Event to include historical re-enactments, car show and transportation theme
by Mary Rupert
A historical sketch re-enacting a three-day visit to Grinter Place in the 1800s will be presented during the annual Grinter Place Summerfest from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9.
Transportation is the theme of the annual event this year, with displays and activities tying together the various years that the Grinter Place has existed, from the 1850s through today, said Pat Spencer, a Grinter Place Friends board member. Grinter Place, a museum preserving the oldest home in Kansas City, Kansas, is at South 78th and K-32. The home was completed in 1857.
“One of our board members Julie Blagg’s ancestor crossed the ferry there, and stayed about three days with Annie Grinter,” Spencer said. She waited three days there while her furniture was being delivered from Leavenworth.
Blagg’s ancestor wrote everything about her visit into a diary discovered by her descendants, and the story was turned into a play that will be re-enacted at Grinter Place on Saturday, Spencer said. Volunteers in costume will be portraying Julie’s ancestor and Annie Marshall Grinter, who was a Lenape (Delaware), in presentations at 1 and 3 p.m., she added.
Some of the antique furniture on display at the Grinter House was obtained through bartering for ferry trips, she said.
The ferry across the Kansas River from Moses and Annie Grinter’s home, at a trading post location known as the Delaware Crossing located in the Secondine area of Kansas, was just one mode of transportation that existed at Grinter Place. The ferry was the only way to get across the Kansas River in this area at that time, she said.
Travelers journeyed to Grinter Place on horseback and in wagons in the 1800s, Spencer said. Some of the travelers were on the military road from Ft. Leavenworth to Ft. Scott that crossed the Kansas River there. The transportation mode changed to trains and cars through the years.
On Saturday, the Summerfest will feature horse rides for kids, as part of the transportation theme, Spencer said. There also will be inflatables with slides for kids, she added.
Another activity Saturday in line with the transportation theme is a car show, Spencer said. Most of the entries in last year’s Grinter car show were antiques.
One highlight of the Summerfest on Saturday will be musical entertainment by the MP3 band, she said. In addition, Mark Millham will be a strolling musician, walking the grounds, playing the guitar and singing, she said.
Grinter Place Site Director Bill Nicks plans to portray Moses Grinter, in costume, while walking around the grounds, she said. The Grinter Quilters will be working on their opportunity quilt at the Grinter House.
There are also about 40 vendors planning to attend, Spencer said. There will be craft booths and some will include handmade items, such as unique hand-sewn crafts, ceramics and signs, she said.
Admission is free to the Grinter Place grounds and to the car show, craft and vendor booths, musical entertainment and historical re-enactments outdoors, Spencer said. There will be a charge for barbecue, food and refreshments, and for horse rides and inflatables, she added. The food vendors will be located at the Grinter Barn.
Tours of the inside of the Grinter Place home are discounted on Saturday to $3 for adults and $1 for kids, she added.
For kids to see up close, there will be displays by public safety agencies here, including a fire truck, a bomb squad robot and dog, and law enforcement vehicles, she said.
Funds raised at the Summerfest will support programs at the Grinter House at 1420 S. 78th, Spencer said.
Grinter Place, a state museum, will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays, until Saturday, Oct. 28, when there will be a campfire program, before closing for the winter, she said.
Many projects have recently spruced up Grinter Place, according to Spencer. Most recently, a new roof was placed on the house. A group of volunteers came in, repainted the hall, bought curtains, and also have been working at the Grinter Place shelter, painting and landscaping it, she said.
Two Boy Scouts from Piper worked on their Eagle projects at the home recently, one making birdhouses and bird perches for the state property, while another built a bench and set it in concrete with a new ramp to go into a door of the Grinter Barn, she said.
There is also a plan to build Grinter Trails on the property of the Grinter Barn, Spencer said. It will be similar to a health walking trail, and the half-mile track would be asphalted so that wheelchairs and strollers could travel on it, she added. They have already received some grants to clear out the area, but they need funding for the asphalt, she said.