14 - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
ح
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2003
HISTORY
Well-worn home holds historical ties
By Brandon Baker
bbaker@kansan.com
Kansan Staff Writer
In the movie Fight Club, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton's characters live in a deteriorating, rundown house. From the exterior, the house at 1144 Louisiana St. doesn't look much different.
"It looked like it was waiting to be torn down. Most of the windows were boarded up. There was no lock on the front door from where the police or whoever kicked it in. The stairs were ready to collapse," Norton narrates as he describes his home on Paper Street in the movie.
At the house on the northeast corner of 12th and Louisiana streets, paint peels from the old wood. Bricks are faded and well-worn. Windows are open from lack of air-conditioning and have few blinds. The porch is dilapidated but sturdy and houses typical well-worn college furniture and stale wet cigarette butts.
However, the inside is a different story. The lock is not broken on the front door, though an ashtray props it open. The spiral staircase isn't collapsing. The walls are
freshly painted white and the floors are well kept. The apartments are cozy with character.
The history of the house is also intact. The house has been a home for many different people since it was bought from Cecilia O. Towne in June 1920.
On April 25, 1923 the house was home to members of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. The sorority kept ownership of the house until passing the deed to Beta Tau fraternity March 15, 1966. Wahid Qandil bought the house from Beta Tau October 30, 1975.
Students have rented the apartments from current owner and landlord Joann Qandil, Lawrence resident, and wife of Wahid, since the eighties. She isn't exactly sure when she became landlord of the house because she owns several properties in Lawrence and can't keep them all straight.
Kurt Blithe, Kansas City, Kan., graduate student, said she was a good landlord.
"She fixes things she's a slumlord but she fixes things," Blithe said.
The 12 apartments within the house hold 18 tenants or so according to Qandil, although she couldn't be sure. A count of names on the mailboxes confirmed the
resident number was 18. That number grows larger when you count the transients that pass by the property.
Sarah Blithe, Witchita graduate student, said the homeless populations frequenting the area didn't worry her.
Ashlee Marshall, Topeka junior, said she wasn't bothered by their presence either.
"Nothing has happened so far," she said
Most transients passing through were just looking for cans said Marshall and her roommate Libby Erickson, Overland Park junior.
"I have seen some of the students collecting their cans for them," Qandil said.
Erickson and Marshall have subleased their apartment since May 31 and have been satisfied so far.
"The rent is worth it for the location to campus," Erickson said. "It's pretty wild here at night."
Wild nights and a variety of faces have passed through this Louisiana Street house, beating and bruising the exterior to a Fight Club mirage, but not destroying it. It stands firm for student housing now and into the future. How long though, only time can tell.
— Edited by Annie Bernethy
NATION
Putlitzer Board reviews award
given to Times reporter in 1932
NEWYORK—A Pulitzer Prize awarded in 1932 to a New York Times correspondent is under review and could be revoked because of complaints that he deliberately ignored the forced famine in the Ukraine that killed millions.
The review of Walter Duranty's work was launched in April by a Pulitzer subcommittee. No Pulitzer has ever been revoked in the 86 years that the prize has been awarded.
"Exactly like Jayson Blair, the heart of all this is journalistic integrity and ethics," said Michael Sawkiw Jr., president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, referring to the Times reporter who was found to have falsified and plagiarized dozens of stories.
Duranty covered the Soviet Union for the Times from 1922 to 1941, earning acclaim for an exclusive 1929 interview with Stalin.
This was not the first time that the Pulitzer Board has reconsidered its award to Duranty. A similar probe in 1990 ended with a decision to let the Pulitzer stand.
The Associated Press
NOW LEASING FOR FALL
1 BDR $400
2 BDR $495
2 BDR
TOWNHOME $750
3 BDR $690
4 BDR $850
NICE, QUIET SETTING ON KU BUS ROUTE SWIMMING POOL LAUNDRY FACILITY WALK-IN CLOSETS PATIO/BALCONY ON-SITE MANAGEMENT
785-843-0011
785-550-7393
MON-FR19-6 LOCATED JUST BEHIND THE HOLIDOME