407 S Van Buren St
Abilene, KS 67410
Farmhouse Restaurant Available · Retail Property For Sale

- Please call for a list of fixtures and equipment that remains with the property - Seats approximately 225-240 people - On a gentle hill, just slightly west of Abilene on a winding curve of old U.S. 40, stands a small grove of skyward pines. Lena Benson bought the house on the hill and on Friday the 13th in 1939, she opened her farmhouse with a stag party for 100 men and “foodstuffs” were served from that day on, until 1974 when she closed for retirement. Lena fed tourists from coast to coast, high ranking White House officials, secret service men, foreign diplomats, governors, and Abilene’s Favorite Son, President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In the fall of 1994, with Lena in failing health and wanting to sell her life’s work, fate would find Ed and June Kuntz, longtime restauranteurs in Abilene. By January 1995, Ed and June purchased the tract known as Lena’s. With help from Lena’s sister Nellie, Nellie’s daughter Beverly and husband Al, and a longtime employee and friend Walter, they were able to bring back to life the “Farmhouse on the Hill,” after nearly 20 years of dormancy. - Located in SE Abilene where Van Buren St. turns into Old U.S. 40 - Abilene, with a population of 6,380, is the county seat of Dickinson County. Major highways, including I-70, KS-15 and Interstate I-135, link the city with a large trade area that encompasses a population of more than 1.3 million people within a 100-mile radius. The nearest large cities are Denver to the west, Kansas City of the northeast, Wichita to the south, and Tulsa to the southeast.