1978:
Watkins Sundries & Club Bar, 601-607 E. Douglas. Wichita's
"skid row" got a facelift in the 1970s with the
demolition of this row of dilapidated storefronts. This
block was also once home to Moody's Skidrow Beanery, later
known as The Vortex/Magic Theatre, which hosted a reading
by poet Allen Ginsberg. (See Ginsberg's epic poem Wichita
Vortex Sutra.) That building was torn down in 1969;
these went nine years later. The lovely Naftzger Park was
created here in 1979 and is still a picturesque favorite
among Wichitans.
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