Main Street has seen many changes through the years. And, it’s in for more changes this month and next year. Pratt’s beloved bricks on Main Street are soon going to be a memory. A bumpy memory for some, but a sentimental memory for others, including me.
In the early days of Pratt, Main Street was whatever nature made it. Muddy after rains and dusty in the dry spells. The shop owners fought the results of both… People tracking in mud, and horses, and later cars, stirring up the dust that sifted into, and onto everything, in their shops.
In the fall of 1916, it was agreed by the city commission and the shop owners, to pave Main Street. Now the question was, with what? Asphalt or bricks? After much discussion, it was decided to go with bricks. The bricking was started in April of 1917 at the Rock Island depot and continued through August, where it ended at the Santa Fe depot.
Looking at some of the photographs from that time, lets one see that it was a lot a hard work with the kind of equipment they had to use in those days. The road construction business has come a long way over the past ninety-some years!
As I was thinking about doing an article on Main Street, my thoughts went back to all the parades that I could remember as a kid, and then did research on those further back in history.
One of the first parades after the street was bricked was on November 17, 1918, to welcome back the men of Pratt County who had served in World War I and to honor those who died during the war. In 1919, there were two parades of importance to the citizens of Pratt. The first being the Jubilee Days parade. Then, the Labor Day parade in September, honored the working man. The Brickmasons and Plasterers Union # 19 proudly carried their banner as they walked down the street.
The Miss Kansas Pageant has always had a parade as part of their festivities. Then, there were the special ones for the three Miss Kansas’ who went on to become Miss Americas.
But, the ones that I can remember best as a kid, were the Homecoming parades that the high school had. Each class and all the different clubs ( Pep club, Spanish Club, FFA, etc.) would enter a float. Each float had a secret location in which they were being built. Somebody’s barn, a big garage…. The kids would work on it for weeks. Each float had a theme. They all started with flatbed trailers that they borrowed from area farmers. Then came the yards and yards of chicken wire. The kids would poke different colored tissue paper in the wire, somewhat like the Rose Parade uses flowers.
On the day of the parade, each float would come out of hiding and line up for the trip down Main Street. Everyone in town would come to show their support. Proud parents snapped pictures as their kids went by. The bands marched. The homecoming queen and her court waved to everyone. Then, during halftime at the game, they paraded the floats around the track at the football field, for a mini parade for those who didn’t see the afternoon one.
Take it from all us “old-timers”, kids, THOSE were parades!
Governors, politicians, Shriners, and beauty queens have all made a trip down Main Street. Not to mention all the teenagers dragging Main after school and on Friday nights. And, think of all the different models of cars and trucks that have gone up and down those bricks through the last 94 years! If only those bricks could talk! What a history lesson they would tell!
I’m always telling people to “look up” at the architecture of buildings (that will be the subject of another column), but now I’m saying “look down” Look at those bricks. They’ve been there since 1917. Before semi trucks, before huge farm equipment. What was a 30 year “maybe last” has turned into almost 100 years. Better and longer than any asphalt will ever do.
I think the Main Street bricks DO “deserve some historical consideration” but more than the “tongue-in-cheek dent” that was mentioned in an editorial in this paper awhile back. And, yes, I am one of the “earnest folk who defend the bricks”. Always have been. Always will be. And very proud to admit it !