The Morning herald., 1876-03-11
LOCAL NEWS.
DISASTROUS GONFLAGRATION

DISAsTROUS rONFLAGRATION.
BMr1.iag Of the Conference Acaden.y-The
Loss Probably Covered dv Insurance
Yesterday at twelve O'Clock, the officers
and students OF the Wilmington Conference
Academy, at Dover, quietly seated at the
dinner table, were startled by the alarm of
fire, and upon Investigation flames were
seen 70 I've issuing from the window of one
of the students rooms, in the west wing,
aud near the roof of the building. 1t was
not long, despite the most desperate efforts
to check the fire, before the flames had
spread 80 fiercely as to leave little hopes
that the building could be saved. BY this
time, tremendous jam Of people from the
town had gathered about the doomed build
! ing, but were powerless to save IL, owing to
the want of any sufficient water facilities,
and the flames In mockery and derision
leaped from one window and flooring to
another, until the huge building was liter
al mass OF fire. At about halfpast four
o'clock the noble Institution was reduced to
skelenton of blackened and smoking walls.
The furniture and the property of the stu
dents was saved by the exertions of the
townspeople.
1t is very difficult matter to ascertain
exactly the loss which the Conference will
sustain.
A dispatch to the Herald last night states
that the building was worth $5O, 900, and Is
insured for $4,000; but this is probably a
mistake, for we were Informed by Rev. Mr..
Quigg, of this city, who is intimately ac-
quainted with the history and affairs of the
Academy, that the building had cost the
Conference $4,000, including the heating
apparatus--$8, ,O0O-and that an insurance
had been effected upon it for $50, 900, in
three foreign companies, and 81, 5000 in the
Kent County Company. If the walls have
not been injured so as to make them entire
ly useless there will be little If any loss to
the Conference.
One of the walls, our dispatch says, fell
in about five o'clock, but the others are
good. The greatest loss will be the break,
ing up for the time being Of the Academy,
which was attended by two hundred stu
dents. 1t is not yet determined by the
Board of Managers what action relative to
rebuilding the school will be taken.
The passengers in the train which reaches
this city at 4:1O p. NJ. had full view Of
the fire, and it is said to have presented a
spectacle at once grand and pitiful.
The following is a history of the academy
taken from the::catalogue of Institution:
The thought from which the school grew
was first put in language in an essay, read
by the Rev. c. W. Buoy, A. NJ, at the Pc
ninsular Convention, held in Smyrna, in
1870. The following spring the Conference,
at its session in Dover, appointed commit
tee to consider the suggestion, and, if is
was thought feasible, to secure location.
This commission selected Dover, and so
reported to the conference held in Laurel,
Del, in 1879. Rev. j. B. Quigg was then
appointed agent, and Board OF Trustees
was elected. The following winter char
ter for the Academy was granted by the
Legislature of Delaware, and in August,
1873, the ground was broken for it.
The building was in the form OF cross.
The entire front was SO feet, and the total
depth of the centre 94 feet. The width of
centre was AZ feet, and of wings 80 feet. 1t
was built solidly of brick, and was four
stories high besides the cellar. This runs
under the entire building. There were al
together Effty-four rooms, besides pantries,
stOre-rooms, etc. of these thirty seven
were dormitorics, devoted exclusively to
students and teachers. The building was
heated by steam throughout, was lighted
with gas, and supplied with hot and cold
water, bath tubs, water closets, &c. The
ventilation was complete. A cupola sur
mounted the building, thirty-six feet high
above the roof, making total OF one
hundred feet from the ground. There are
six acres of grounds. These are laid off
handsomely in walks and plots, and trees
planted.