KU VG 2024–25 DM Accessible - Flipbook - Page 40
PIONEER CEMETERY
KU Endowment now manages this West District
historic cemetery, which is southwest of the Iowa
Street bridge linking the West District to the rest of
KU’s campus. It is open to visitors who want to
explore the history of Lawrence and KU. First
known as Oread Cemetery, it was Lawrence’s first
burial ground. It originally included 70 of the 200
men and boys killed Aug. 21, 1863, during Quantrill’s
Raid on Lawrence in the Civil War. All but six of
those bodies were later re-interred at the city’s Oak
Hill Cemetery, which became Lawrence’s primary
burial place. Oread Cemetery fell out of use, but in
1928 was renamed Pioneer Cemetery. In 1953, the
city, at the urging of former KU Chancellor Franklin
Murphy, deeded the cemetery over to KU to
maintain. In 1968, Elmer McCollum, a KU alumnus
and discoverer of Vitamin A, requested his ashes
be buried there. Since then, Pioneer Cemetery
has become an active cemetery and is the final
resting place for more than 450 other members
of the KU community.
WEST DISTRICT POND
Near Lawrence Avenue and Clinton Parkway
This is a 4.5-acre storm water retention pond in the
West District with nearly a mile of multimodal
paths connecting to the Lawrence Loop Trail
system. Fishing is allowed from along the shoreline
with three access points that allow you to get to the
edge of the water. Watercraft use is limited to
county fire and medical training, maintenance,
or emergencies.
WEST CAMPUS POND
Constant Avenue and Becker Drive
This is a 1.9-acre storm water retention pond in the
West District where fishing is limited to designated
areas on the south shore. Boating on the West
District’s pond is limited only for county fire and
medical training, maintenance, or emergencies.
HEIM MEMORIAL (MEDICINAL) GARDEN
2010 Becker Drive
Located on the south patios of the KU School of
Pharmacy, the garden showcases more than 50
medicinal plant species. Consisting of four distinct
beds, the garden includes history of medicinal
gardens at KU and the plants found in each bed.
The tea garden features aromatic plants such as
lavender and mint. The Lucius Sayre Garden
recreates, in part, KU’s first “drug garden” planted
in the 1940s. The Echinacea bed contains multiple
species of Echinacea (purple coneflower). Finally,
the Great Plains Medicinal Garden highlights
plants native to Kansas historically listed in the
U.S. Pharmacopeia-National Formulary. The
garden was named in honor of KU alumna Gail
Heim, whose family established an endowment for
the garden in her memory. It is managed by the KU
Native Medicinal Plant Program, which also
manages a Native Plant Research Garden northeast
of Lawrence at 1865 E. 1600 Road, a KU Field
Station site.
MCGREW FAMILY BUTTERFLY GARDEN
Capitol Federal Hall, 1654 Naismith Drive
The garden on the grounds of Capitol Federal Hall,
the home of KU’s School of Business, is designed to
create a native plant habitat for butterflies, bees,
and other pollinators. Spearheaded by John
McGrew, a KU alumnus and longtime Lawrence
real-estate developer, the garden was planted in
May 2017 through a nonprofit Lawrence group,
Outside for a Better Inside, which has built more
than 15 butterfly gardens at local elementary
schools. The garden features about 1,500 prairie
wildflowers attractive to pollinators.
STUDENT RAIN GARDEN
Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center
1740 Watkins Center Drive
The 5,200-square-foot rain garden is home to 2,500
native plants from up to 18 different species. It has
two terraces that are bounded by large cut
limestones. The rain garden, designed and built by
students from multiple disciplines, captures
rainwater from the roof of the Ambler Student
Recreation Fitness Center and filters it naturally into
the water table and not into the sewer system. The
garden is self-sustaining and the native plants are able
to survive with no fertilizers or pesticides. The West
Campus Bioswale Project, south of the pharmacy
school building, includes a series of vegetated swales
and three rain gardens that contain several native
plant species. Another rain garden is on the
southwest edge of parking lot 54, off of Naismith
Drive between 15th Street and Irving Hill Road.
NATURAL PLACES
40 The University of Kansas
