University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, August 24, 197
In 1863 Lawrence was raviled by Quantrill's pro-slavery raiders. This photograph, taken in 1868 or 1869, facing south from what is now 9th and Massachusetts streets, shows the business district apparently fully recovered. (Photo courtesy of the Elizabeth M. Watkins Community Museum.)
The first house in Lawrence was built in 1854 and sold to the Emigrant Aid Society. It was destroyed in 1881. (Photo courtesy of the Elizabeth B. Walkins Community Museum.)
In 1904 a group of Lawrence residents proudly posed with the city's first electric street car. (Photo courtesy of the Elizabeth M. Watkins Community Museum.)
This 1915 photograph, facing south from 10th and Massachusetts streets, shows many signs of city improvement. Among these are paved streets, sidewalks and electric street cars. (Photo courtesy of the Elizabeth M. Watkins Community Museum.)
VIEWS OF LAWRENCE.
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Taken in 1903, this scene of the Kansas River from the west, shows the Bowersock Mill and the Kansas River Bridge. The bridge washed out in a flood that year. (Photo courtesy of the Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.)
Story by Diane Wolkow
The Lawrence Toll Bridge, which was begun in 1863 before Quantrill's raid, was completed one year later, even though one of its contractors and one of its workmen were killed in the raid. Lawrence City also was completed that year.
Before Lawrence was a decade old, it was raided and burned twice. After the buildings destroyed by the second raid were replaced, the city entered a 10-year boom. Population increased, and the city became a wave of railroad building enthusiasm.
The tolli bridge was the source of many town disputes. Citizens demanded that the tolli should be abolished. A steam ferry went into competition with the bridge and ripped it off the 25 cents on each way. Taking the ferry was also faster than riding a horse-drawn wagon across the bridge.
A dam across the river was completed in 1874. It supplied the city's electricity for many years, and until the advent of refrigerators, it supplied Lawrence households with ice du.ng the winter months.
In the 1860s, limestone houses were built, and later at the turn of the century, elaborate wooden houses with cupolas and lattice work.
In 1903, a flood ravaged Lawrence; in
1912, a tornado destroyed many homes
and buildings.
In the 1870s, Lawrence also felt a need for a city jail. The first one was built on the corner of Eighth and Vermont streets.
The first house in Lawrence, built in 1854, was hardly a house at all. It was made of logs and wasn't even a good specimen of a log cabin.
Still Lawrence built on.
Today the Lawrence neighborhood are a mixture of old and new. The elaborate old houses still stand. Some are well kept and inhabited by Lawrence residents. Others are dilapidated and known as run-down houses. Many of the old houses are modern apartment buildings and newly built suburban homes.
More of Lawrence's historic character is retained in the downtown area, where renovation programs have been going on since 1772. The city's oldest plumbing, which extends through 1995, is dedicated to the preservation of the unique character of Lawrence.
Lawrence, Kansas, July 27, 1977, facing southwest.
Photograph by Kent Van Hoesen
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