Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1912-04-19
BELLOWS FALLS NEWS
Rebuilding the Burned District.

The general outlook for restoring the
! burned areas of the business buildings
damaged by the recent fire is very
| promising. The owners of the Hotel
| Windham property are going ahead at
once to replace the roof and. fourth story
Of that building in the same condition
| as 1T was before the fire, and will get
| Manager Willis to open 1t again as soon
| as possible. 1t will be about two
months before we can have hotel
again. Work was begun Saturday and
the roof is being built rapidly, under the
direction of L. C. Richardson of Spring.
I field, formerly of Westminster who has
| built a large number of buildings here
| in past years. The hotel will be open
ed as early as possible and in practi-
| cally the same condition as for the pa st
| 10 years.
The question of new and much
| larger hotel in some other locality has
not been abandoned, and some progress is
being made by the committee of which
Fred II. Rabbit is chairman. The ques-
| tion of a location for the new hotel is
perplexing. The location discussed own
ed by the Frost family just north of the
opera house, is unavailable because of a
prohibitive price named by the owners
$4,000. The Hetty Green property, as
has been proven before when wanted for
other purposes, has had no definite price
named by the owner and probably It
cannot be secured. In that location
there are certain restrictions, made by
former owners, regarding the location Of
future buildings, which would interfere
with its being used as a hotel site. The
Williams homestead is not in the market.
Two other sites have been discussed
freely the past week by the committee.
The project is not by any means aban-
doned as the committee have met with
encouragement from a large number who
will stand ready to put in capital if a
proper location can be secured.
The rebuilding of Hotel Windham is
going forward with the full understand
ing that much justice as possible will
be accorded the Messrs. Howard in case
larger hotel is decided upon later.
They have stood ready to turn their
building into a mercantile block, and
take stock in the new enterprise If 1t
could be arranged for now and delayed
beginning repairing the building several
days with this in view. The fact that,
in case a site was secured and a new
hotel erected, it would take year or
more to have such a building ready for
the public, and that meantime the viii
lage would suffer because of the lack of
a hotel, was a large factor in deciding
the immediate replacement of the roof
on the Hotel Windham, but this action
does not at all indicate the abandonment
of the enterprise of a new and larger
hotel, which is much needed.
The committee of the board of trade
is continuing its work and public sem
timent is backing up its efforts to find
an available and suitable site, and there
seems little danger but that when this
is done the village will have the bene-
tit of much needed increased facilities
for the accommodation of both the COM
mercial travelling public and the increas-
ing automobile trade.
The owners of Union building and the
O. B. Arms building are at work with
a large force of men, clearing up the
ruins and debris. Details of plans are
being perfected for replacing the Arms
building in the same condition as be-
fore The south half of Union build
ing, which was entirely Quilted by the
fire, will have to be rebuilt entirely. The
walls are being taken down and prob
ably will be replaced by a steel and
concrete structure. The entire arrange
ment of the inside both in the stores
and above, will be changed to suit the
demands of the public, but the plans
are not yet perfected. The north half,
from the stairway that was just north
of the fire wall, dividing it from Union
hall, has only the roof and third story
destroyed, and the present plans con-
template restoring that portion in about
the same condition as before. In this
part is the store of Bodine & Co.,
plumbers, and the Fuller drug store,
while in the south part were the stores
of d. F. Pollard, j. C. Day & Co., and
Hatch & Bellows. 1t is probable that
the three stores last named will be made
into two when rebuilt.
Bodine & Co. have been busy closing
out their stock in the same location, 1t
being damaged by water only. Mr.. Full
Ter has opened his store in the south
half of the basement of Arms building,
under Mrs Holiness store, and put in
new stock and a part of his damaged
stock MRS. Holmes is closing out her
stock of womens furnishings in her old
location Mason Brothers, who were in
the north store Of Arms building, are
doing business in the Lowell mercantile
building on Rockingham street Hodg-
don & Shaw, who occupied the north
store in Hotel Windham block, are now
| doing business around the corner OF the
| hotel in what was the hotel sample
room, or bar Richardson Brothers are
| closing out their large stock of boots
and shoes, that were damaged only by
water, in their old location in the middle
| store of the Hotel Windham block. For
many days immense crowds pushed and
pulled each other to get chance at the
bargains. The jewelry store of Collins
& Floyd is now located in the north
store in the Gray building, their stock
| having been removed from the burning
building with but very little damage
| The appearance of the south side OF
the square, although still looking very
much like a bad wreck, is a scene or
much activity, and within a very short
time the appearance Will be mucn pet-
ter than ever, carrying out the slogan
of the Bellows Falls board of trade OF
Bigger, Better and Buster Bellows
Falls"
Deacon c. c. FaIrbank.
Deacon Chilson c. Fairbank, aged al