FIRST demonstration of electric lights -- 400 Douglas St., Wichita KS
N 37° 41.212 W 097° 20.068
14S E 646854 N 4172378
A plaque installed by the Wichita Rotary Club commemorates some oddball history at corner of E Douglas St and S Topeka Ave in downtown Wichita.
Waymark Code: WMH0CH
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 05/01/2013
Views: 5
On 13 Oct 1885 the first electric lightbulb Wichitans had ever seen in their city lit up the night at the corner of E Douglas Ave and S Topeka Street in downtown Wichita KS.
Many decades later, the Wichita Rotary Club installed a plaque at this location to commemorate the event.
The plaque is on the south side of the cute Southwestern Life building in downtown Wichita KS. It reads as follows:
"1885
On October 8, 1885
First Electric Light
In Wichita Was Demonstrated
At This Location
[Rotary symbol]
Rotary Club of Wichita 1950"
The demonstration must have ignited the public;s imagination and made it willing to open its wallet, because just 2 short months later electric lights were installed in Wichita. Source: (
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Note: This Colonial Williamsburg-style building was built in 1960, so it itself is NOT the site the the event. Source: (
visit link)
"In 1960 John Naftzger announced plans to move his bank from its original facility at 326 East Douglas to a new banking house of traditional Williamsburg colonial architecture complimented by furnishings representative of the era. This unique building which continues as Southwest’s main bank today was completed in 1964." [end]
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