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R. Steve Dick/University Relations

Diana Robertson, interim director of the student housing department, looks over the staircase and foyer of the remodeled and recently opened Wilna Crawford Community Center. The house serves as a gathering place for the scholarship hall community.

Crawford Center begins second life

The humble, two-story house that sat on the corner of 14th and Louisiana streets for more than 100 years has begun its second life as part of KU's scholarship hall community.

The Wilna Crawford Community Center, formerly known as the Strait house, has undergone major renovations and now is a gathering place for students who live in scholarship halls. Juanita Strait, a longtime piano teacher, and Reginald Strait, a physical education professor, lived in the 1892 Victorian home for many years and befriended numerous scholarship hall residents. When Juanita Strait died in 2002, she bequeathed the home to KU.

Tom and Jann Rudkin, former scholarship hall residents, donated $300,000 to renovate the home as a gathering center, naming it after Jann's mother. The home underwent major renovations, including a new foundation, wiring, plumbing and roof. But despite the overhaul, the house is still true to its roots.

"Everything is modernized, but it still has that turn-of-the-century feel," said Diana Robertson, interim director of the student housing department.

Inside the wrought iron fence surrounding the yard stands a strikingly ornate fountain, a gift from Dave Truxal in memory of Marion and William Truxal. Inside the front door, the original brick fireplace is nestled against a wall near a renovated staircase. In the living room, new furniture invites small gatherings, and a painting by Colleen Rand, one of Strait's former piano students, adorns the wall. Adjacent to the living room is a meeting room in which the All Scholarship Hall Council convenes.

At the top of the staircase is the office of Sara Hayner, complex director for the scholarship halls. The second floor is also living quarters for the complex director.

The house's purpose as a gathering place is most evident outside the house. A porch swing sits on the east side of the house, and a gathering area on the west side provides a place for cookouts and socializing. Bob Crawford, Wilna Crawford's husband, provided funding for a meditation garden in the yard.

The Crawford Community Center will be officially dedicated at 3 p.m. April 21. Public tours will follow. Roberts said the house's transformation to a scholarship hall community center is a meaningful addition.

"There are lots of little areas for students to meet in small groups," she said. "It's real fitting this house has created a space that students can enjoy and gather in."

TOPONYMS

In February 1948, KU alumnus and physician Franklin D. Murphy, 32, was appointed dean of the School of Medicine and in 1951 he succeeded Deane W. Malott as chancellor. Murphy, who left KU in 1960, was a lifelong arts patron, and he advocated strongly for a badly needed music and theatre building; when it was dedicated Nov. 10, 1957, it was named for him.