Key Points:
- $10 million expansion of McAdams Park’s recreation center begins.
- Upgraded center to include new gymnasium, multipurpose room and a commercial kitchen for culinary arts classes and community use.
- Center will triple in size and in program offerings.
Historic McAdams Park was awash with excitement on Fri., June 14 with both setup for the 3-day Juneteenth Celebration to be held at the south end of the park and the ceremonial groundbreaking for the expanded Carl Brewer Recreation Center at the park’s north end.
The Carl Brewer Recreation Center is named in honor of Wichita’s first elected African-American mayor, and has been in the works since 2022.
“Just to put it simply, Carl Brewer was a great man in our community,” 1st District Councilman Brandon Johnson told individuals attending the ceremony. “We hope to continue his honor and legacy by making this community center an even greater place of gathering, learning and fun in our city.”
The original facility, built in 1958, was past due for renovation, said Johnson, but even though plans to improve that facility were approved in 2022, the beginning of construction suffered delays.
Johnson said he had hoped to be celebrating a ribbon cutting this summer instead of a groundbreaking. However, construction was delayed while officials dealt with a snag created by the discovery that the site was located in a flood plain. Planned improvements at the 15th street bridge brought the park out of a flood zone, but the plans had to be approved by the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
Representatives from the Wichita Park and Rec Department, SFS Architecture and Eby Construction offered brief remarks and the celebrants heard from members of the Brewer family about their joy in seeing the plan become a reality.
The Renovations
The planned upgrade of the recreation center will triple its size.
It will have outdoor patio space, a multi-purpose fitness classroom, and in a nod to Mayor Brewer who loved to cook, the renovated facility will have a commercial kitchen that will provide an opportunity to offer culinary arts classes and as a facility that can be used to serve others.
A major feature of the new building will be the gymnasium which will include a walking path around it, a full basketball court, two smaller courts and six pickleball courts. There will be telescoping bleachers on both sides of the main court as well as lockers and shower rooms.
A lounge space at the end of the gym will allow observers space to view the on court activities.
Park and Rec leaders say they hope to host both basketball and volleyball tournaments at the new facility. Overall, the completed center is expected to offer three times the existing programming.
McAdams Park, home to the League 42 non-profit baseball league, is named after the park’s former director Emerson McAdams. In addition to the Brewer Center, the park also has the Goose Doughty Tennis Courts, the McAfee Swimming Center, the Andre Carr basketball courts and the Barry Sanders football field,All are named in honor of local African-American standouts. At the ceremony, Ellamonique Baccus, who has been contracted to select the artists to create artwork for the center, revealed to The Voice that artwork for the center will be led by renowned Baltimore artist Larry Poncho Brown and include local artists Paris Cunningham and Priscella Brown. They will be joined by two Ghanaian artists as a link to the relationship between Wichita and Ghana that Mayor Brewer nurtured.
