Topeka Home Show's growth matches that of area houses

TOPEKA Whether its getting free advice, getting some ideas or just getting out of the house for a few hours in the waning weeks of winter, the annual Topeka Home Show has provided a way for local home repair and home improvement-related businesses to connect with northeast Kansans since 1962.

Neil Carlson, owner of Plumbing by Carlson, a company started by his father, Bob, in 1957, said locations for the home show have varied over its 52-year history.

Carlson, also a former associate director of the Topeka Home Builders Association, or THBA, said the annual event started in a small building on what is now the Kansas Expocentre grounds with just about two dozen vendors. He said the show was held at the former White Lakes Mall for several years and for one year, was at a hangar at Forbes Field. The event then moved to Agriculture Hall at 17th and Topeka Boulevard as the number of exhibitors continued to grow.

It (Agriculture Hall) was too small for us by then, Carlson said. Then we got into Heritage Hall. We filled it.

Once the Kansas Expocentre opened in 1987, Carlson said the Topeka Home Show has been held there ever since and now has nearly 200 local, state and national vendors.

Carlson said in the first few years, local businesses werent charged a fee to have a table at the home show and had simple displays. After a THBA committee visited the Wichita home show and a national home show, Carlson said the committee made a push to get the businesses to invest in more sophisticated exhibits to showcase their products.

We encouraged people to do more than just a table, he said, just to have a better presentation. And it worked. Its really become a decent show.

Carlson said the more elaborate displays at the home show helped attendees visualize what could be done in their own homes, especially before the national home improvement stores opened in Topeka.

We didnt have the big box stores back then, he said. We didnt have many showrooms, either.

While the numbers of vendors and attendees have gone up and down over the years, the Topeka Home Show still remains a way for local contractors, remodelers, plumbers, heating and cooling experts and many others to connect to their potential customers.

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Topeka Home Show's growth matches that of area houses