The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-04-05
CONVENTION HALL IN RUINS.
FIRE DESTROYS THE mG KANSAS
CITY AUDITORIUM.


Was to Have Been Held There ON
July 4-other buildings Burned
Made the Total Loss !s4OO, ,O0O--sub-
scriptiOns Have Been Started ana
the Hall VIII BE Rebuilt in FuIs
Time for the Convention.
Kansas City, April 4--Convention Hall.
where the Democratic National Conven-
ton was to have been held on July A. was
laid in ruins in less than thirty minutes
this afternoon by fire.
The structure was doomed from the
start, and the fremen early turned their
efforts to saving adjoining property. AZ
stiff breeze was blowing and before the
fire was subdued the Second Presbyterian
Church. one of the finest edifices in tha
city. the church parsonage, the Lathrop
public school, a two-story thirteen-room
building, all situated across the way on
Central street, and half block Of three-
story fiat buildings on Twelfth street.
were totally destroyed. Several residences
were damaged and for a time it was
feared that several blocks of buildings
in the residence district would go.
The aggregate loss is 100000 apportion-
ed as follows: Convention Hail. $235, 200,
insurance $l55,oOO; church, s5O,OOO insuredi
parsonage, $15,OOO insured; school So, 900.
insured $4,000; Williamson block, Twelfth
street, $60,0O0 insured for $4,000.
Plans are on foot to rebuild Convention
Hall Immediately and have IL ready for
the Democratic Convention in July.
subscriptions Taken at Once.
While the fire was stlll in progress
members of the Commercial Club, through
whose efforts the hall was built, mingled
In the crowd of spectators and began So
Letting funds for a new structure. This
evening $4,000 had been subscribed, and
Secretary E. M. Clendenning of the club
called mass meeting of citizens for to-
morrow night TO decide ways and means
for raising an additional $4,000.
The hall association has $4,000 in the
bank and will have the $155,000 Insurance.
for immediate use, the insurance COM
panles having offered to waive che usual
sixty days limit and make settlement ON
demand. The Kansas City Lumber Com
pany, that furnished four-fifths of the
lumber for the old building, has agreed
to duplicate the order at once at the rats
In existence two years ago. and the Min
neapolis firm that furnished the steel
girders for the immense roof has been
| asked TO duplicate their order.
The fire started just above the boiler
room, where some plumbers had been at
! work. There was no fire In the furnace,
| and the supposition Is that the blaze
! started from a spirit lamp or by tho
! crossing of an electric light wire. A still
alarm was first turned in, and by the
| time the first engine arrived, ten minutes
| later, the whole building was a mass OF
| flames, and in less than half an hour the
| roof, upheld by massive steel girders that
| spanned it's 200 feet of breadth, fell with a
g-h hot ah af on
| bers in every direction. The brick Co.
! rinthian columns lining the building along
| the faeades on Thirteenth and Central
streets, tottered a few minutes and fell
! outward, and the hall was completes
| wreck.
other Buildings burned.
| A strong wind carried the flames to tho
| Second Presbyterian Church on the OPP
| posite side of Thirteenth and Central
| streets. and in forty minutes that struc-
| ture, occupying a half block in length,
was in ruins. The parsonage adjoining
| and next the Lathrop School, which was
partially destroyed in the cyclone of 1888.
and which had been set aside for the use
| of the newspaper correspondents during
| the coming convention, were attacked
simultaneously and soon nothing but their
walls were left standing. Fortunately tho
school children had not returned to their
| rooms after the noon hour, and all wer6
| gotten to places of safety. Next the
flames caught the Williamson brick flats,
across the alley from the hall on tha
north, on Twelfth street. and these were
gutted. The flats occupied half blocla
| and were three stories In hight.
| Flying embers started blazes on DOZEN
| different residences within a radius of two
| blocks, and, famed by a stif breeze and
aided by a low water pressure, threatened
O general conhagration.
| Convention Hall has been cIasaed OfleJ
| of tho largest and most perfectly con-
structed auditoriums in the world. The
building was erected in 1898 at a cost of
S235 eco, which was raised entirely by pub
| lie subscription. II occupied a piece OF
| ground 314 by 200 feet in extent, was two
| stories high, and built OF native stone, on
| cream brick and terra cotta.
| The board Of directors of the Conventions
Hall Company, at a meeting tonight, de-
| cided to have the hall built before July
| 4. and the work of clearing away the de-
| bris begins tomorrow. That the neces-
sary funds will be subscribed is not ques-
| toned.
NAV NOT nE ARIE TO no TT