St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-06-01
$4,000 Blaze.
Early Morning Fire Destroys Old
Stanley Opera House with
Large Loss.
Two ReScueS with Ladders. - Summer
Street Laundry, L. A. Darling, c. H.
GoSS Co. Garage, and Bundy &
Woods Heavy Losers.

In oneoE the most spectacular fires n,
the history of this place the old Stanley
opera house was destroyed with con-
tents early this morning, entailing loss
of nearly $40 600 and the new c. H.
Goss Co were heavy losers, although
they could not estimate their damage.
The fire was discovered in the boiler
room of the Summer Street laundry by
William Dunn, night watchman at the
garage, about one O'Clock. Dunn, not
being familiar with the alarm boxes. tried
to attract attention by shouting and it
was not until Ralph Sulloway rushed
from his home in his pajamas that an
alarm was rung from box 81.
The spread OF the fire was rapid and
soon the old wooden structure was a
mass of flames and beyond control.
Archie Bennett and his mother had
rooms on the second floor and were cut
off from the stairs. Ladders were taken
from a nearby house and Mr. Bennett
was carried down by Olin Adams. H.A.
LaBarron rescued Mrs. Bennett. They
were taken care of by neighbors and
neither suffered any serious effects.
While the work of rescue was going on
others were taking about 20 autos from
the ground floor of the garage and dis
tributing them among the anxious own
ers on the street.
The entire department was called out
and did great work in saving adjacent
dwellings. being helped to large extent
by the wet roofs from the. recent rains.
The damage to the garage was eau sed
by the heat breaking the windows and
the fire working its way up. the WIN
dow castings into the overlays between
the steel ceiling and steel roof With the
steel shutters which were to be put on in
few days the garage would probably
have escaped injury. The loss to the
building will not exceed $1,000 but the
loss on autos will be over $4,000.
The cars reached by the fire and badly
damaged, if not destroyed are Mitchell
owned by H. H. Carr, L. A. Darling's
Maxwell, Miss Louise Darling's Packard
49,, besides three Royals and three
Oaklands in stock. 1t is understood
that there was no insurance.
The old opera house was built in 1881
for skating rink and has seen much
service since as an opera house, armory,
basket ball court, and was bought last
winter by Elmer A. Darling, who con-
verted into a storeroom, with entrances
through it to the basement on second
floor OF the garage. In the basement of
the building was the Summer Street Laun-
dry, one OF the most modern and best
equipped laundries in Vermont, owned by
Adams & Green. Their loss is $4,000
with insurance of only $1,000. The audi
torium was occupied by Bundy & Woods
as storeroom and their loss on between
40 and so carri ages is $25OO with in
surance of $500. Mr.. Darling paid
$1,000 for the building and it was in
sured for $4,000.
The BENEFITS lost all of their house
hold goods, Ted Cox a valuable chest of
carpenters tools, and there was a loss
garage.
The cause of the fire is unknown, as the
boilers in the room where it was first
seen were cased in with stone and brick
The fire was seen for many miles and
while watching one could not help but
wonder what would happened to that
part of the village had the old stable
been on the site of the new garage.