Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-05-17
TABERNACLE BURNS.
Or. TALMACE'S CHURCH AGAIN
DESTROYED.
Fire Breaks Ont Yesterday Morning just
Ms the Congregation Is Leaving the
Church-Regent Hotel Also Destroyed
Loss, S2,OOO.oOO.

Loss, s2,OOO.oOO.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, May 15-Just
after services at noon yesterday and
while DIR. Talmage was shaking hands
with members of his congregation fire
burst out between the pipes of the
organ and within ten minutes the big
tabernacle was doomed to total de-
struction Adjoining the church was
the Hotel Regent, eight stories in
height, with frontage of 90 feet on
Clinton avenue and extending back 200
| feet to Waverly avenue. The fire spread
from the tabernacle to this hotel and
then to the dwelling houses on Greene
and Waverly avenues, opposite the
tabernacle. The wind carried the
blazing cinders in such quantities in a
southeasterly direction that dwelling
houses in Washington avenue, two
squares away, and also the Summer
field Methodist church were set on fire
by them; but the greatest loss on any
one of these structures did not exceed
$4,000 The total loss, however,
reaches over So 900, 0OO
The first alarm was quickly followed
by second, third and fourth which
brought out all the apparatus in the
western district of the city. But the
church was doomed, and every effort
was devoted to saving adjoining
property. In three hours only the
bare walls of one of the costliest
structures of Brooklyn remained stand
ing.
Long ere this, however, it became
evident that the Hotel Regent was
doomed. The infiamma BILE nature of
the material and the great open
amphitheater of the tabernacle gave
such a draft that the fire was forced
into the air in columns of flames that
made fearful picture of destruction.
Flakes of burning wood and redhot
cinders were shot up as from vol
cano, and, carried by strong breeze.
they swept through the air in every
direction.
Before long both sides of Greene
venue were ablaze. So were the
buildings on Waverly avenue, but as
fast as the flames broke out the peo-
The walls of the tabernacle began to
crumble and fall, and the great rush
of flames which followed started the
houses burning again, and at the same
time flames were seen bursting forth
from the roof of Summertield Metho-
dist church, a short distance away.
Within half an hour the magnificent
hotel was seen to be doomed to de-
structlon. No water could reach the
fire there.
The guests in the hote had lost no
time in making their escape. They
waited only to snatch up a few valua-
bles and run, but wearing apparel and
other effects had to be left to the
greedy flames After the flames had
licked away the supports beneath
nearly all the fire escapes on the north
wall of the hotel, with large portion
of the wall itself, the wall fell into
the mass of debris with q roar like a
distant cannonade. This was quickly
followed by the fall of section of
about thirty feet in height on the
Waverly avenue side of the hotel. and
from that time up to p. IN. huge
masses continued to fall.
At last accounts two fremen,
Edward Sheridan and John Kelly of
truck 10, had been Frustrated by heat.
The furniture in the hotel, which
cost from 5000, 900 to $3.50, 900, is en-
tirely destroyed, the total loss on the
building and its contents footing up in
the neigh borhood Of $3.50, 600 The
loss falls upon the Brooklyn Hotel
company.
The fire spread with lightning-like
rapidity, and before sunset had de-
stroyed property to the value OF
1000, 900.
The trustees of the tabernacle met
and decided to re build the church but
not on the same site. The insurance
and the money realized from the sale
of the present site would enable them
to pay off all their debts. Then ac-
cording to the plan they would raise
| 5000, 600 and within year would be-
gin to build About so, 600 it was
thought would be sufficient to pay for
site and a less expensive building
would be erected.
1t was decided that DR.. Talmage's
tour around the world should begin
to-day, as arranged. He will start in
the evening for Philadelphia and pro-
coed from there to Atlanta, Ga. After
visiting some southern cities he will
go to San Francisco and sail from
there to Honolulu and afterward to
New Zealand. Australia, India, Spain,
England and other foreign countries.