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| photos by | Steven Hertzog |
Blink and you might miss the diversified industrial district thriving off of Bullene Street.
The Free State Brewery
On the surface, it’s a nondescript, even confusing, area of East Lawrence.
Traveling east on 19th Street just before hitting Haskell Avenue, it’s a good idea to maintain a northward gaze if the goal is to find Bullene Avenue. If the address in question is Moodie Road, best keep your glance to the south or right. It’s just one of those cartographic quirks of the area—one road, two separate identities split by a typically busy 19th Street.
It would be a stretch to say the row of mostly white, industrial-looking buildings that line Bullene/Moodie add a whole lot to the district’s character. But that’s where it might be worth a closer look. If it’s heating and air-conditioning equipment you’re looking for, you’re in the right place; there are no fewer than three notable companies that have made their bones here for years. If there’s a need for civil engineering, one of Lawrence’s top firms calls Moodie Road home. A cooperative from Ottawa operates the old south grain elevators, which sit along what once was a prominent city railway but today has been converted to a public jogging/walking/cycling trail. Small engine repair? Bullene has you covered there, as well.
The whold world is one neighborhood. 
–Franklin D. Roosevelt
And let’s not forget that some of the city’s tastiest suds are manufactured at the Free State Brewing Co.’s bottling facility, just next door to the north of the grain elevator.
Put it all together, and it makes for one of the most vibrant and diversified industrial districts in the city.
“When we started looking (for space for the bottling facility), the building wasn’t available,” says Chuck Magerl, owner of Free State Brewing, of the facility’s location at 1927 Moodie Rd. “But we were lucky it became available. The area has good truck access, good loading dock facilities.
“There’s really a lot of traffic on 19th Street. A lot of people use it as access to skirt around Lawrence, to head to Kansas City on K-10 or wherever. I enjoy telling people we’re right next to the south grain elevator. It’s an industrial area that’s really suited us well. It’s turned out to be a very good spot for us.”
The Free State Brewery
Growing From the Inside
As an East Lawrence resident for 45 years, Magerl has been an up-close witness to a lot of transitions in businesses and streetscapes. He loves recalling stories and businesses from the old neighborhood: an old used-furniture store, a couple of Laundromats, a sale barn, cannery, popcorn company, even an old fur and trapping business. He’s proud to point out that some recycled wood used in building the original Free State Brewery, at 636 Massachusetts St., and in rebuilding his garage at home were remnants of the cypress vats that were part of the vinegar works in the East Lawrence location that now houses the Cider Gallery.
He says a majority of the 12 employees at the Free State bottling facility live in East Lawrence and bike or walk to work.
“The building has some unusual configurations mostly due to the railroad being adjacent to the back,” Magerl says. “We have good-size production there. Thirty barrels can be brewed at a time, double what we do at the downtown location. And the tanks have greater capacity.”
In fact, there are 21 stainless steel tanks of various sizes and functions inside the building, including fermentation vessels, lagering or storage tanks, water storage and attemperation tanks. Conveyor lines run three to four days a week, transporting a variety of beers to one of the company’s two wholesalers (Standard Beverage, in Kansas, Major Brands, in Missouri). A vast array of aromas, from malt to hops to the unique aromatics of fermentation, permeate the space at all times. There are sounds of conveyors, the hum of pumps, the honking of forklifts, air compressors kicking on—an array of the sonics of production.
“It’s not a palace,” he says. “It’s a beer workshop.”
Despite finding the right building, the road to bottling Free State beer was a bumpy one. In the fall of 2008, just days before the planned start of operations, a fire gutted the building, delaying production five months, until March 2009 (the downtown brew pub opened in February 1989).
Since that rough start, the company has rebounded nicely. Last year, more than 3.1 million bottles of beer were produced in a combination of kegs, bottles and cans.
“It’s worked out well for us over the years,” Magerl says. “We have the scale here to be successful.”
Wayne and Diane Duncan owners of Dunco Heating and Cooling, right: Anthony, a Dunco technician finishes a service call in Lawrence
Heating, Cooling and More
It says a lot about the Bullene/Moodie business strip that several businesses compete directly with each other yet get along very well. It helps that each of the businesses are well established and have deep roots in the area. Scott Temperature Equipment is a third-generation heating and air-conditioning service and repair business that’s been at its 1815 Bullene location about 50 years. Dunco Heating & Cooling primarily is a residential HVAC replacement business that’s been at 1729 Bullene since 1987. Ferguson Plumbing, at 1801 Bullene, is a branch of a national company, Ferguson Enterprises, and mostly services plumbing needs in new and remodeled homes, apartments and hotels, but also works in heating and cooling systems.
