The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-16
Fillmore Street Controversy to
Again Be i'm Council.
Controversy Is Over Five Feet
of Ground.
CHANGE In THE STREET
Trouble Dates Back to Adjust
ment Of Lines.
Now a Question Where Pave
ment Shall Be.

Instead of being adjusted by the re-
cent decision of the streets and walks
committee of the city council, the
Fillmore street paving difficulty seems
to be one of the things that is never
settled-like Tennyson's brook it goes
on forever.
The next battle will be on the floor
of the council Monday night, when
Councilman Neil will lead an attack
on the report of the streets and walks
committee If this attack fails. the
fight will again be taken into the
courts The legal attack will be direct
ed against DR.. ]. c. McClintock. in an
effort to compel him to give up pos
session of the land which the city va
Gated and which thereby became part
of his front yard.
This Fillmore street row mas been go
ing on so long that the parties to it
have almost lost sight of the original
grounds of contention. 1t has reached
the stage where some of them don't
speak. At first it was purely a gen
tleman's disa greement' which would
be smoothed over and adjusted without
the disturbance of a feather. But now
it is nothing but a neighbOrhOod row,
of uncommon vigor.
And the trouble all comes because
Mr.. McClintock and his friends want
the north end of the pavement between
215 feet further east than seems desir-
able to Mr.. Low and his friends 1t
hardly seems worth while to spend
lot of time and money quarreling about
ment is once laid, nobody could tell
with the naked eye which side secured
the disputed 21z feet But both sides
say they are fighting for principle,
and when anybody gets that notion
we'll imbedded in his system, there is
likely to be a fireworks display later
on.
1t requires quite lot of ancient his
tory to get back to the early founda-
lions of the present trouble 1t seems
to have begun in 1895. At that time
Fillmore street was opened 100 feet
wide a short distance south of Thir-
teenth. and then opened only 80 feet
wide for another short distance. 1t
was suggested that in order to make
the street of uniform width, a little
block of land about 20 feet wide and
100 feet long marked "a in the plat.
should be vacated, and added to the
McClintock corner 1t was a good thing
for the McClintock property, and was
consented to by Mr.. Low who wanted
to be friendly.
The south end of Fillmore. at Thir-
teenth street, was at this particular
moment just so feet wide. and 1T was
at this time that the pavement on Tnlr-
teenth and north on Fillmore was laid
The pavement intersection projecting
to the property line was built IN the
A few years later the Eckert family
plated the south part of the block,
and opened Fillmore clear down
through to Fourteenth, but they
opened it only rs feet wide. The
makes the north half of the street in
this block so feet wide and the south
half rs feet. Again il was arranged
to vacate land in front of the Nc
Clintock property to make the street
rs feet wide the whole distance, and
another strip five feet wide, marked |
''B'' on the plat. was annexed to the |
front of the McClintock property. |
Strictly according to law, this va |
Gated land should have probably been |
divided equally between the property |
on each side of the street, but as it
was managed the McClintOck prop |
erty got it all.
This reduction in the width of Fill |
more to IS feet left the pavement in |
tersection at the north end of the |
street five feet closer to the Nc |
Clintock proptry line than to the |
property line of the land on the east /
of the street then owned by M A. |
Low, but now owned by his daughter, |
Mrs. a. T. Reid.
When the people on Fillmore street