Englewood, Kansas

ENGLEWOOD

Clark Co., KANSAS

“The Veritable New Chicago of the Great Southwest”

It was a cool April morning in 1976. We were driving north on U.S. 283 from Oklahoma towards Dodge City, Kansas. Just three miles north of the Oklahoma/Kansas border my AAA map showed a small dot with the name Englewood next to it. I assumed it was another of the many small farming towns scattered throughout the area.

Surprise! It was (and still is) a small farming town, BUT the downtown business district was something else!

Running east of the highway, the 100-foot wide, dirt Main Street was lined nearly solid for two blocks with buildings on both sides of the street. Nothing unusual, except they were all vacant! Natural brick stores soldiered along the south side, while silver painted masonry stores lined the north side. Vacant windows stared out into the cool morning stillness. Here on the southwestern Kansas prairie was a stereotypical ghost town, the likes of which are seldom seen anymore.

Englewood was not always this quiet! In November, 1884, the Englewood Town Company was formed to promote the richness of the rolling grasslands north of the Cimarron River. The town company received a government deed for 640 acres was deeded to them by the government, and a town site was surveyed and platted. The plat was filed by Ernest A. Reiman on February 4, 1885.

At that time the town sites were made available to the public with the following announcement:

"We hereby deed & convey to the public for public (purposes) use,

all the Streets & Alleys as shown or exhibited in the above Plat and

the town shall be known as the town of Englewood."

The name Englewood came from Colonel Clarence D. Perry of the adjoining Claremont Ranch. He was a progressive farmer and a leading citizen of the area AND one of the founders of Englewood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. With the founder’s Chicago area roots, embryonic Englewood was touted as the “Veritable New Chicago of the Great Southwest.” The Englewood Town Company promoted their new town and the people came...and went. Businesses grew up and the future looked rosy.

Promotion was heavy, even prior to establishment of any source of income for its potential citizens. Cattle raising and farming were developed, and Englewood eventually became an important stop, drawing on the cattle herds heading north to Dodge City from Texas. Since it was only a few miles above "No-man's land" (Oklahoma), Englewood was a rather exciting frontier town.

Throughout its early growth period in l885-l886, talk of railroads passing through created a lot of outside interest. Englewood was being promoted as "the Star of the Western Empire" by the immodest Englewood newspaper -the Clark County Chief.

In early February, 1886 with the town only a year old, the Chief reported the following businesses in operation:

· two hotels-the Cattle King, and the Englewood House

· four dry goods/grocery stores

· three drug stores

· two lumber yards

· a newspaper (first issue April 1885)

· a restaurant

· the Post office was established Feb 04, 1885

· many other businesses also listed.

There were also plans to build a church and a school.

1887 was the peak year for this first boom. Some 5000 residents were counted in the entire county. Ashland and Englewood were the leading cities, and no individual population estimates are available. In 1980, only 2599 residents appeared on the census!

There was a prohibition on liquor, and cider was the hardest drink legally obtainable. There is also no record as to what was served to the drivers on the road to Dodge City. One source also stated that Englewood was a wide open community, and since it was so close to the border, law enforcement was difficult. (Englewood was "officially" a dry town, but due to its location and popularity, some of those “other businesses” may have been saloons. Who knows what was served to the drovers? )

In May of 1887, civilization, in the form of a combination skating rink/opera hall came. It was 50 feet by 20 feet in size, and was available for "any legitimate purpose." The brick school was up at this time, and the first church building was almost completed. Englewood was at the peak of its boom, and the newspapers proclaimed its glories far and wide.

By September the railroad was completed and Englewood was the terminus with an attractive, wood-framed railroad depot. Inside the railroad depot was a telegraph office. The town was at the top of the world. Dreams of a major city in southwestern Kansas seemed assured, and everyone was looking forward to it.

Then a depression began, drought caused agricultural problems and a general disillusionment and malaise set in. Many homeowners and smaller farms sold out, or were forced into bankruptcy by virtue of not being able to make mortgage payments. Many of those unable to meet their financial obligations just packed up and left. The banks then foreclosed on these properties. Then many of the banks went under. Land titles became muddied and confused. Many parcels of land were just abandoned, untitled, or without clear titles. I have a copy of a plat map that shows many lots and even some blocks of lots, as "vacated." This land problem coupled with a generally dim economic outlook caused a mass exodus. Three years previously, people couldn't get to Englewood fast enough, now they couldn't get out fast enough.

The entire county suffered the same fate, and by 1897 only 1140 people remained in the entire county! Despite the economic downturn, the original 1885 school was remodeled in 1897. Then in 1902 another room was added. In 1910 a new school was built, the old one being converted into a sanitarium. In 1911 it was converted again, this time into a residence. Then in 1934 the 1885 era school, cum sanitarium, cum residence, was torn down, and the bricks used for the pool area of the city park by the WPA, an early-day example of recycling! The 1910 school continued in use until 1969, when it closed its doors for the last time.

In 1899, bad weather and drought had pretty well wiped out the remaining cattle and by 1906 most of the big cattle ranches were gone. Colonel Perry still continued to operate his ranch, and he offered to sell his clear-titled land to the town to relocate to. Englewood’s leaders jumped at the chance to make a clean, new start. Chances of rebirth created waves of excitement in the faded old town. Good to his word, Perry sold out and a new town site was surveyed and platted on his land. By the end of the year, Englewood had been reborn, one and a half miles south of the old location. Many of the businesses relocated and the new site began to grow, albeit much slower than during the original boom twenty years previously.

Shortly after selling to the developers of "New Englewood," Colonel Perry left Kansas. Less than two years later, on July 6, 1908, he was buried in Riverside, California, the victim of an early-day automobile accident.

Colonel Perry's legacy, Englewood, survived.

