Daniels house, near Seven Corners.
Sintominie hotel, Sixth street.
Rice house, near Rice Park.
New England hotel, Third street
Hotel to the Wild Hunter, Jackson street.
Montreal house, Robert street.
Canada house, Robert street.
Winslow house, Seven Corners.
American house, Third street.
International hotel, Seventh and Jackson streets.
Franklin house, Marshall avenue.
Dakota house, Seven Corners.
Washington house, Seven Corners.
Cosmopolitan hotel, Third street.
Western house, Third street.
Garden City house, Fourth street.
City hotel, Fourth street.
Central house, Bench street.
Emmert house, Bench street.
St. Paul house, Bench street.
Luxemborg hotel, Franklin street.
Farmers' hotel, Fourth street.
Greenman house, Fifth street.
Mansion house, Wabasha street.
Haine's hotel, Lake Como.
Aldrich house, Lake Como.
Park Place hotel, Summit avenue.
Carpenter house, Summit avenue.
Paul Faber's hotel, Third street.
* * * * *
The first hotel fire of any importance was that of the Daniels house,
located on Eagle street near Seven Corners, which occurred in 1852.
The building had just been finished and furnished for occupancy. A
strong wind was raging and the little band of firemen were unable
to save the structure. The names of Rev. D.D. Neill, Isaac Markley,
Bartlett Presley and W.M. Stees were among the firemen who assisted in
saving the furniture.
* * * * *
The Sintominie hotel on the corner of Sixth and John streets, was the
second hotel to receive a visit from the fire king. This hotel was
constructed by the late C.W. Borup, and it was the pride of lower
town. Howard Ward and E.C. Rich were preparing to open it when the
fire occurred. Owing to the lack of fire protection the building was
totally destroyed.
* * * * *
Early in the winter of 1856 the Rice house, commonly supposed to
be the first brick building erected in St. Paul, was burned to the
ground. It was three stories high, and when in process of building was
considered a visionary enterprise. The building was constructed by
Henry M. Rice, and he spared no expense to make it as complete as the
times would allow. It was situated on Third street near Market, and
in the early days was considered St. Paul's principal hotel. In its
parlor and barroom the second session of the territorial legislature
was held, and the supreme court of the territory also used it for
several terms.
* * * * *
The Canada house and the Galena house, two small frame structures on
Robert near Third, were the next hotels to be visited by the fiery
element. These hotels, though small, were well patronized at the time
of their destruction.
* * * * *
On the 16th of March, 1860, the most destructive fire that had ever
occurred in St. Paul broke out in a small wooden building on Third
street near Jackson, and though the entire fire department--three
engines and one truck, manned by one hundred men--were promptly on
hand, the flames rapidly got beyond their reach. Nearly all the
buildings on Third street at that time from Robert to Jackson were
two-story frame structures, and in their rear were small houses
occupied by the owners of the stores. When the fire was at its height
it was feared that the whole of lower town would be destroyed before
the flames could be subdued, but by dint of superhuman effort the
firemen managed to cut off the leap across Robert street and soon had
the immense smouldering mass under control. Thirty-four buildings, the
largest number ever destroyed in St. Paul, were in ashes. Of the two
blocks which lined the north and south sides of Third street above
Jackson, only three buildings were left standing, two being stone
structures occupied by Beaumont & Gordon and Bidwell & Co., and
the other a four-story brick building owned and occupied by A.L.
Larpenteur. The New England, a two-story log house, and one of the
first hotels built in St. Paul was among the ruins. The New England
was a feature in St. Paul, and it was pointed out to newcomers as the
first gubernatorial mansion, and in which Gov. and Mrs. Ramsey had
begun housekeeping in 1849. The Empire saloon was another historic
ruin, for in its main portion the first printing office of the
territory had long held forth, and from it was issued the first
Pioneer, April 10, 1849. The Hotel to the Wild Hunter was also
destroyed at this fire.
