Info about Atchinson KS

I found this info in a NY Times article from 1997. It speaks of Earhart's childhood home:


"Atchison does not fit the typical image of a prairie town. It's neither flat nor plain. In its time it was very wealthy, with between 20 and 30 millionaires at the turn of the century, rich with railroad and river-trade money. Built among impressive bluffs, Atchison has lofty views of the river and valley from many parts of town. Most of its showplace homes, built in late Victorian style, remain in good condition, and the original brick streets are still in place in older residential areas. A remarkable 18 structures in the town of about 10,000 people are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

At the Earhart birthplace, a few blocks away, the former home of Earhart's grandparents, Judge Alfred and Amelia Otis, the resident caretaker, Louise Foudray, was cheerful about guiding visitors through the house in the midst of painters' dust and clutter. The house has been owned since 1984 by the Ninety-Nines, the women's flying organization of which Earhart was a founder. The group is leading the effort to raise money for the restoration of the house.

Rambling rather than palatial, the most attractive feature of the seven-bedroom brick-and-frame house is its site, on the tall bluffs, affording a sweeping view of the river and of Missouri farmland on the opposite bank. In a back bedroom on the second floor of this house, Amy Otis Earhart gave birth to Amelia on July 24, 1897. During her childhood years, Earhart slept in one of the front bedrooms, and the visitor is tempted to think that as she looked out on the river, she dreamed of distant places and dramatic accomplishments. Bits of her life are coming to rest in the house: an oak rolltop desk that Earhart had used, a gift to the museum from her sister; her dark-grained ''hope chest,'' and a bathing suit she used to wear.

From the lake we returned to town and stopped at the old Santa Fe depot, a restored landmark built of limestone that houses the town visitors center and the museum of the Atchison County Historical Society, which displays Earhart's personal effects from her childhood and artifacts and memorabilia from Atchison's railroading days.

We made our way through the Earhart exhibit to music from video clips of Judy Garland singing ''On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe'' in the movie ''The Harvey Girls'' (the video is now part of the railroad exhibit), marveling over Earhart's leather flight jacket, a watercolor of the Missouri River that she painted as a child, a pair of her dancing shoes and a shimmering, beaded dress that she bought in Paris."

[I am amazed that she actually purchased a shimmering beaded dress! Doesn't seem like her style!]