Corner of 10th and Delaware Streets
HISTORY
The historic Murphy-Bromelsick House was relocated to Hobbs Park, the location of Lawrence’s old East Side neighborhood, home of important figures such as Myra B. Hobbs, after whom the park is named, and newspaper publisher and abolitionist John Speer. The 1860s house serves as an example of the architecture common to the city’s oldest residential and industrial district.
Speer moved to Lawrence in 1850s to block the spread of slavery into Kansas Territory. One of Lawrence’s founders, he was active in expelling violent pro-slavery Missourians from the territory and a leader in rebuilding the city after it was raided by William Quantrill. Two of his children were murdered during the raid. The struggle over whether “Bleeding Kansas” would become a free-state or a slave-state was one of many conflicts leading up to the Civil War.
The Murphy-Bromelsick house is part of a monument dedicated to Lawrence’s roots in the fight for freedom and civil rights. 2009 marks the 150th year anniversary of Kansas anti-slavery icon John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia – a failed attempt to appropriate weaponry to arm slaves in the South. Find out why the park is one of the great historic sites of the new Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area, and what Brown accomplished with his presence at what now is Hobbs Park.
If you are looking to reserve an outdoor shelters and/or indoor facility, reservations are taken at any of the community recreation centers including the Community Building, 115 West 11th St.; East Lawrence Recreation Center, 1245 East 15th St.; Holcom Park Recreation Center, 2700 West 27th St.; Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center, 4706 Overland Drive; or Sports Pavilion Lawrence, 100 Rock Chalk Lane. For questions or more information on Special Use Permits, please call the Administrative Office at (785) 832-3450 or email parksrec@lawrenceks.org. See our shelter rentals page for more information on renting these facilities or call (785) 832-7920.