Unfortunately, many of the residents of the original town site did not relocate. Englewood, the "…veritable New Chicago of the Great Southwest" was now a very sleepy, dusty farm town spread over two sites a mile and a half apart.

“New” Englewood slowly filled in. During all the years of growing, fading and rebirth, Englewood was fortunate in having been spared a visit by the red devil - fire. In February of 1908 that changed. The smell of smoke wafted across the town, and before the smell dissipated, the entire west side of the business district was reduced to ashes. Despite a new promise, a new birth and a new location, this fire killed the spirit of Englewood's people. Stagnation began. Englewood slipped into a slumber from which it has never fully recovered. Despite that, the remaining people still enjoyed life, and in 1910 even staged what looks like may have been a parade. Whether this photo showed a patriotic parade or it was just a fancied up wagon advertising Lehman Hink’s Englewood Mercantile store’s “9 Cent Sale” is unclear.

At this same time, Samuel (Lehman’s brother?) ran a shoe repair business in a single-story storefront on Main Street, adjacent to a couple other stores such as Peter Schuttler’s Wagons and the H.C Power & Company two-story store which sold hardware and furniture, and also offered undertaking! On either side of the post office, which was located on Main Street, were several stores. East of the post office was the Donnell Store, while to the west was an automobile parts store. Note the tires on the wall behind the counter. The glass-fronted display case on the left was filled with boxes of Michelin Inner Tubes, while advertisements for Firestone Cord Tires, Boyce Thermometers, Red Seal Batteries and Genuine Ford Parts lined the walls above the display case and under the tires in the rear. In 1904-1905 Samuel and Etta Hink lived just southwest of Englewood. Etta worked in the Donnell Store. In 1906, they lived in a different home in “Old Town”.

A high school was built in 1924-1925, and it operated until 1966, when it was closed and moved to Ashland.

In 1959, the last passenger train loaded at Englewood, and the depot was sold.

In 1970, the Methodist church closed its doors, and today, only the Christian Church still has services. It only has about 30 members now!

In 1984 I was researching for a major article on Englewood, and was in contact with a number of residents of the town and the county. I was told that the main street I visited in 1976, had four roofs collapse, and two buildings torn down. "New Town" only had a post office, a repair shop, and a beer parlor. One block north was a still active Coop elevator, and three blocks south is a gas station and a cafe. "Old Town," northwest of "New Town" was virtually deserted, with only about a dozen folks still living there. About a third of its area had returned to farmland, while the former business district was nothing but dust and rubble. Even so, it was still a legal part of Englewood! Yet the post office was still open.

We returned in August 1993, while enroute to an Iowa vacation. Time had indeed taken its toll. Main Street looked much more neglected, and the once-magnificent rows of buildings had begun to deteriorate. It was sad to see the decay, but again, that seems to be the life cycle of many of these old towns.

In 2000, Clark County had a population of 2390. The only populated towns were Ashland, the county seat with a population of 975, Minneola with a population of 717, and Englewood, population 109. Each also still has an operating post office. This is still only half the population of the county reached during the boom years of 1885-1887 when some 5000 people lived in the county.

In December 2010 I received an E-mail and photo from Jim Spencer with some additional information.

“Attached is a photo of Englewood's main street (Claremont, I believe) taken November 10, 2006, looking east on Claremont across highway 283. The photo is a compilation of two shots taken seconds apart to get the panorama. When I was there in the summer of 1958, the area within the red trapezoid was Main Street USA. I can't remember all of the businesses there, but there was a bustling café. In fact, there were two cafés. At any rate, the block was filled with buildings on both sides of the street.”

(Contributed by Jim Spencer December 10, 2010)

In my 1976 shot above, there are still some remnants of that once busy street. It’s sad to see the fading of this once-magnificent town, and I hope this page will help preserve not only the history of this old town, but share what it has been like for hundreds if not thousands of other now-badly faded farm towns scattered across America’s Heartland. What is still there is often only a tiny piece of the entire story. There's no telling what treasures lie buried in the dust of the Kansas prairie here, but one thing is certain. This magnificent ghost from Kansas' past is still standing, albeit only a fragile shell and tiny portion of the former boom town that it once was.

Englewood is a falling star in the galaxy of Kansas towns, and has fallen on hard times. It truly is a member of the family of Ghost Town USA!

Today, Englewood is quiet, a wide spot on the road to Dodge City. It sits on US Highway 283, three miles north of the state line, about 50 miles south of Dodge City in the southwestern part of Kansas.

ENGLEWOOD is one of the 80 or so towns featured in my newest book, GHOST TOWNS: Yesterday & Today^TM^.

Location:

· S½ Sec 36, T34S, R25W / N½ Sec 1, T35S, R25W, 6^th Principal Meridian and 40° Base Line, Englewood Twp.

· Latitude: 37.0355032 / 37° 02’ 08” N

· Longitude: -99.9863643 / 99° 59’ 11” W

Population figures for Englewood:

· 1910 - 518

· 1920 - 466

· 1930 - 477

· 1940 - 377

· 1950 – 312 (341)

· 1960 – 262 (243)

· 1970 – 158

· 1980 - 114

· 1990 - 96

· 2000 – 109

· 2010 – 77

· (1910-1940, and 1950/60 in parenthesis contributed by Jim Spencer)

SOURCES:

· W5a (pg 590)

Many thanks go to Alan Latta and Jim Spencer for contributing information and photographs for this article.

Also, thank you to Alan for contributing a photo for my book: GHOST TOWNS: Yesterday & Today^TM^..

The original, much shorter version of this article was our GHOST TOWN OF THE MONTH for June 2001.

This completely revised version was reposted as our Ghost Town of the Month for February 2008.

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FIRST POSTED: June 01, 2001

LAST UPDATED: January 26, 2013

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