Would the founding fathers of Garden City recognize their town? Brothers James and William Fulton, who came hunting wild horses, filed homesteads in 1878 along the Arkansas River, laying plans for a town in unsettled region. The third town founder, John A. Stevens, was a young member of Fulton's outfit. A year later, C. J. Jones, a well-known promoter, joined the trio using his talents to persuade the Santa Fe Railroad to place a depot at the tiny settlement. The inspiration for the name of the town came from a garden planted by William Fulton's wife, Luticia in the summer of 1878. This photograph taken in 1918, a mere forty years after the town's founding, shows that Garden City had come a long way. What was once a small settlement with two buildings had blossomed into a thriving center of commerce for the surrounding southwest Kansas area.
The streets of Garden City were unpaved for many years, but in the spring of 1886 the streets were graded for the first time. The city also began operating street sprinklers (horse-drawn waterwagons) to keep the dust down. In 1912, the city fathers decided to oil Main Street. The September 20, 1912 edition of the Garden City Telegram reported, "Main Street is being oiled at last.. The start was made on South Main Street below the tracks where the loose soft dirt has on every windy day poured up Main Street in chocking blasts. Oiling will continue up Main Street as far as the oil lasts."
It was soon after the end of World War I that Garden City decided it had been fogging up dust in downtown long enough. By August of 1919 plans were in place to pave Main Street with brick. Work started at Maple Street, two blocks south of the Santa Fe Railroad crossing, and extended all the way north to Kansas Avenue, a distance of about one mile. Other streets then were bricked - Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Grant, Laurel, Chestnut, Pine, Garden City Avenue and all other short streets between 7th and 9th.
In 1964 Main Street underwent a major improvement project. It was then that Main Street was resurfaced with asphalt from the railroad tracks to Kansas Avenue.
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