Building Çorum (1923-1950): Planning, Electricity, Water, Health and Education

Because Çorum’s population remained largely static between 1923 and 1950, the town’s physical fabric saw no fundamental change; the municipality and the province, working with limited budgets, focused on widening streets, commissioning planning studies and building basic infrastructure. This page summarises developments in the town’s urban planning, electricity, water, health and education infrastructure, based on Chapter 5 of Çorum Tarihi, written by İlhan Tekeli; the period’s transport, farming and population figures are covered on a separate page.

The Town in the 1890s and Its Neighbourhoods

According to a map drawn up in 1890 by surveying captain Ömeroğlu Osman, Çorum then had 45 neighbourhoods with 3,554 Muslim and 119 Christian households, 1,100 shops, 12 caravanserais, four bathhouses (one a double bath), 135 fountains, 2 libraries, 10 madrasas and 23 minaret mosques (Çorum Tarihi, p. 253). A 1933-1934 land survey reduced the town to 11 neighbourhoods, and in 1944 the Çarşı neighbourhood was merged into Çepni, bringing the number down to 10: Ulukavak, Çöplü, Yavruturna, Yeniyol, Gülabibey, Tepecik, Karakeçili, Üçtutlar, Çepni and Kunduzhan. In 1935, the town’s 11 neighbourhoods held 20,170 people in 5,637 buildings (Çorum Tarihi, p. 253-254).

Attempts at an Urban Plan

The Municipalities Law adopted in 1930 required municipalities to commission urban plans. Çorum’s first attempt, in 1933, was a plan drawn up by provincial public works director Nusret Bey; it was never implemented after the Ministry of the Interior ruled that the engineer lacked the authority to prepare such plans. In 1939, under mayor Pertev Kalelioğlu, the Ministry of Public Works’ Urban Planning Board commissioned German planner Gustav Oelsner — who had fled the Nazi regime and would later help establish the urban planning department at Istanbul Technical University — to prepare a modest 1:2000 plan mindful of the municipality’s limited revenue (90,000 lira a year). Oelsner’s five proposed priorities included a road connecting the town to its large park along with a sports facility, reorganising the market, improving the main streets, creating a central square, and upgrading the roads linking Çorum to surrounding towns (Çorum Tarihi, p. 254-256).

In 1942, under Baha Çorbacıoğlu’s second term as mayor, engineer Menteşe prepared a new plan centred on the clock tower, with five 24-metre-wide main streets (to Ankara, Samsun, Osmancık, İskilip and Mecitözü) converging there; when the municipality’s finances proved insufficient, only the Ankara and Samsun streets were kept at that width. The book notes that the originals of none of these plans can now be found, that they were generally not implemented, and that mayors instead made piecemeal street and square improvements without adhering to any formal plan (Çorum Tarihi, p. 256-257).

Major urban works carried out between 1928 and 1943 included the enlargement of the timber-market square (1928), the opening of Gazi Caddesi (1933-1936), the paving of streets with setts (from 1937, including the Samsun-Ankara road in 1938), and the reorganisation of the vegetable and grain markets. The large 40,000 m² park on the Ankara-Samsun road, whose origins go back to 1884 (governor Mahmut Bey) and 1914 (governor Nurettin Bey’s tree-planting), was developed in stages between 1930 and 1937. In 1931 an Atatürk monument by sculptor Kenan Yontuç was erected, along with a martyrs’ memorial for those from Çorum who died in the Yozgat uprising (Çorum Tarihi, p. 257-258).

Electricity

Çorum’s municipality was one of the first towns in Anatolia to get electricity — the book links this to the economic vitality the War of Independence brought to the town. In 1923-1924, under mayor Benderlioğlu Nuri Efendi, street lighting began with a simple installation powered by a 30-horsepower petrol truck engine brought from Samsun. When this proved inadequate, a new plant — a 120-horsepower coal-fired steam engine and a 50-kilowatt dynamo — was installed in 1935 under mayor Pertev Bey. The number of electricity subscribers rose from 525 in 1937 to 1,017 in 1942 and 1,226 in 1947, when the old truck engine was replaced with a 168-horsepower diesel engine and an 88-kilowatt dynamo (Çorum Tarihi, p. 259).

The Water Network

At the start of the Republic, the town’s water came via clay pipes from three sources: Ilıca, Serpin-Sıklık and Mürsel. After a 1924 survey proved inadequate, the G. Rampel company was commissioned in 1926 to design a project for all four sources, and in 1927 a catchment was built for the Mürsel spring, judged the most suitable bacteriologically. A major project tendered in 1931 under mayor Şevket Bey — a 540-ton reservoir, 7,700 metres of iron pipe and 33 public fountains — was completed in 1933, delivering 1,410 cubic metres of Mürsel water a day. According to the book, this made Çorum one of only 32 towns in Turkey with a regular water system as of 1936. Household connections began after 1934; the number of household subscribers rose from 119 in 1940 to 380 in 1948, by which year the town also had 121 street fountains (Çorum Tarihi, p. 259-261).

