Washington's Mount Vernon, the Bicentennial American Spruce, a tree from Amelia Earhart's grandfather's farm, a redbud from President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farm, and an American sycamore grown from a seed taken to the Moon by Command Module pilot Stuart Roosa on Apollo 14. The moon tree is dedicated to seventeen American astronauts who lost their lives furthering space exploration.

A trail through the forest contains granite plaques with the names of over 1,200 aviation notables, including Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Jeana Yeager, Rajiv Gandhi, the Wright Brothers, Sally Ride, Chuck Yeager, Beryl Markham, General Jimmy Doolittle, President George H. W. Bush, General Colin Powell, and Lt. Col. Eileen M. Collins, Capt. Lynn Rippelmeyer^[3]

Courthouse. The Atchison County Courthouse, located at the southwest corner of 5th and Parallel Streets in Atchison, is the seat of government of Atchison County, Kansas. The stone courthouse was built from 1896 to 1897 and replaced the county's first courthouse, which had been built in 1859. County officials wanted the courthouse to resemble the Franklin County Courthouse in Ottawa, so they hired that building's architect, George P. Washburn, to design the new courthouse. Washburn designed the building in the Romanesque Revival style. The courthouse's design features four corner towers, including a seven-story clock tower. The main entrance to the courthouse has a porch within a large arch; the doorway is contained in a smaller arch. The building has a hip roof with intersecting gable dormers; the towers have pyramidal roofs.

The courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 16, 1975.^[6]

Building in Atchison, Kansas. Ebenezer Baptist Church is a church at 826 Riley in Atchison, Kansas. It was built during the period from 1911 to about 1923. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

The building was deemed notable in architecture

as a very good example of the Gothic Revival style. This masonry structure has well-executed stained glass gothic windows, distinctive use of limestone articulating windows, entrances, buttresses, blind flowing tracery details, and interior wood trim and ceilings. The building exemplifies the attention that was paid to craft and utility and form that expresses the interior shape. The sanctuary level of the building is emphasized with the use of stained glass windows and the stairwell stained glass windows leading up to the sanctuary. Opposite of the chancery is the memorial stained glass window dedicated to Reverend William Strothers, who designed the church building and served as the pastor from 1881 to 1913.^[9]