Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum

Housed in Wichita's ornate former city hall, a Romanesque Revival building of 1892 nicknamed the Palace of the Plains, this museum traces the city's growth from a cattle-drive railhead to an aircraft-manufacturing center. Period rooms recreate a Victorian parlor, a general store, and an early drugstore, while galleries cover the aviation industry that earned Wichita the name Air Capital of the World. The landmark building, with its clock tower and red sandstone trim, is itself a centerpiece of the collection and a fixture of the old downtown.