It was a Sunday and time for a country drive. Mrs. PF and I headed out to places unknown and after some time we ended up in Manchester, KS.....one of my favorite ghost towns. It is home to perhaps 100 people but there are no businesses at all nor are there any services other than a water district office. But at one time around the turn of the century it was a busy place. A quick internet search told me this:
Manchester, an incorporated city of the third class in Dickinson county, is located in Flora township on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., 14 miles north of Abilene, the county seat. It has a bank, a weekly newspaper (the News), a hotel, a number of general stores, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 250.
I have also read that it had a big railroad shop and roundhouse and also a Ford car dealership or garage as they were called back then.
Things look pretty rough here now...
I do believe this was a hardware store and the family is still in business in other towns in Kansas. The tin work on this wood and block building is very ornate and well thought out. Being a tinsmith was a very honorable career to be involved in. I think it is an art medium that needs to be revived...
Next up was this old building that I think was the hotel upstairs and a general store below but am not sure of that. I did not have a chance to talk with any local folks as none were out and about on this winter day...
And I thought this might be an old post office but not sure...
and this is possibly the old Ford garage but I am just guessing here...
and sitting back from the street was the old town jail...
I am going to go out on a limb here and say the crime rate was low since no one would ever want to be kept here...
and lots of old abandoned houses like this one were to be found...
and even an old tractor or two...
and an old trailer made from a pickup truck bed...
and an old truck too...
and the old school made from native stone is now used as a home...
and the newer school made from brick is also a home now with the gym being used as a garage for the cars...
and finally....last but not least was this garage.
The S.S. Garage---
Not just your average run of the mill car repair shop....this place offered much more. Think blacksmith repair and welding, windmills for water, cistern systems to catch run off water from rain, and even windmill charging systems to power the family 6 volt battery for your radio listening pleasure...
I just love old signage featuring lettering from local artists of the day and that person's talent gave this building tons of character along with the old stone construction....
And with that...I bid you farewell. Thanks for riding along as we explore the back roads of vanishing Americana.
:-)
YOU, sir, Mr. Poverty Flats, are a very fortunate man to have such access to these wonderful old places......once vibrant and alive as communities of people.....people raising kids....making a living....doing all of the things that we all strive to do on a daily basis......the things that give us clues as to what life was like in these old places are beautiful in their way and it's a shame that they are going to ruin.....
ReplyDeleteI love what you do....
Mr. CB