Ames, Iowa

Iowa State College Main Building Fire

December 1900

Agricultural College Burned

Main Building Destroyed by Fire this morning with Loss of Over One Hundred Thousand

Finest Botanical Collection in the United States is Destroyed by the Flames.

Great Loss to State

Fire Destroys a Valuable Building of the State Agricultural Collage At Ames

Word reached Iowa City today that the main building of the State Agricultural Hall at Ames, known as the Agricultural Hall, was destroyed by fire at an early hour this morning.

The building and contents were nearly all destroyed, and the loss is one which will be a great one to the state of Iowa, the building alone being worth about one hundred thousand dollars. The origin of the fire is unknown, but was supposed to have been started by a defect in the heating apparatus.

While it may be an easy task for the state to replace the building, yet a great loss will be sustained, and one which will be hard to replace, as far as the contents are concerned. In the building was kept one of the best botanical collections in the world and this collection was almost entirely destroyed.

The loss is entire, as the state carries no insurance on any of its property.

By Scripps-McRae Press Association

Ames, Iowa, Dec 8—The main building of the State Agricultural College burned this morning. Loss $100,000. Three hundred students sleeping in the north wing were rescued by firemen. The finest botany collection in the United States was destroyed.

Daily Iowa State Press, Iowa City, IA 8 Dec 1900

The Fire at Ames

Further Particulars of the Great Loss to the Stat and the Agricultural College

Ames, Dec 10—At 9 o’clock Saturday forenoon the faculty of the Iowa State College met within sight and sound of the smouldering [sic] and crumbling walls of the main building and decided to go ahead with the work of the present term, as if the fire had not destroyed the largest building and cost the College over $50,000. Temporary recitation rooms were secured during the day and the work of the college will go ahead as if nothing had happened. At the faculty meeting committees were appointed to secure recitation rooms until a new building can be created by the state, to secure temporary rooming quarters for he [sic] homeless students, to provide them with the necessities of life and to resume business as if no holocaust had occurred.

Within four hours from the time the north wing of the main college dormitory crumbled to the ground in a smudge of burning timbers and littered brick “gave up the fire ghost,” the students of old I A C, and the present I S C gathered together on the campus, in plain sight of the fire destruction, and sitting upon half burned trunks and scorched mattresses, they gave the college yell with a [illegible] that the fire and the damage only intensified. Regardless of the fire blight [illegible] fever-scourge, the cardinal and gold of Iowa State college still wave and the good work of the school will go on unabated and unmitigated.

Fire broke out in the engine room to the rear of the central section of the main dormitory and college building, at 3:40 o’clock Saturday morning, and by 6:30 o’clock the north wing of the building lay in ruins, the central section stood upright, a charred and burned monument of the fierce work of the flames and only the south wing remained intact. Within two and a half hours $50,000 worth of college and state property had perished and the 250 students rooming in the dormitory had lost personal property to the amount of almost $5,000.

Asleep in the dormitory when the fire broke out were 250 students from all over the state, entirely unaware of the danger threatening them. The ringing, clanging bell did not make known the horror to many students, so often has the bell clanged out its wild alarm when some football victory was heralded, or when belated students, returning from surreptitious visits down town, decided to play a prank and give the sleeping students something to swear and turn over about. So the wild ringing of the bell failed to arouse the sleeping pupils, and the appearance of the fierce flames was all that signified the catastrophe. The fire soon swept everything before it, and not waiting to grab their belongings or do more than hurriedly dress themselves the students sped for safety.

By 6 o’clock, the damage was all done and morning light revealed the scene of destruction. Almost the entire rear section of the north wall of the building had crumpled and fallen to the ground. The north wing was completely gutted and portions of the roof lay smouldering [sic] in the burned basement. The front wall of the building, at the fourth floor, had partially crumbled, and only the front tower at the north side of the building stood erect and tottered defiance to the fire king. Great clouds of steam and smoke poured from the ruins like a geyser in full action. The adjacent campus was crowded with startled students and with the crowds of the curious who swarmed through the rapid [illegible] speeding motor and hurried to the college from the town.

Daily Iowa State Press, Iowa City, IA 10 Dec 1900

Articles transcribed by Patty.  Thank you, Patty!

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