From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Nov. 29, 1973:

Downtown Lawrence was going to look a lot like Christmas after all. Small sparkling lights on over 200 trees had been installed a few days before the Nixon administration had made an appeal for energy conservation. The Downtown Lawrence Association had consequently made the “difficult no-light decision” the following day. However, someone (the regional manager of Kansas Power & Light Co.) had then done the math and determined that the maximum energy consumption for four hours’ use each evening was only slightly more than the daily consumption for less than two average households in the city. Another person had then discovered coal was the primary fuel for local electricity generation, and since coal was not in short supply like petroleum was, its use would not affect the energy crisis. Lastly, several downtown merchants had volunteered to turn off some of their store lights to compensate for the outdoor tree lights, “so the community could experience the pleasure and warmth that comes from some form of cheery downtown lighting.” The lights were to go back on this evening at 5:30 and were to be lit for four hours every evening from now until Christmas.

Samaritan Rest Lodge, 205 N. Michigan, one of the first major rest homes in Lawrence and among the earliest in the state, was being sold. Corwin E. Sperry, who had developed, owned, and operated the home for 15 years, said today it was being sold to a corporation, Samaritan Lodge Inc.