As work progresses on the widening of Memorial Boulevard, the original home of Honest John’s gift shop and restaurant is going down. In 1954, “Honest John” Barker created “Kaw-Liga”, a 25-foot concrete depiction of a rather surprised looking “indian” in front of this structure. There was a speaker in the statue with which Barker would lure tourists in to shop his offerings. By 1960, the indian had been hauled up to the newly-created Stone Drive/11W/Robert E. Lee Highway where Barker continued the business until 1970 or so.
Other businesses occupied this building off and on. The only one I recall was Abe’s Pies, which supplied quite decent pies to restaurants in the city.