GRACE WILKIE HOUSE
4230 E. English St.
Listed in National Register 5/6/2009
Architect: Grover C. Wright, builder
This modest house located in Wichita's College Hill neighborhood was home for 40 years to one of Wichita State University's most influential female leaders - Grace Wilkie. Fairmont Congregational College, as the institution was then known, hired Wilkie in 1912 to lead the Home Economics Department. Outside of teaching, she was committed to serving her community through various organizations dedicated to women's suffrage, war relief efforts, and the American Red Cross. She took a brief leave of absence after World War I to join the American Committee for Devastated France. Upon her return in 1922, she was promoted to the position of Dean of Women, which she held until her retirement in 1953. That same year the college named its new women's residence hall in her honor. Wilkie, who had no children of her own, counted some 9,000 young women among the students she had supervised during her tenure - many of whom attended an annual tea at her home on English Street. Built in 1927 by Grover C. Wright, Wilkie lived in this house with her sister Sophronia until her death in 1967.