Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-11-24
NO. A..
SPRINGFIELD SC0RCHED
BY a DISASTROUS Fire Tuesday
Night
which Leaves an Ugly Hole i'm the
Heart OF the city.

Heart OF the city.
An ugly hole was made in the business
centre of the city of Sprin yfield, Mass,
Tuesday night by a fire which burned to
the ground five blocks on the south side of
Worthington street, and two blocks on
Main street. The fire was the worst
which Springfield has known since the
great connagration i'm the spring of 1875.
A conservative estimate places the loss at
S450,000 to S500,000 of which S3j0,0OO
falls on the insurance companies.
The buildings burned were the two
blocks owned by J. X. Dexter & Co., John
Doolan's block, the Webber building and
A. n. Mayo q Co. s building on Worthing-
ton street, and the Main street blocks own
ed by James T. Able and Justin l..
Worthy, the latter used as the Glendower
hotel. The Wight block on the north side
is badly damaged. The Un<AS Iuller
blocks bloc fns on rd Main street street dS w s@ S
smoke and water.
1t was exactly 10 minutes past II, mid
night, when the fire was first noticed by an
elevator boy in the Union office, who had
stepped out for lunch, when his attention
was attracted by the glare on Worthington
street, and looking up he saw that the new
block of j. X. Dexter & Co. was a mass of
flames. An alarm was quickly rung and
within three minutes an engine was on the
ground, but the building was doomed.
The fire had caught in a mass of rags
stored there, and the flames were already
bursting from the windows and roof Aft
er defeating the efforts of the firemen to
check their progress through the Dexter,
Doolan and Mayo blocks for hours the
flames seemed finally to succumb with the
collapse of the walls of these structures,
and it appeared as if no further trouble
would be experienced in subduing the fire.
But hardly had the fire-fghters begun to
slacken a bit before the fire had leaped
across an alleyway and into Abbe's block
on Main street, where it attained a lodg-
ment, both on the lower floor and the roof.
Quickly the firemen turned to meet the
new attack, and did their utmost to keep it
from destroying the fine block and attack
ing the Glendower hotel adjoining, but
their work. hard and persistent as it was,
could not drive back the flames, and it was
soon evident that both blocks were doom
ed. Not satisfied with their prey, the
flames jumped again, this time across
Worthington street, and almost before the
firemen could realize it, the roof and up
per stories of the Wight block were blaz-
ing fiercely. From this block the fire cut
its way through to the upper floor of the
Unions block and fought hard, but event
ually was controlled. 1t was $50 when
the fire was finally under control. The
fight had lasted six hours. Help was ask
ed from Holyoke, and afterward from Hart
ford, Worcester and Chicopee.
Fortunately there were no fatalities and
no serious injuries during the fire.
The ground floor of the old, or western,
building, owned by Dexter & Co., was oc-
cupied by the Union Cycle company, and
the remainder of the space was filled with
rags-worth about $1,000. The new
building, where the fire started, was erect
ed three years ago. The first floor was oc-
cuped by \. F. Leonard Il Co., agricu-
tural implement dealers, the second by the
Sterns paper company, the third by the
Graphic publishing company, and the
fourth and fifth by rags owned by Dexter
& Co.
John Doolan's block on Worthington
street, the third one to catch fire, was of
brick, five stories high, and separated by
fire walls from the two adjoining buildings.
1t had frontage of 30 feet and depth of
100 feet The first floor was occupied
partly by Mr.. Doolan's Office, and the re-
mainder of the building was used by him
in sorting and storing rags. There were
about 500 bales stored in the building at
the time of the fire.
The ground floor of the Mayo building
was occupied by the Office of A. n. Mayo
& Co. and for storage, and the four re-
naming floors were also stored with rags.
The first floor of Webber's building was
occupied by Mr.. Webber's grocery store
| and A. Jacobss tailoring and secondhand
clothing shop. The rest of the building
was rented for tenements.
the Able block was valued at $40, 900,
! and contained some of the costiest contents
of any building involved by the flames
Jas. T. Able, the owner, lost valuable art
| goods and table ware stored in two rooms,
which were valued at $4,000. James
McKeon & Co. had their clothing store on
the ground floor, with stock of goods
valued at $4,000.
Henry S. Houston, the proprietor of the
Hotel GlendOwer, estimates his loss at S25,-
600. The City national bank was located
on the lower floor of this building, and
special care was taken by the firemen to
| nrOtact their Vault