WICHITA — Thanks to some gusty wind in a recent storm, a blast from the past has been revealed along East Douglas.
The old Kurdian Travel Agency sign from 1960 is now visible because a metal front that was over the door at 1321 E. Douglas partially blew off.
“So that’s what happened,” says Haig Kurdian, who opened the agency in 1959 with help from his father, Harry. Harry Kurdian’s art gallery used to be in the space.
“I’ve had people all over the city saying, ‘Gosh, I was driving . . . on Douglas, and I saw the sign,’ ” Haig Kurdian says. “I thought that sign was long since gone, to tell you the truth.”
He loves that it’s not.
“It’s very interesting to see those green letters pop out at me again,” Kurdian says. “It’s very nostalgic. It brings back memories.”
Allen Woolf is thankful for the wind, too. He owns Total Printing Solutions, which is in the space now. When the wind partially blew off the metal, Woolf took it completely off and liked what he saw.
There’s exposed brick, which he’ll leave. But he’ll paint over the agency name.
“We’ll have to do it sooner than later,” Woolf says. “We had somebody come in yesterday and ask where the travel agency was. We just laughed.”
Kurdian has had a good laugh, too.
“It’s been delightful,” he says. “It’s given us a chuckle.”