The former Atrium site on May 3, 2025 CREDIT GINA LONG/THE HUTCHINSON TRIBUNE
By Gina Long
While driving south on Lorraine Street near where the Atrium used to stand, I decided to pull off the road and take photos.
The Atrium demolition was completed some months ago, and it looks like every speck of plaster and cement has been removed. The former parking lot entrance on 14th Avenue just south of Auto Zone is now truncated and roped off. Beyond that is a flat expanse that is not barren. It resembles a spring wheat field with smaller, narrower furrows and more tightly packed. Green shoots tentatively peep out between tight rows.
The scene is shocking for anyone whose last view was this past October, when the City of Hutchinson stepped in and demolished the decrepit property. The shame of an ugly, hulking, crumbling property along the busy K-61 corridor is gone.
After snapping some photos, I pondered the stark contrast with the former Landmark Hotel building. I drove over there and snapped a few pictures.
That historic building, too, fell on hard times. A local owner neglected it and sold it to Wichita-based landlords who refused to board over broken windows. During a windstorm, several huge panes crashed around the building, temporarily closing the busy 5th Avenue and Main Street corner.
The Landmark will not be torn down and carted off piece by piece. A local investor has purchased the historic building and is remodeling it into mixed-use retail and downtown apartment space. The reborn Landmark is scheduled to open a year from now.
I did not drive by Memorial Hall because I will be there during Monday’s Community Concert performance. I love the acoustics and nostalgic feel, the parkade flooring and the ghosts of ordinary citizens, celebrities, and luminaries who have crossed its threshold.
Hutchinson is grappling with another problem that has been quietly ignored for decades. The situation is not urgent because the building is not an active danger to its surroundings, but we have finally reached the end of quietly ignoring it, and then handing it off to the next generation of city elected officials.
Everyone loves Memorial Hall until they discover that the city loses around $90,000 each year running it. It is not used five months out of the year because it needs air conditioning. Losing the building, however, would mean losing affordable public-use rental space. Larger groups, such as the Community Concert Association, would need space for over one thousand audience members with sufficient room for performers, equipment, and good acoustics.
My least favorite proposal is to build another city park in that area, which sees the sprawling George Pyle Park to its east and Grasshopper and Avenue A Parks to its west. With that much green space, the city could put up fencing and raise a revenue-generating flock of goats.
What the community wants to avoid is another landlord with empty promises, looking for a tax write-off. Should the city decide to put Memorial Hall in the hands of a private investor, let’s hope it’s a Laura Meyer-Dick, with deep ties to the community and the commitment and vision for a better downtown. We must diligently guard against another out-of-state, uncaring and irresponsible slumlord whose neglect and greed has been toppled, dismantled, hauled off and plowed under.
There are no easy solutions and we must begin the difficult conversations now. The public discussion about Memorial Hall’s future will take place this Thursday, May 8, in the building at 101 South Walnut Street. The discussion begins at 6 p.m., and I encourage all interested community members to attend.
