Derby Real Estate
In the early spring of 1869, the Alexander Garrett family brought their covered wagon to a stop on the bank of Spring Creek after a long journey from Ohio. They took out a claim and later built a sod house, and that’s where the city known today as Derby began.
The city was formally founded by Hart Minnich and John Hufbauer when they filed a plat on July 11, 1871. Hufbauer was originally from an area near El Paso, Illinois and decided the new city should bear the name El Paso.
By 1880, the railroad had pushed farther south, and the mail for El Paso, Kan. and El Paso, Texas was constantly mixed up. To ease this problem, the railroad depot was named Derby, after one of the railroad officials, C.F. Derby. Gradually, residents began to call the town Derby. When the town of about 300 was formally incorporated on June 1, 1903 as a city of the third class with a mayor-council form of government by the Board of Sedgwick County Commissioners, it was still named El Paso. It was not until 1956 that the name was officially changed from El Paso to Derby.
Until Derby became a city of the second class around 1955, it was under the administration of a mayor and five council members who were elected at large. When redistricting became mandatory in 1957, four wards were established with two council members elected from each ward. The mayor made all appointments for city offices other than judge and council members. By 1959, the governing body appointed a city clerk who functioned as the city’s highest official on staff. The first city manager was appointed in 1981.
The first city building in Derby was constructed in the 1880s. When a new building was built in 1966 on Baltimore Ave., the original structure was moved to Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita for historic preservation. In 1990, new city hall and library building opened on east Madison Avenue at Mulberry Street. In 2001, a new city hall opened north of the library, and the old city hall was converted into a senior center.