Decorations styling Lawrence’s buffalo sculpture have vanished recently.
Located near the intersection of Clinton Parkway and Lawrence Avenue, the Buffalo sculpture has long been loved by neighbors in Marvonne Meadows. As tradition, neighbors add festive embellishments to celebrate holidays and community happenings.
Deb Meyer is in her fourth year living in Marvonne Meadows, and the winter holiday season is just one time of year her neighborhood adorns the concrete buffalo.
Recently, a garland, a bow and lights went missing from the sculpture a day after neighbors put them up. Shortly before then, a “Be Thankful” sign disappeared. Some items could’ve been blown away by the wind, Meyer thought, but she and her neighbors are in the dark about who the potential culprits could be.
City spokesperson Maureen Brady confirmed via email Friday that the Lawrence Parks and Recreation department “knows about the longstanding neighborhood tradition of decorating the buffalo, and they do not remove any of the decorations.”
Sculptor Jim Patti designed the buffalo in 1988 as part of that year’s Kansas Sculpture Association Stone Symposium. Neighbors have created traditions for the sculpture, and community members from all around the city take part, too.
“Sometimes it’s kind of stealth,” Meyer said. “People will just come in the night and it’s decorated the next morning and no one will own up to who did it, but it’s always really a fun tradition for our neighborhood.”
People freely make additions to the sculpture sometimes; other times, Marvonne Meadows neighbors coordinate together. They use an email chain or Facebook group page to call out ideas.
Come holidays, the buffalo is decked out. It can be seen wearing a collar for Valentine’s Day, a garland for the Fourth of July and a witch’s hat for Halloween.
“The neighborhood just appreciates our community and the larger Lawrence area, and if this brings other people as much joy as it does us, we’re really happy about that,” Meyer said.
During the summer, Meyer decorated the buffalo to match construction going on in the area. She put a large, yellow tupperware bowl on its head to act as a construction hat and added a vest over its body. Safety glasses were the final touch, but those went missing after “somebody decided they needed them,” she said.
When the University of Kansas men’s basketball team advanced to the Final Four of the 2022 NCAA tournament — which the team ultimately won — Meyer hung a net on the buffalo to simulate a basketball net. She invited all the neighborhood kids to cut down a piece of the net and take it home, just like the players do after winning. That was a hit, she said.
With concerns that recent history might repeat itself, neighbors are wary to replace their recent Christmas decorations on the buffalo.
But they’re hoping, if the decorations are being taken, that people will continue allowing them to carry out their tradition for years to come — without the Grinch behavior.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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