Old home town – 25, 40 and 100 years ago today

IN 1977

The two oldest wings of Lawrence Memorial Hospital were in “very sound” condition but renovation and refurbishment would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, officials were told. There was an ongoing debate about whether to save and use the now-abandoned sections of the hospital because the new hospital quarters had been put into service.

IN 1962

The local swimming season had arrived with the traditional warnings for safety and the special warning that nobody should ever swim alone in any body of water, from a pool to local lakes.

Kansas University was preparing for commencement weekend with many events, to be capped with graduation of some 700 members.

IN 1902

On June 1, 1902, the Lawrence Journal commented on the possibility of voting for Jack Watts, a Democratic county commissioner who had pushed through a courthouse location at the southeast corner of Quincy (now 11th) and Massachusetts Streets. It editorialized “The Journal has nothing to retract, and nothing to apologize for in what it has said in the matter of the location of the courthouse. It believes that such location was a mistake, and one that will be regretted by the people of Douglas county a thousand times in the future. At the same time, however, in the primary election that is near at hand, that location has nothing to do with the duty of the republican voters. The question is simply this: Has the republican party no man who is as able and as honest as Mr. Watts? If it has, then it is the duty of every republican to vote for a republican. If we acknowledge, however, that it is necessary to go into the democratic party in order to find a man who is able to fill the office, then, and only under such conditions can a republican consistently cast his ballot for Mr. Watts. As the matter stands now, a vote for him is a confession that we have no man in the republican party who is fit to hold the office.”