Kansas Street

Kansas Street is one of Derry’s principal north-south arteries, running from the residential heights of Up-Mile Hill down through the business district and past the edge of the Barrens, a wild, overgrown ravine that cuts through the southwestern side of town. Its geography is central to the novel’s action: the street’s steep descent toward downtown, its boundary with the Barrens, and its connection to the Canal and the sewer system make it a threshold between the ordinary world of Derry and the monstrous realm beneath it. The street is the site of several of the Losers’ Club’s most formative encounters, both with each other and with the entity that haunts the town.

Geography and the Barrens

Kansas Street runs along the northeastern edge of the Barrens, separated from the steep, wooded slope by a rickety whitewashed railing. From this vantage point, characters can see the Kenduskeag Stream glittering through breaks in the foliage, the Derry Standpipe pointing skyward in the distance, and the smoke from the town dump rising beyond the trees. The street’s location makes it a natural point of entry into the Barrens for the Losers’ Club; Bill Denbrough often hides his bicycle, Silver, under the small wooden bridge where Kansas Street crosses one of the streams that feed into the Kenduskeag. The Barrens themselves are a messy tract of land about a mile and a half wide by three miles long, bounded by upper Kansas Street on one side and by the Old Cape housing development on the other. The street thus marks the boundary between the ordered, adult world of Derry and the wild, unsupervised space where the children play, explore, and eventually confront their deepest fears.

Key Events on Kansas Street

Kansas Street is the site of several of the novel’s most dramatic events. On the last day of school in June 1958, Ben Hanscom is walking along Kansas Street after visiting the library when Henry Bowers, Victor Criss, and Belch Huggins ambush him. Henry carves the letter “H” into Ben’s stomach with a Buck knife, and Ben escapes by falling backward over the railing and tumbling down into the Barrens. This fall leads to his first meeting with Bill Denbrough and Eddie Kaspbrak, and ultimately to the formation of the Losers’ Club. Later that same summer, the street is the site of the apocalyptic rockfight, when the Losers, now seven strong, face off against Henry and his gang in the gravel-pit at the end of the Barrens near the trainyards. The fight ends with the Losers driving Henry and his friends out of the Barrens, a decisive victory that cements their bond and their claim to the territory. Twenty-seven years later, in 1985, the Losers return to Derry and gather on Kansas Street before descending into the sewers for the final confrontation with It. The street is also where Beverly Marsh, fleeing from her abusive father, is chased by Henry and his gang, and where she is rescued by the Losers.

The Street as a Threshold

Kansas Street functions as a threshold between the ordinary and the extraordinary throughout the novel. It is a place where the mundane world of school, home, and adult authority gives way to the wild, dangerous, and liberating space of the Barrens. The street’s steep slope, the Up-Mile Hill, is a physical challenge that Bill Denbrough conquers on his bicycle, Silver, racing down it at breakneck speed to “beat the devil.” The street is also a place of observation and surveillance: from the railing, characters can look down into the Barrens and see the Standpipe, the dump, and the trainyards, but they can also be seen from below. This liminal quality makes Kansas Street a site of both danger and possibility, a place where the Losers can gather, plan, and prepare for their confrontations with the entity that lives beneath the town.

The Street’s Destruction

In the novel’s climax, the destruction of downtown Derry in the storm of May 31, 1985, also affects Kansas Street. The Standpipe, which stands at the top of Kansas Street near Memorial Park, collapses and rolls down the hill, destroying several houses and sending a tidal wave of water into the Barrens. The street itself is partially undermined by the flood, and the area around the intersection of Kansas, Main, and Center streets caves in, creating a huge crater that swallows much of downtown. The destruction of Kansas Street and the surrounding area marks the end of the cycle of violence that has plagued Derry for centuries, and the beginning of the town’s slow decline.