The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-19
CITY IS REBUILDING
Jacksonville Newspaperman IalAs Interestingly of Result of the
 Great Fire.


 A r.. Hauyh. Telegraph Editor of The Times Union and Citizen, of Jack scnyille. passed through Montgomery yesterday. Asked as to the progress Jacksonville is making in rebuilding the burned district, he said:
 "I have been twice astonished since the fire by the action of the people ol Jacksonville first, in hesitancy, ana al rewards in the rapidity with which they are restoring the city.
 "There are few, if any, more enter prising cities than Jacksonvllle, ana I felt confident that the work or re- building would be commenced prompt ly and pushed with such rapidity as to give back in less than three years a finer city than was burned. For the time I was disappointed and the feel ing of disappointment was general. For a month practically nothing was done. and 1t looked as if it were almost useless to put up business buildings again in the midst of the ruins.
 But all this is now changed. The amount of building in Jacksonville is almost inconceivable for a town no larger. Hundreds of houses-residences or business buildings-have been con- menced, and many finished during the past month, and the additions to the llSL are STOWlIS IIAOLC AAiAACt SNNAJ day. Before the fire the town was growing rapidly, the annual construc- tion of. buildings probably exceeding l. 1.00O, mostly in the suburbs. The amount of building in the suburbs has been greatly increased and many new house are spuringing up every day in the burned district. If the building boom should continue in it's present proportions there will be more house room in Jacksonville in three years than there was before the fire.
 What are the character of the houses now building?" was asked.
 Better than those that were burned. Of course some of the finer buildings will not be replaced on as magnificent scale as that of those that were burned, but where one is not as fine more will be finer. The Gardner Build ing was the tallest in Jacksonville. It will be replaced with a building not nearly so large or costly, but the West Brothers will erect on the site of a block of ordinary three story buildings a magnificent edince. with the excep- tion of the Government Building, finer than any that has ever stood in Jack sonville. The block that included the Gardner Building, perhaps the princi- pal business block of Jacksonville, will
 
 the fire. The Windsor Hotel. a three story wooden building. will be replaced by building of marble and brick five stories high.
 The residences are building in from the suburbs and the picture is present. ed of town growing to a center n- stead of from one. Very little bald ing has yet been done in the finer res idence district. The building has not yet gotten in far enough, but as far as it has gone the residences are su- p'riOr to those that were burned.
 "It was rcuarka ble fire, and. by the way, it is burning yet That is if was burning when I left Jacksonville Wednesday. Many rains and hard rains have fallen since the fire. but in one place smoke is still coming from the mass. Of course. many individuals will never recover from the effects of their losses but I am confident that Jack sonville will be a bigger city and q finer city in five years than it would have been If there had been no con flagration."