Wayne Duncan, owner of Dunco Heating & Cooling, explains the companies get along so well, if one has temporarily run out of a supply, they’ll actually borrow from one another.
“It’s a good relationship; everyone gets along,” Duncan says. “Lawrence has a large enough population that we don’t have to get nasty. We all keep an eye out for each other.”
Roger Scott, owner of Scott Temperature Equipment, calls Dunco a “friendly competitor.” His father started the business 75 years ago and bought the property on Bullene a half-century ago. Today, Roger’s oldest daughter, Sarah Jane, serves as the company’s president and supervises the 14 employees that service heating and air-conditioning systems, refrigeration, ground-sourcing pumps and duct work.
“We’re pretty locked in as far as space here,” Scott says. “But this area is pretty stable. We like it here.”
Five employees operate out of Ferguson Plumbing, but it works with service contractors in installing plumbing and heating and cooling systems. It also distributes all materials and goods.
“Home centers often refer to us for expertise,” says Kurt Kuenning, branch manager. “We have a lot of information and resources. We can cater to anyone. We’re happy to help anyone we can.”
Kuenning adds that being so close to 23rd Street means easy access for trucks shipping in and out of the location.
Above: Ferguson Plumbing
Below: The Scotts of Scott Temperature
“We have a decent amount of customers close to our branch,” he says.
Dunco will actually be moving away from Bullene Avenue next year. Space has become an issue, and Duncan says the company and its 22 employees have outgrown its current facilities.
“This location has served us well,” he says. “But we’re in the process of building a new facility at 1920 Delaware. This location has easy access. It’s close to the highway. We can get everything we need here.
“We’ve just kind of outgrown the area,” he continues. “The idea is to keep growing, and we should have plenty of area to grow (at the new location).”
Duncan says the company’s current 5,000 square feet of workspace will grow to a little more than 14,000 square feet with the new facility.
A Functional Location
CFS Engineers arrived in Lawrence, originally at 13th and Oregon streets, but moved to its current location at 2121 Moodie Rd. as 2014 rolled over into 2015. The company is a full-service civil engineering design firm.
In addition to design, CFS also contains a geo-tech department that performs soil surveys for new construction sites and projects, and makes design recommendation reports. It also performs testing on steel and welding. Design projects for public and private clients include street, storm, waterline, parking lots, grading and bridges.
The company started in 1961 in Topeka but now has locations in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas, Jefferson City, Missouri, and Springfield, Missouri.
“I’ve seen where the reestablishment of business has grown (in East Lawrence),” says Aaron Gaspers, associate with CFS Engineers. “You can see that with things like the Venture Park project.
“We like the function of our building here. It has the ability to have an office setting, and then we have a lab downstairs,” he explains. “It’s a good fit for what we provide and a good-size building for five of us.”
Andrew Wilson owner of Wilson Small Engine Repair
Good for the Little Guy
While the Bullene/Moodie corridor serves as home to large and well-established businesses, it also is a place that welcomes the one-man shop.
Andrew Wilson, a 20-plus-year Lawrence firefighter by trade, started Wilson Small Engine Repair out of a garage off Learnard Avenue several years ago but moved his operation to Bullene five years ago.
“It’s a little off the beaten path,” Wilson says. “Price definitely came into play. Rent on the west side (of town) costs an arm and a leg. I’m close to where I started. It was an easy move.”
Wilson says he’s been working on small engines as long as he can remember … at Deems Farm Equipment, in the machine shop at the old Alvamar Country Club. In high school, he won proficiency ratings in agricultural mechanics from the Lawrence High School branch of Future Farmers of America and earned a scholarship to an area technical school, but that’s when he decided to become a firefighter.
“About nine years ago, I got heavy into rebuilding and refurbishing equipment,” he says. “I built the business from there. I started with handheld equipment, but it’s grown from there.”
Wilson performs repair and maintenance on anything from trimmers to chainsaws, some compact utility tractors, pressure washers and log splitters. He’s also a dealer of merchandise for RedMax, EFCO, Makita and Encore.
As the business grows, Wilson says he’s been drawing more customers from across the city.
“If the business starts to grow as I hope, I’ll probably have to look for more space,” he says. “But I’d like to stay in the same area. I like it here, and thus far, it’s been good for business.”