Other Municipal Services

A fire engine was bought in 1924; by 1933 the fire brigade had one fire engine, three pumps and four firefighters. Twelve fire-water reservoirs were built around town in 1926, and 50 fire hydrants were added to the water network in 1934. Refuse collection was initially done with horse-drawn carts, supplemented by a truck from 1936; a new slaughterhouse building was constructed and opened in 1935-1936 (Çorum Tarihi, p. 260-261).

Health Services

The town’s first hospital was developed during the second year of the First World War by surgeon Akif Bey, operating in what is now the Old Health School building (then known as the Ticaret Lisesi); it treated the wounded brought back from the Eastern Front and the Battle of Sakarya during the War of Independence. Converted into a 50-bed provincial hospital in 1925, its bed count rose to 75 in 1933 and 100 in 1940. In 1930 the provincial Special Administration opened a maternity and child-care hospital, whose bed count eventually rose from 20 to 50. In 1933, a boarding Small Health School to train health officers was opened in the same building vacated by the hospital; it was removed from Çorum in 1941. By 1950 the town had 25 doctors (10 specialists), 5 nurses, 12 midwives, 35 health officers and 6 pharmacists (Çorum Tarihi, p. 261-262).

Education and Cultural Institutions

Following the Law on the Unification of Education, in 1924 Çorum’s Osmani, Mecidi, Terakki, Hürriyet, Ravzayı Nisvan and Numune-i Nezahat schools were closed and replaced with mixed-sex İstiklal, İnkılap, Albayrak, Cumhuriyet, Gazipaşa and Tanyeri primary schools — İstiklal İlkokulu was part of this transformation. The town’s three-year idadi (secondary school) became a middle school in 1924-25, and in 1936 the Ministry of Public Works commissioned a modern middle-school building, completed in 1937. After years of sustained local lobbying, high-school education began in a new school building in 1946. In the 1949-1950 school year the town had 6 primary schools, 1 middle school, 1 high school and 2 vocational schools (Çorum Tarihi, p. 262-263).

Before the Republic, Çorum had several endowed libraries, including the Süleyman Fevzi Paşa Library, now located in the grounds of İstiklal İlkokulu. After the madrasas closed, these collections were merged into a single provincial library in 1925, with Hafız-ı Kütüb Eşref (Ertekin) Bey appointed as its librarian — the name of the Eşref Ertekin Branch Public Library in today’s Çorum library network derives from this first provincial librarian. Following the alphabet reform, 20,078 people attended Ulus Dershanesi adult literacy classes held in Çorum between 1929 and 1938, of whom 9,710 received literacy certificates. The Çorum Halkevi, opened in February 1933, operated through nine branches (Language-History-Literature, Fine Arts, Performance, Sports, Social Aid, Adult Classes, Library and Publishing, Rural Outreach, and Museum-Exhibition); by 1938 it had 47 female and 921 male members. Its Culture and Literature branch published 61 issues of the monthly journal Çorumlu between 1938 and 1946, covering Çorum’s history, geography and folklore (Çorum Tarihi, p. 263-264).

Sources

• Çorum Tarihi (Çorum History), 5th Hittite Festival Committee; ed. Çorum Municipality City Archive, 3rd ed., Çorum Belediyesi Kültür Yayını, Çorum 2020, ISBN 978-605-84272-4-2 — Chapter 5, “1923-1950 Döneminde Çorum’daki Gelişmeler” (İlhan Tekeli), p. 253-265. https://www.corum.bel.tr/public/uploads/2026/01/corumtarihi.pdf

Frequently asked questions

When did Çorum get electricity?

According to the book, Çorum's municipality began lighting its streets with a simple installation powered by a petrol-driven truck engine brought from Samsun in 1923-1924, making it one of the first towns in Anatolia to have electricity. The network was renewed in 1935, and the number of subscribers rose from 525 in 1937 to 1,226 in 1947.

When did Çorum get a regular water supply?

The project to bring Mürsel spring water into town was tendered in 1931 and completed in 1933, supplying 1,410 cubic metres of water a day. According to the book, this made Çorum one of only 32 towns in Turkey with a regular water system as of 1936.

When did the Çorum Halkevi (People's House) open?

The Çorum Halkevi opened in February 1933 in what is today the municipal building; it operated through nine branches and contributed to the collection of the town's cultural and folkloric heritage.