* * * * *
In the fall of 1862 the Winslow house, located at Seven Corners, was
entirely destroyed by fire. A defective stovepipe in the cupola caused
the fire, and it spread so rapidly that it was beyond the control
of the firemen when they arrived upon the scene. A few pieces of
furniture, badly damaged, was all that was saved of this once popular
hotel. The Winslow was a four-story brick building, and with the
exception of the Fuller house the largest hotel in the city. The hotel
was constructed in 1854 by the late J.M. Winslow. Mr. Winslow was one
of the most ingenious hotel constructors in the West. In some peculiar
manner he was enabled to commence the construction of a building
without any capital, but when the building was completed he not only
had the building, but a bank account that indicated that he was a
financier as well as a builder. The proprietors of the Winslow were
arrested for incendarism, but after a preliminary examination were
discharged.
* * * * *
The American house, on the corner of Third and Exchange streets, was
one of the landmarks of the city for a good many years. It was built
in 1849, and the territorial politicians generally selected this hotel
as their headquarters. Although it was of very peculiar architecture,
the interior fittings were of a modern character. On a stormy night in
the month of December, 1863, an alarm of fire was sent in from this
hotel, but before the fire department reached the locality the fire
was beyond their control. The weather was bitter cold, and the water
would be frozen almost as soon as it left the hose. Finding their
efforts fruitless to save the building, the firemen turned their
attention to saving the guests. There were some very narrow escapes,
but no accidents of a very serious nature. As usual, thieves were
present and succeeded in carrying off a large amount of jewelry and
wearing apparel belonging to the guests.
* * * * *
In the year of 1856 Mackubin & Edgerton erected a fine three-story
brick building on the corner of Third and Franklin streets. It was
occupied by them as a banking house for a long time. The business
center having been moved further down the street, they were compelled
to seek quarters on Bridge Square. After the bank moved out of
this building it was leased to Bechtner & Kottman, and was by them
remodeled into a hotel on the European plan at an expense of about
$20,000. It was named the Cosmopolitan hotel, and was well patronized.
When the alarm of fire was given it was full of lodgers, many of whom
lost all they possessed. The Linden theatrical company, which was
playing at the Athenaeum, was among the heavy sufferers. At this fire
a large number of frame buildings on the opposite side of the street
were destroyed.
When the Cosmopolitan hotel burned the walls of the old building were
left standing, and although they were pronounced dangerous by the city
authorities, had not been demolished. Dr. Schell, one of the best
known physicians of the city, occupied a little frame building near
the hotel, and he severely denounced the city authorities for their
lax enforcement of the law. One night at 10 o'clock the city was
visited by a terrific windstorm, and suddenly a loud crash was heard
in the vicinity of the doctor's office. A portion of the walls of the
hotel had fallen and the little building occupied by the doctor had
been crushed in. The fire alarm was turned on and the fire laddies
were soon on the spot. No one supposed the doctor was alive, but after
the firemen had been at work a short time they could hear the voice
of the doctor from underneath the rubbish. In very vigorous English,
which the doctor knew so well how to use, he roundly upbraided the
fire department for not being more expeditious in extricating him from
his perilous position. After the doctor had been taken out of the
ruins It was found that he had not been seriously injured, and in the
course of a few weeks was able to resume practice.
* * * * *
During the winter of 1868 the Emmert house, situated on Bench street
near Wabasha, was destroyed by fire. The Emmert house was built in
territorial times by Fred Emmert, who for some time kept a hotel and
boarding house at that place. It had not been used for hotel purposes
for some time, but was occupied by a colored family and used as a
boarding-house for colored people. While the flames were rapidly
consuming the old building the discovery was made that a man and
his wife were sick in one of the rooms with smallpox. The crowd of
onlookers fled in terror, and they would have been burned alive had
not two courageous firemen carried them out of the building. It was
an unusually cold night and the colored people were dumped into the
middle of the street and there allowed to remain. They were provided
with clothing and some of the more venturesome even built a fire for
them, but no one would volunteer to take them to a place of shelter.
About 10 o'clock on the following day the late W.L. Wilson learned
of the unfortunate situation of the two colored people, and he
immediately procured a vehicle and took them to a place of safety, and
also saw that they were thereafter properly cared for.
* * * * *
On the site of the old postoffice on the corner of Wabasha and Fifth
streets stood the Mansion house, a three-story frame building erected
by Nicholas Pottgieser in early days at an expense of $12,000. It was
a very popular resort and for many years the weary traveler there
received a hearty welcome.
