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1896 Square Fire
From Bloomingpedia
On March 12, 1896, a fire originating in a billiard hall in the Howe-Maxwell Block caused more than $7000 in damages.
Presumably caused by billiards players throwing cigar stubs on the floor, the fire quickly consumed the building and damaged buildings from Blewett's Drug Store to Hall Bros. A rapid response by the fire department kept the losses from spreading further. Damages include:
- Chester Ingalls, billiard hall and fixtures, $300. No insurance.
- American Express company, $200. Damaged by water.
- Blewett's drug store, damaged by water about $100. Insured.
- C.R. Worrall's law office, $50.
- Joseph E. Henley & James B. Wilson, lawyers, carried their law library into the court house yard, and sustained only slight loss.
- Prudential Insurance Co., nominal damage.
- Howe-Maxwell block, estimated damage, $1500. Insured for $7000.
- Field block, about $200. Insurance $2000.
- The Eagle Clothing shoe room was entirely submerged, and water dripped through all over the rear part of the room. Damages came to roughly $3000, but the Eagle carried $10000 in insurance.
