I had nearly forgotten I had this picture! Years ago I wrote featured travel articles for a section of the Wichita Eagle. Most of the monthly pieces focused on Kansas destinations.
This photo comes from Ellinwood, Kansas, and its underground 'Main Street.' There is a lot of speculation on the origins of putting businesses beneath two city blocks of a prairie town, where space is not a problem. What is known is that many of the establishments provided men-only services to cowboys, bringing cattle up from Texas to slaughterhouses up north. Before they headed out to a night of entertainment, cowhands need a shave and a bath. At first glance, these look like zinc coffins but they are dandy little bathtubs, a delight to the saddle weary.
Sadly much of the district were sealed up when city fathers decided that the decaying wooden sidewalks and tunnels were hazards too costly to maintain. The bathhouse, barbershop are about all that remain, but left in the original grubby condition, much as they were (minus the floor fan) when abandoned in the 1920s.
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