The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-08-07
The CITY OF HAYS
an Unprecedented Boom
in Progress:
314.eOO.OO DOLLARS
Being Expended by Her Citizens
in Building Up and BeautifYing
the City this Year.

The expenditures for building oper-
ations in Hays which have been started
this summer, will make a total of S314,-
10000. This is not an estimate but an
actual compilation of data collected.
According to the assessor the increase
in the population of Hays, excluding all
Normal students, is over three hundred
people Unless than year,
This spring and summer in the terri
tory outside of Hays, but within its
trading territory, the Hays lumber
yards have sold materials for building
between fifty and ffty-five new farm
houses which will range in cost from
$3.50 to $4,000. The larger per cent will
be on the heavy side of the list
Of this grand total of 1914, 500 90
about S92, 10000 is being spent in build
ing new homes. This sum devoted to
home building in the city of Hays during
one season means much and no comment
is needed. 1t means that Hays is the
coming ''home town" of Western Kan
sas and that the schools, the college
and the Normal are really the drawing
factors which the heads of these insti-
tutions have been telling Hays for
sone time
Of course the largest building is
Sheridan Coliseum for which the last
legislature appropriated 100000 and
for which the people of Western Kan
sas will contribute $4,000 for a pipe
organ.
The next largest sum will be the new
S85, 600 hospital. Anthony Jacobs was
awarded the contract for building 1t,
this week, and his contract calls for
S73, 600 The lighting, heating and fix
lures will amount to over S12, 600. The
addition to the convent which is just
being completed, cost $500.
There will be no new buildings at the
experiment station this biennium.
The Fredorovicz theatre is being
built this summer at cost of approx
irnately SO, 800. When this building
is completed it will be very fine little
structure and viii seat between 100 and
$50 people. 1t will contain comfortable
opera chairs and the booth for the mo
ton picture operation will be absolutely
fire-proof. The stage will be 27 feet
wide and will contain places for curtain
drops, scene shifting and the required
number of dressing rooms so that 1T
may be turned into small theatre for
the production of plays, etc.
One of the interesting homes being
IL - II
mer, is the one which H. A. Nickles is
building as a silver wedding present to
his wife. Mr.. and Mrs. Nickles cele-
brated their 25th anniversary last
December, and in way Mr.. Nickles
surprised his wife by telling her of this
present Mrs. Nickles has built the
home IN the way she wished. She says
that it IS the result of twenty-six years
planning and that for long, long time
she has been looking forward to some
summer when she would have her home
as she wished it. Mrs. Niekies is
particularly anxious that the word
house or the word residence" shall
not be used in speaking of her ''home. :"
Il is distinctively home with all the
c1i4Seniences of the real American home
and Ii has none of the so-called friils.
A very noticeable thing about the home
is the fact that it contains seventy-two
large windows This is one of the hob
bies of Mrs. Nickles, "more light and
more air."
Upon entering the Nickles home from
the wide front veranda, you step into
the reception hall; to the right is the
Living room" as Mrs. Nickles calls it,
15x29 with its built-in book cases, beau
tiful fireplace, and immense French
plate glass windows To the right OF
the living room is the sun porch with
the woodwork finished in black and the
walls grap-green. This will be a sort
of conservatory and Mrs. Nickles' pas
sion for plants and flowers will be salts
fed in it. The dining room is in white
enamel and it has large built-in buffet.
| The kitchen is a most conveniently ar