page_title: Wichita, Kansas
section_title: Points of interest
hierarchical_section_title: Wichita, Kansas / Culture / Points of interest
caption_attribution_description: English: Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, once Wichita's city hall, today listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
context_page_description: Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of 2019, the estimated population of the city was 389,938. Wichita is the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area which had an estimated population of 644,888 in 2018.
  Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita began as a trading post on the Chisholm Trail in the 1860s and was incorporated as a city in 1870. It became a destination for cattle drives traveling north from Texas to Kansas railroads, earning it the nickname "Cowtown."
  In the 1920s and 1930s, businessmen and aeronautical engineers established aircraft manufacturing companies in Wichita, including Beechcraft, Cessna, and Stearman Aircraft. The city became an aircraft production hub known as "The Air Capital of the World." Textron Aviation, Learjet, Airbus, and Spirit AeroSystems continue to operate design and manufacturing facilities in Wichita, and the city remains a major center of the American aircraft industry. Wichita is also home to McConnell Air Force Base, and Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, the largest airport in Kansas.
context_section_description: Museums and landmarks devoted to science, culture, and area history are located throughout the city. Several lie along the Arkansas River west of downtown, including the Exploration Place science and discovery center, the Mid-America All-Indian Center, the Old Cowtown living history museum, and The Keeper of the Plains statue and its associated display highlighting the daily lives of Plains Indians. The Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum in downtown Wichita occupies the original Wichita city hall, built in 1892. The museum contains artifacts that tell the story of Wichita and Sedgwick County starting from 1865 and continuing to the present day. Nearby is the 1913 Sedgwick County Memorial Hall and Soldiers and Sailors Monument. East of downtown are the Museum of World Treasures and railroad-oriented Great Plains Transportation Museum. The Coleman Factory Outlet and Museum was at 235 N St. Francis street and was the home of the Coleman Lantern until it closed in 2018. Wichita State University hosts the Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology. The Kansas Aviation Museum, housed in the Terminal and Administration building of the former Municipal Airport, is in southeast Wichita adjacent to McConnell Air Force Base.
  Botanica, The Wichita Gardens, also along the Arkansas River, has 24 themed gardens including the Butterfly Garden and the award-winning Sally Stone Sensory Garden. The Sedgwick County Zoo in the northwest part of Wichita is the most popular outdoor tourist attraction in the state of Kansas, and is home to more than 2,500 animals representing 500 different species.  The zoo is next to Sedgwick county park and Sedgwick County Extension Arboretum.
  Intrust Bank Arena is the city's primary event venue, featuring 22 suites, 2 party suites, 40 loge boxes and over 300 premium seats with a total potential capacity of over 15,000. This arena in the middle of Wichita opened in January 2010.
  Located immediately east of downtown is Old Town, the city's entertainment district. In the early 1990s, developers transformed it from an old warehouse district into a mixed-zone neighborhood with residential space, nightclubs, restaurants, hotels, and museums.
  Moody's Skidrow Beanery, at 625 E. Douglas in what was to become Old Town, was one of the more famous places in Wichita in the 1960s. It was the scene of a nationally followed First Amendment struggle  and was visited by Allen Ginsberg in 1966 (the name had been changed to the Magic Theatre Vortex Art Gallery) where he first read his long poem "Wichita Vortex Sutra."
  Wichita is also home to one major indoor shopping mall: Towne East Square, managed by Simon Property Group. Towne East is home to four anchor stores, and has more than 100 tenants. A second large indoor shopping mall, Towne West Square, has seen all major and many smaller tenants leave and was put into foreclosure in 2019. The oldest mall, Wichita Mall, was for many years largely a dead mall, but has since been converted into office space. There are also two large outdoor shopping centers, Bradley Fair on the city's north-east side and NewMarket Square on the city's north-west side, each with over 50 stores spread out on several acres.
  In 1936, the Wichita post office contained two oil-on-canvas murals, Kansas Farming, painted by Richard Haines and Pioneer in Kansas by Ward Lockwood. Murals were produced from 1934 to 1943 in the United States through the Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts, of the Treasury Department. The post office building became the Federal Courthouse at 401 N. Market Street and the murals are on display in the lobby.
  Wichita also has a number of parks and recreational areas such as Riverside park, College Hill park, and McAdams Park.
caption: The Sedgwick County Historical Museum (2008)
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