Oneonta,
NY Fire
December 27, 1908
FLAMES RAGE IN ONEONTA
ARLINGTON HOTEL AND SEVEN OTHER BUILDINGS
BURNED.
Loss Is Estimated at $100,000 – Several Persons
Had Narrow Escapes and Lost All Their Personal
Property.
ONEONTA, Dec. 28 – Fire which for a time
early yesterday threatened the whole business
section of Oneonta destroyed the Arlington Hotel
and seven other buildings in the heart of the
city, causing a loss of fully $100,000. Many of
the occupants of the hotel and the living
apartments in the other buildings had narrow
escapes, none of them being able to save any of
their effects and most of them being compelled
to make hurried exits in scanty attire from the
burning structures.
The fire started in the Arlington Hotel
building, which is owned by
H. E. Huntington
of Los Angeles and Oneonta. It spread rapidly
along the block of which the hotel formed a
part, the last remaining row of wooden buildings
in Main street. The age of the buildings and
their inflammable character made the mas [sic]
easy prey to the fire and it was but a few
moments from the time the first alarm was given
before they were a mass of flames and doomed.
Across Main street from the blazing block stands
the finest row of brick buildings in the city
and it was only by the hardest kind of work that
the firemen save them from destruction. As it
was, the window sash and frames on the street
fronts of the new buildings were burned and the
contents of several of the stores were
considerably damaged by water.
While the occupants of the burned buildings were
able to make their escaped [sic] unscathed, the
personal belongings and furniture of something
like a score of families were destroyed. The
quick spread of the fire soon made entrance to
the business houses in the blazing row
impossible and only a small part of their stocks
could be saved. The concerns in the burned row
which suffered practically complete losses were
the Factory Glove store,
R. E. Townsend, job printing
plant; George E.
Thomas, shoe shining parlors, bakery
of F. M. Campbell;
Arlington Hotel, offices of Oneonta Coal
company, cigar and tobacco store of
L. D. Slade,
drug store of George
Slade, Marble’s pool room; the liquor
store of James Morton
and the millinery parlors of
M. and L. Stringham. The blocks were
owned by the First National bank,
E. R. Ford, E. E.
Huntington, George L. Wilber, L. H. and Perry
Blend of Oneonta;
Dr. William R. Stewart
of Bennington, Vt., and
Mendel Brothers
of New York city.
Firms in the new buildings across the street
which suffered losses are the Oneonta department
store of Ronan Brothers,
the two largest
department stores in the city and
C. O. Biederman, jeweler and
Stevens & Baker,
hardware dealers.
At one time it appeared that the whole business
section was doomed and aid was asked from
Cooperstown, but before the department of that
village had started word was sent that it was
not needed. The cause of the fire is unknown.
The insurance on the burned and damaged property
is about $50,000.
Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY 28 Dec 1908
Transcribed by
Cheryl.
Thank you, Cheryl!
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