A very exciting event occurred at this house during the summer of
1866. A man by the name of Hawkes, a guest at the hotel, accidentally
shot and instantly killed his young and beautiful wife. He was
arrested and tried for murder, but after a long and sensational trial
was acquited.
* * * * *
The greatest hotel fire in the history of St. Paul occurred on the
night of Feb. 3, 1869. The International hotel (formerly the Fuller
house) was situated on the northeast corner of Seventh and Jackson
streets, and was erected by A.G. Fuller in 1856. It was built of brick
and was five stories high. It cost when completed, about $110,000. For
years it had been the best hotel in the West. William H. Seward and
the distinguished party that accompanied him made this hotel their
headquarters during their famous trip to the West in 1860. Gen. Pope
and Gen. Sibley had their headquarters in this building, and from here
emanated all the orders relating to the war against the rebellious
Sioux. In 1861 the property came into the possession of Samuel Mayall,
and he changed the name of it from Fuller house to International
hotel. Col. E.C. Belote, who had formerly been the landlord of the
Merchants, was the manager of the hotel. The fire broke out in the
basement, it was supposed from a lamp in the laundry. The night was
intensely cold, a strong gale blowing from the northwest. Not a soul
could be seen upon the street. Within this great structure more than
two hundred guests were wrapped in silent slumber. To rescue them from
their perilous position was the problem that required instant action
on the part of the firemen and the hotel authorities. The legislature
was then in session, and many of the members were among the guests who
crowded the hotel. A porter was the first to notice the blaze, and
he threw a pail water upon it, but with the result that it made no
impression upon the flames. The fire continued to extend, and the
smoke became very dense and spread into the halls, filling them
completely, rendering breathing almost an impossibility. In the
meantime the alarm had been given throughout the house, and the
guests, both male and female, came rushing out of the rooms in their
night Clothes. The broad halls of the hotel were soon filled with a
crowd of people who hardly knew which way to go in order to find their
way to the street. The servant girls succeeded in getting out first,
and made their way to the snow-covered streets without sufficient
clothing to protect their persons, and most of them were without
shoes. While the people were escaping from the building the fire was
making furious and rapid progress. From the laundry the smoke issued
into every portion of the building. There was no nook or corner that
the flames did not penetrate. The interior of the building burned with
great rapidity until the fire had eaten out the eastern and southern
rooms, when the walls began to give indications of falling. The upper
portion of them waved back and forth in response to a strong wind,
which filled the night air with cinders. At last different portions of
the walls fell, thus giving the flames an opportunity to sweep from
the lower portions of the building. Great gusts, which seemed to
almost lift the upper floors, swept through the broken walls. High up
over the building the flames climbed, carrying with them sparks and
cinders, and in come instances large pieces of timber. All that saved
the lower part of the city from fiery destruction was the fact that a
solid bed of snow a foot deep lay upon the roofs of all the buildings.
During all this time there was comparative quiet, notwithstanding the
fact that the fire gradually extended across Jackson street and also
across Seventh street. Besides the hotel, six or eight other buildings
were also on fire, four of which were destroyed. Women and men were to
be seen hurrying out of the burning buildings in their night
clothes, furniture was thrown into the street, costly pianos, richly
upholstered furniture, valuable pictures and a great many other
expensive articles were dropped in the snow in a helter-skelter
manner. Although nearly every room in the hotel was occupied and
rumors flew thick and fast that many of the guests were still in their
rooms, fortunately no lives were lost and no one was injured. The
coolest person in the building was a young man by the name of Pete
O'Brien, the night watchman. When he heard of the fire he comprehended
in a moment the danger of a panic among over two hundred people who
were locked in sleep, unconscious of danger. He went from room to room
and from floor to floor, telling them of the danger, but assuring them
all that they had plenty of time to escape. He apparently took command
of the excited guests and issued orders like a general on the field of
battle. To his presence of mind and coolness many of the guests were
indebted for their escape from a frightful death. The fire department
worked hard and did good service. The city had no waterworks at that
time, but relied for water entirely upon cisterns located in different
parts of the city. When the cisterns became dry it was necessary
to place the steamer at the river and pump water through over two
thousand feet of hose.
Among the guests at the hotel at the time of the fire were Gen. C.C.
