Wabash and Washington

[W. Gray]

This is a rather bad snippet view of Wabash and Washington Ave in 1885 from Sanborn Maps.

The courthouse is shown here on Wabash and would be here for another couple years until the second courthouse would be built at the location of the present courthouse.

I was aware of a well or cistern in the middle of the Randolph/Wabash intersection as water will come draining out through the brick pavement after a heavy rain. I was not aware of a cistern in the middle of the Washington/Wabash intersection. That is a pump located close to the hotel building.

When the courthouse opened in in the late 1870s, it was across the street from Tommy's saloon, which was gone by this time because Kansas went dry in 1880.

The Wabash courthouse had five offices on the first floor with the sheriff in the rear. The Kansas Thirteenth Judicial District courtroom was on the second floor and was carpeted.

The courthouse building was furnished by the citizens of Howard City as a result of a fund drive after they promised a court building as a major perk in the county seat election. Even though, Kansas law specified Howard City as the county seat of the new Elk County, Elk Falls and Longton challenged Howard City for the honor under another Kansas law (which any town in the county could still do today if they could collect enough signatures). Howard City won the first election, which was three-way with Longton and Elk Falls, but did not win by a majority vote. In the runoff,  Howard City won over Elk Falls.