Exeter, New Hampshire
Phillips Exeter Academy Fire
July 3, 1914
EXETER ACADEMY LOSES TREASURES
Fire Ruins Interior of Main Building of Famous
New Hampshire Prep. School
Exeter, N. H., July 3.--An investigation has
failed to determine the cause of the fire that
ruined the interior of the main building of
Phillips Exeter academy, early today. The loss
is estimated at $100,000.
Priceless portraits of the founder, instructors,
eminent graduates and benefactors and numerous
trophies and gifts of former classes were lost
in the fire.
The school is closed for the summer and all of
the officials were away. The building was beyond
hope of saving when the firemen reached the
scene, but they saved the gymnasium, physical
laboratory and Abbott and Alumni halls close by.
Only the walls of the main academy building were
left standing and the furnishings and
decorations of the famous old structure are a
total loss.
Among the portraits destroyed besides that of
John Phillips, the founder, were those of Daniel
Webster, Edward Everett, Lewis Cass, Jared
Stark, George Bancroft and John A. Dix. the war
governor of New York. A bust of General Benjamin
F. Butler was also lost.
The halls and classrooms were decorated with
photographs and casts collected by
William E. Merrill,
87, and presented by alumni.
The building was situated on Front street, about
150 feet back from the road and about the same
distance from Academy street in the center of
the academy campus.
The academy building was erected in 1872 by the
alumni and friends of the school after the
original building had been destroyed by fire in
1870.
It was a brick structure of two stories with a
pointed roof, and three years ago a substantial
addition was made to it.
On the first floor were six class rooms, and a
large examination room. On the second floor were
the chapel, five class rooms and the Christian
Fraternity room.
Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, Fitchburg, MA 3
July 1914
Transcribed by Helen
Coughlin. Thank you, Helen!
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