Wichita ยท South Central: Wichita
Ambassador Hotel Wichita
The 14-story Union National Bank Building of 1926, where Dockum's drugstore saw a 1958 sit-in.
- Built
- 1926Built 1926 as the Union National Bank Building, an office tower; hotel since its 2010s conversion.
- Style
- Chicago School
- Architect
- K. M. Vitzthum and J. J. Burns
- Type
- Boutique hotel
- Rooms
- 117
- Area
- South Central: Wichita
- Credentials
- Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The story
The 14-story Union National Bank Building, financed by the Edith Rockefeller McCormick Trust of Chicago, was completed in 1926 and was then the tallest building in Kansas. The Dockum Drug Store occupied the north half of the first floor. In July 1958 Black youth in Wichita staged a sit-in at Dockum’s, which the nomination says predated the better-known Greensboro sit-in of February 1960 and led to the desegregation of the chain’s Wichita stores. A $23 million rehabilitation with federal and state historic tax credits turned the vacant building into the 117-room hotel, recognized with a Kansas Preservation Alliance Medallion Award in 2013. The Dockum speakeasy in the basement recalls the drugstore.
Good to know
- Address: 104 S. Broadway, Wichita, KS 67202
Sources (4)
- https://www.kansashistory.gov/natreg/natreg_listings/view/1523
- https://www.kansashistory.gov/resource/national_register/nominationsNRDB/Sedgwick_UnionNatlBankBldgNR.pdf
- https://archives.kansaspreservationalliance.org/awards/ambassador-hotel-union-national-bank-building/
- https://www.visitwichita.com/listing/ambassador-hotel-autograph-collection/27986/
Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.