Self-Guided Tours

There’s no penalty for traveling when it comes to Lawrence basketball sites!

Featuring exciting games, crucial locations, and amazing stories of coaches and players, Lawrence is a champion destination for basketball fans. Whether your primary passion is current hoops or the sport’s history, our city is a slam dunk!

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While cemeteries are the final resting place of friends, relatives, and community residents, they are also historical landscapes that reveal much about a community’s social, political, economic, religious, and ethnic history. In the Lawrence area, historic cemeteries give a fascinating glimpse into the town’s Free-State struggle, Civil War period, settlement days, and its flowering cultural and community interests.

This Lawrence area cemetery tour takes you to a home place burial site, a town settlement cemetery, an ethnic and institutional burial site, a memorial park, rural cemeteries and more.

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For Lawrence residents, the civil war that broke out in 1861 was merely a widening and intensification of the long-running Kansas-Missouri border conflict. Lawrence stood as a symbol of the Union cause for both Union and Confederate sympathizers.

After two years of brutal warfare along the border, Confederate guerilla leader William Clarke Quantrill decided to mount an attack on the town.

Quantrill assembled about 400 men in Missouri on August 18, 1863, and rode for Lawrence, eluding Union troops along the way. “The attack was perfectly planned,” one witness recounted. “Every man seemed to know his place. … The order was to burn every house and kill every man.” The unsuspecting citizens of Lawrence had been subjected to several previous and false alarms of attack and now were totally unprepared for Quantrill’s raid.

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Massachusetts Street (referred to by locals as “Mass Street”), is the main street that runs through Downtown Lawrence. The 600 – 1200 blocks of Mass Street are listed on the National Register of Historical Places under Lawrence’s Historical District. Most of the buildings were built between 1856 – 1953. This self-guided tour reveals the history on every block!

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Discover the rich history and striking visual identity of our community through a curated tour of its iconic historic landmarks. This overview highlights the unique evolution of Lawrence's civic, religious, and residential spaces, showcasing styles ranging from ornate 19th-century Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque to mid-century modern and bold brutalist designs. Explore how these architectural treasures tell a vibrant story of craftsmanship, resilience, and civic pride spanning over 150 years.

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Experience the cutting edge of sustainable residential design with this showcase of local homes meticulously crafted by KU's innovative Studio 804. These contemporary, infill properties push the boundaries of modern architecture by achieving elite LEED Platinum standards and pioneering net-zero energy efficiency. Every featured project highlights a deeply rooted commitment to universal ADA accessibility, green building materials, and smart-home integration designed to enhance community density.

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