What Makes Our Venue Historic
Topeka Woman’s Club Team Captains at Laying of the Cornerstone on April 26 of 1924.
By Courtney Stemler
August 24, 2023
If you have ever wondered what The Beacon was in its former lives, we are happy to share! We’ve had guests ask if it was a church, a school, a gym and several other things. The truth is it has a much more interesting story than that!
The Beacon was originally built as The Topeka Woman’s Club clubhouse, breaking ground in October of 1923. The building was completed in the Spring of 1925 at a cost of $200,000. All of the stained glass in the building was privately donated after construction by or on behalf of members of the Woman’s Club. It was the largest Woman’s Club clubhouse built West of the Mississippi River at the time. The Woman’s Club used the building for meetings, meals, continuing education, social events, fundraising and community events.
In 1981, the building was sold by the Topeka Woman’s Club to Manhattan Buildings Inc. for the purpose of converting it to office space with an $800,000 bond. After dropped ceilings, air conditioning, additional electrical, additional walls, a false floor in the Theater, carpet and phone wires were added, as well as the Ballroom’s spring dance floor stabilized to keep it from flexing, the Kansas Insurance Department moved in. During it’s time in the building, the State of Kansas purchased the building. The Insurance Department was housed here until late 2019.
The Theater during the conversion from offices to event space. (January of 2021)
In 2020, the building was put up for auction by the State of Kansas. It was purchased by the current owners, Shelby and Nic Irick and Courtney and Chris Stemler. We renamed it The Beacon and renovated. We said goodbye to the dropped ceilings, walled off balconies, carpet and extra walls! We started hosting events in August of 2021, fully opening in February 0f 2022.
A few fun facts about our building:
There was once a rooftop garden that The Woman’s Club maintained and Topeka Civic Theater performed on.
There was originally a small apartment in the basement for the caretakers of The Woman’s Club clubhouse.
The back of the stage originally had a half story with a dressing room, bathroom and access for lights.
The original, hand drawn floor plans for the building were found during the conversion to office space in a secret cabinet in the building.
The original iron springs are still in the Ballroom floor. They’re just stabilized with bolts and blocks of wood.