Kick-starting America’s Fast Food Empire
W.A. Dye is celebrated as a pioneering figure in the fast-food industry, particularly in a city that would later become renowned for launching successful fast-food chains such as Pizza Hut and Taco Tico. Interestingly, Dye played a role in kick-starting the very first fast-food hamburger empire, White Castle.
The origins of American fast food can be traced back to Wichita, Kansas, where a grill cook named J. Walter “Walt” Anderson discovered that a flattened hamburger patty topped with onions and served on a bun was incredibly popular. Anderson decided to open his own hamburger stand and managed to convert a used shoe repair stand into a food stand but then lacked the funds to get the supplies to open. In a pivotal gesture, Dye offered Anderson 5 pounds of ground beef at 10¢ per pound and enough buns for his first day, on the condition that Anderson would repay him by noon. Anderson’s hamburger stand opened on November 16, 1916, and its success was immediate, with his 5¢ hamburgers selling out by noon. True to his promise, Anderson repaid his debt with a bag of nickels, bought five pounds more, and had a profit of $3.75 by the end of the day. Five years later, Walt had three more hamburger stands and partnered with a successful businessman in establishing the first national hamburger chain, White Castle. In a 1962 interview with the Wichita Eagle, Dye fondly recalled his association with Anderson, describing how they remained lifelong friends.
By 1918, Dye’s business was so successful it was consuming a ton of peppers imported from Mexico each week and facing wartime supply shortages. By 1927, W.A. Dye had earned the title “Chili King of the West” and had successfully distributed his chili product worldwide. His business generated $100,000 a year, equivalent to approximately $1.5 million in 2023 when adjusted for inflation. Dye eventually passed his business on to his son Hubert, who sold it in 1966. Sadly, the W.A. Dye Chile factory ceased operations in 1970, and the building sat as storage space for the next 20 years.
WDM was one of the first businesses in 1993 to invest in a run-down building in Old Town and renovate it for modern use. As the idea of reinventing Old Town gained popularity, WDM was engaged for the historic renovation of an entire city block of long-neglected historic commercial buildings along Douglas, Eaton Place in 2000. Over the course of the next 20 years, WDM has renovated more than a dozen different historic buildings in downtown Wichita and Old Town including the Harvester Factory, Belford Electric building, Player Piano Lofts, the Coleman Factory into classrooms for WSU, Colorado Derby building, Union National Bank, and the Carnegie Library for Fidelity Bank.