Andrews, Judge Lochren, Capt. H.A. Castle, Gen. W.G. Le Duc, Selah
Chamberlain, Gov. Armstrong and wife, Charles A. Gilman and wife,
Dr. W.W. Mayo, I.W. Webb, Dr. Charles N. Hewitt, M.H. Dunnell, Judge
Thomas Wilson and more than two hundred others.
* * * * *
The Park Place hotel on the corner of Summit avenue and St. Peter
street, was at one time one of of the swell hotels of the city. It
was a frame building, four stories high and nicely situated. The
proprietors of it intended it should be a family hotel, but it did not
meet with the success anticipated, and when, on the 19th of May, 1878,
it was burned to the ground it was unoccupied. The fire was thought
to be the work of incendiaries. The loss was about $20,000, partially
insured. Four firemen were quite seriously injured at this fire, but
all recovered.
* * * * *
The Carpenter house, on the corner of Summit avenue and Ramsey street,
was built by Warren Carpenter. Mr. Carpenter was a man of colossal
ideas, and from the picturesque location of his hotel, overlooking the
city, he could see millions of tourists flocking to his hostelry. The
panic of 1857, soon followed by the great Civil war, put a quietus on
immigration, and left him stranded high on the beach. Mr. Carpenter's
dream of millions were far from being realized, and when on the 26th
of January, 1879, the hotel was burned to the ground, it had for some
time previous passed beyond his control.
* * * * *
At one time there were three flourishing hotels on Bench street.
The average citizen of to-day does not know that such a street ever
existed. The Central house, on the corner of Bench and Minnesota
streets, was the first hotel of any pretension built in the city,
and it was one of the last to be burned. The first session of the
territorial legislature of Minnesota was held in the dining room of
this old hotel building, and for a number of years the hotel did a
thriving business. As the city grew it was made over into a large
boarding house, and before the war Mrs. Corbett was manager of the
place. It was afterward kept by Mrs. Ferguson, George Pulford and Ben
Ferris, the latter being in possession of it when it was destroyed by
fire. The building was burned In August, 1873.
* * * * *
A hotel that was very popular for some time was the Greenman house,
situated on the corner of Fifth and St. Peter streets, the site of the
Windsor hotel. It was a three-story frame structure and was built in
the early seventies. Mr. Greenman kept the hotel for some time, and
then sold it to John Summers, who was the owner of it when it was
burned.
* * * * *
The Merchants is the only one of the old hotels still existing, and
that only in name, as the original structure was torn down to make
room for the present building many years ago.
* * * * *
Aside from the hotel fires one of the most appalling calamities that
ever occurred at a fire in St. Paul took place in May, 1870, when the
old Concert Hall building on Third street, near Market, was destroyed.
Concert Hall was built by the late J.W. McClung in 1857, and the hall
in the basement was one of the largest in the city. The building was
three stories high in front and six or seven on the river side. It
was located about twenty-five feet back from the sidewalk. Under the
sidewalk all kinds of inflamable material was stored and it was from
here that the fire was first noticed. In an incredibly short time
flames reached the top of the building, thus making escape almost
impossible. On the river side of the building on the top floor two
brothers, Charles and August Mueller, had a tailor shop. The fire
spread so rapidly that the building was completely enveloped in flames
before they even thought their lives were endangered. In front of them
was a seething mass of flames and the distance to the ground on the
river side was so great that a leap from the window meant almost
certain death. They could be plainly seen frantically calling for
help. There was no possible way to reach them. Finally Charles Mueller
jumped out on the window sill and made a leap for life, and an instant
later he was followed by his brother. The bewildered spectators did
not suppose for a moment that either could live. They were too much
horrified to speak, but when it was over and they were lifted into
beds provided for them doctors were called and recovery was pronounced
possible. After months of suffering both recovered. August Mueller is
still living in the city. A lady by the name of McClellan, who had a
dressmaking establishment in the building, was burned to death and it
was several days before her body was recovered.
The following named men have been chiefs of the St. Paul fire
department:
Wash M. Stees,
Chas. H. Williams,
J.C.A. Pickett,
W.T. Donaldson,
J.B. Irvine,
J.E. Missen,
Luther H. Eddy,
B. Rodick,
M.B. Farrell,
J.C. Prendergast,
Bartlett Presley,
Frank Brewer,
R.O. Strong,
John T. Black,
Hart N. Cook,
John Jackson.