Several hundred people attended Saturday's dedication of the Wilna Crawford Community Center.
4/23/07
LAWRENCE — Thanks to the generosity of friends and alumni, a 115-year-old house near the University of Kansas has a new start. The two-story white frame home just east of campus is picturesque with wooden shutters, an old-fashioned porch swing, a fountain, an expansive stone patio and a meticulously landscaped lawn.
It's the former home of the late Juanita and Reginald Strait, which has been renovated into a gathering site for KU students who live in scholarship halls.
The center was dedicated at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 21. It is named the Wilna Crawford Community Center and Juanita and Reginald Strait Park.
The community center is named for the mother of Jann Rudkin of Sunnyvale, Calif. Rudkin and her husband, Tom, gave $300,000 to KU Endowment to renovate and refurbish the home. The surrounding property has been landscaped into a park named for the Straits, who bequeathed the property to KU Endowment for KU.
Jann Rudkin’s mother, Wilna Crawford, died in 2004. Rudkin said she wanted to honor her mother with the refurbishment of the house because that would reflect her mother’s strengths.
“When I was growing up, my mother did her own decorating, showing off her considerable artistic talent,” Rudkin said. “She was very home-oriented, so when we saw an opportunity to create a home for the scholarship hall community, we took it.”
In addition to the generous donation provided by the Rudkins, the project received support from hundreds of alumni of the scholarship halls, as well as memorial gifts from family members and friends of Wilna Crawford and Juanita Strait. Juanita Strait died in 2002. Her husband, Reginald Strait, a KU professor of physical education, died in 1979.
“Juanita Strait never expected anything to happen to her house other than that it would be torn down,” said Chancellor Robert Hemenway. “But she knew it might be of value to KU and could be used to help students in some way. With the help of Tom and Jann Rudkin and many other supporters, this home and property have been given new life in a way that preserves the home’s historic charm.”
Completion of the center and park means that students who reside in the scholarship halls, as well as their governing body – the All Scholarship Hall Council – will have a place to meet beyond the living rooms of the 11 scholarship halls in the system.
Renovations included pouring a new foundation, replacing the roof, rebuilding porches and completing interior work throughout the building. The center includes an apartment and an office for the scholarship hall complex director as well as a kitchen, a conference room and an event room for student use. This facility provides the first permanent office space for the All Scholarship Hall Council.
KU Endowment raised support for the project and received the property from the Straits. KU Endowment is a nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization of the University of Kansas. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.
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