The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-08
New Buildings Amounted to
Over 81, 100000 Year.
This Was in 1882 and Again in
1889.
THEN THE CRASH CAM
In 1900 the Total Was Less
Than 100000.
Since Then Topeka Has Been
on Up Grade.


IL will be a long time till Topeka
equals the building record which was
Established in boom days"
Imagine a town about two-thirds
the present size of Topeka; imagine
That town crowded full of men, wo-
men and spectators; every hotel run
ming over; two room houses in North
Topeka renting for SIS a month and
ether locations in proportion; land
which has now settled to a normal
value of $500 a lot selling for $500,
$4,000 or $1,000 a lot; and imagine,
aa a result of it all, everybody borrow
ing money on fictitious values, and
contracting for the erection of dwell
fngs. factories, and four story buS1-
ness houses with a magnificent frenzy
which people now look back upon
with a sort of superstitious awe.
This was Topeka in boom days;
these were the times when Topeka
was almost rebuilt from top to bot
tom in less than u decade, and these
were the days which were followed,
in 1890, with a collapse which shook
the very foundations of the state, and
from which it took another decade to
recover
Topeka certainly did go some dur
9ng the boom, and now that it is all
over, and the people who were
wrecked and ruined are beginning to
either die off or get on their feet
again, it is interesting to look back
over those eventful days, see how To-
peka rose, fell, and how of recent
years ii has been again coming to the
front with steady strides.
There were really two blooms" the
drst hit Topeka when the Santa Fe
shops were built here in 1882, and was
gwelled by the construction of the
first street car lines Things then
qufeted down a little: not enough to
hITf n tn OF
pie a breathing spell before the big
boom of 1887, IS and 80 COM
menced to get in its work.
Nothing so well shows the meteoric
development during the boom, the
terrible panic of 1890, and the gradual
recovery as the welI-kept records of
building permits, which for % years
have been part of the systematic
management of the Topeka fire de-
partment under Chief G. o. Wilmarth
The city has no records which are so
complete, so Iegible and so accurate
as those kept by Chief Wilmarth.
From the very first permit, issued Oc-
tober Is, 1880, to G. A Sperry for a
$500 residence on Tyler street, down
to the days entries, these records
have been Systematically and uni
formly made and kept
Keeping in mind the fact that the
year 1904 with about S675,0O worth of
new building in progress has been a
mighty good year in the estimation of
the people of Topeka, just take look
back over the records and see the pace
they set in the days of the boom.
. In 1882, when the first boom was at
It's height, the aggregate amount of
building was $1,092, 557. OF this amount
2lS,OOO went into the construction of
the Santa Fe round house, machine
shop, paint shop and other buildings
some of which are new entirely dis
placed by newer structures. Other big
buildings which were erected that year
were the Topeka Opera house at a cost
(r0n619nn
peka mill, $4,000; Office block, $50 900;
MISUNDERSTANDING block, $4,000
There was also a tremendous lot of
building in 1888, and again the Santa Fe
did a big share. The total for the year
was SS41, OBJ and the Santa Fe contrib
ute1 is general office building at S12O-
600. Its machine shop at $4,000, and it's
store house at $3.50 The Crosby mill
and elevator were also built this year
at cost of $4,000; the First Presby-
terrain church, $4,000; the Curry build
ing, SIS, 600.
Following 1888 came a luu for three
years, in which the permits aggregated
$416, 1000. S472, 900 and $519OOO respective
" Then the fireworks commelce6
The year 1SS1 started : nl rec
ord for $Ss3,SS1. There vc~a no ex-
tremely costly buildings erected. but
permits for substantial business blocks
costing upwards of $4,000 were issued
thick and fast. The Crawford block
went up this year at a cost of $30, 600,
d J. Chase built a $4,000 residence;
Henry Bennett stable 100000: ]. Il.
Hudson, business block 5000; Black
man & Sardou, business block, $50 900;
Throop hotel addition, $50 900.
In 1883, the record fell off a bit;
only $76S,74O worth of building was
done. Then came 1889, and the big
gest building year in the history of
Topeka
The total for 1889 was s1.1Oe.649.
Five and ten thousand dollar buildings
were thick as huckleberries; dwell
hngs were started by the hundred:
there were not enough carpenters,
masons and laborers to do the work
and wages were UP out of sight. The
First National bank was built at S35,-l
O00; the Forbes block, $2SOOO: the
Keith block, 100000: the Dennis
block. $4,000: the Hicks tenements
at $4,000 and the Stevenson flats at
$4,000.
Things went to pieces with a crash
tom, it dropped out; some people sus-
pect there never was such a thing as
a bottom to the boom of SO. The new
building permits in 1900 aggregated
only $1SS,6sS- A few dispirited con-
tractors kept at work on the tag ends
of-the 1889 jobs, finishing them up in
the hope that times would change and
they would get their money. But the
only change in the times was when
the Populists swept the state in the