McCormick Warehouse Fire
Date: May 28, 1840Location: 206 Owego Street (now East State Street), IthacaFrank Atwater was the owner of a theater on Owego St. (now E. State St.) in the early nineteenth century. The theater was located behind a jewelry store, and never saw much business, so he converted it into a billiards hall. Fights frequently broke out at Frank's bar, which some attribute to Ithaca's reputation for high liquor consumption. A little after midnight, a bar fight turned ugly, and chairs and lamps were swung and overturned. In the commotion, a fire began in the billiards hall. The fire spread down the streets, burning over thirty buildings. Tragically, many of these buildings had been recently rebuilt after a fire in 1833. Among these buildings was a warehouse owned by a Mr. McCormick, giving the 1840 fire its name.The authorities offered a $1,000 reward to anyone who found the men responsible for the fight. The catastrophe of the fire shook Ithaca residents, who demanded that another fire company be organized. In 1842, Fire Company No. 4 was organized, and new engines purchased for the protection of the village. Soon after the fire, Henry Walton painted the scene on a banner for the fireman’s parade, depicting young boys and men in tophats helping to put out the fire, and especially to save the Ithaca Hotel across the street from the bar. The banner is on display in the Exhibit Hall of The History Center in Tompkins County. Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins CountyLISTEN HERE
Chapter House Fire
Date: April 14, 2015Location: 400-402 Stewart Avenue, IthacaThe Chapter House and an adjacent apartment building (406 Stewart Ave) were consumed by a fire that began at approximately 4:30am. The bottom floor of the Chapter House was an iconic pub and bar, famous for hosting performances from many national and local bands. It was the oldest bar in Collegetown, a fixture of the club scene, and a hub for Cornell students, alumni, professors. The building, constructed sometime before 1910, started as a single-story block house that contained several businesses, including a tailor, tobacco shop, pool hall, and a confection shop. Around 1927, the drinking establishment Jim’s Place took over the building, and later became known as The Chapter House at Jim’s Place during the 1960's. After a brief closure and stint as an ice cream parlor in the 1980's, the building reopened as The Chapter House. This iteration of The Chapter House operated as a pub and a brewery, until they stopped their own brewing in the 1990's. After the fire, the building was demolished in October 2015. The owners then rebuilt the Chapter House building, modelling the facade after pictures from the early 1900s—the vaunted roof, brick, and windows all mimicking the original facade.Explore building records and maps for 400 Stewart Ave throughout the twentieth century on the HistoryForge Ithaca database: https://www.historyforge.net/buildings/2536Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.]LISTEN HERE
McGraw-Fiske Mansion fire
Date: December 7, 1906Location: 810 University Avenue, IthacaThe fire at Jennie McGraw’s McGraw-Fiske Mansion, inhabited by the Chi Psi fraternity, was a tragedy that caught the attention of the state of New York and continued to live in the memories of Ithacans and Cornellians for decades. The fire completely destroyed the mansion, and led to the deaths of four brothers and three firemen. The cause of the fire was reported as a pile of oiled rags at the bottom of the elevator shaft, which “spontaneously combusted.” The fire ripped upwards through the shaft and into all four floors of the mansion. Fire escapes and ladders were uncommon in houses at the time, and the Fiske Mansion was no exception. The two dozen men inside had to escape through windows, or try to fight their way down to the ground floor. Two men perished in the house, and two more escaped only to die from their injuries later that day. Three firemen were crushed by a collapsing stone wall later in the morning, still trying to fight the blaze. The stories of men from inside the house, trying to escape and save each other, are harrowing. The brothers tossed mattresses out of windows to break the fall when they jumped from the second or third floors, or held blankets for each other to act as safety nets. Others crawled along the edge of the roof to shimmy down the drainpipe, and still others tied sheets together as rope to climb to safety. The night was also full of stories of roommates and friends trying to help each other, such as in the case of Oliver LeRoy Schmuck, who escaped out his window, and then returned for his roommate, Billy Nichols. He searched the house for his friend before finally giving up. He leapt from the window, his clothes on fire. Nichols was never found, and Schmuck died a few hours later from his injuries.Explore building records and maps for 810 University Ave throughout the twentieth century on the HistoryForge Ithaca database: https://www.historyforge.net/buildings/3530Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.LISTEN HERE
Morse Hall Fire
Date: February 13, 1916Morse Hall, home to Cornell's chemistry department, burned down one day before the start of the spring term.The fire may have started at the top of the building in the studio of J. P. Troy, the university photographer from 1900-1928. Professors and students formed a line and saved thousands of library books, valuable equipment, department records, and rare earth materials like radium and platinum. However, valuable manuscripts, research, and data, some dating back to the time of the university’s founding, were destroyed. J. P. Troy’s materials, negatives, and camera equipment were also lost. As the first person to hold the position of University Photographer, Troy had photographed Cornell events, sports games, campus views, and Cornell Library books and valuable documents for reference. At the time of the fire, chemistry was required for almost every student at Cornell. The fire had a big impact on students and their class schedules that semester. After the fire, Morse Hall’s top two floors were removed. The building was torn down in 1954 and renovated as a parking lot. Today the building site is home to the Johnson Museum of Art.Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.LISTEN HERE
Africana Studies and Research Center Fire
Date: April 1, 1970Location: 320 Wait Avenue, IthacaAround one in the morning, a circuit breaker at the Africana Studies and Research Center on Cornell's campus alerted the authorities to an ongoing fire. The fire, according to police, most likely started on the ground floor, and then spread throughout the building. The resulting damages were valued around $100,000. As well as the building and furnishings, the fire consumed irreplaceable research materials and the work of many professors and graduate students. The center was temporarily relocated to a dormitory near North Campus. In the aftermath, director Dr. James Turner negotiated with the Cornell administration for a new building, and the presence of security around buildings used by the Black community. The fire was investigated by Cornell and by the local police as “suspicious.” The authorities at the time refused to definitively declare the fire an act of arson. The fire occurred in the midst of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations focused on the discrimination and racism experienced by Black Cornell students. The attitude amongst student activist groups, Africana Center staff and students, and Cornell’s Black Liberation Front, was that the fire at the Center was the most recent in a series of attacks on the Black community. To consider the fire as anything less endangered the safety and property of Black people in Ithaca, and further marginalized the rights of non-white students. Recently, there had been fires at both the Southside Community Center and Wari House, a cooperative that housed primarily Black female students. The media considered the Wari House fire "simple" vandalism. Dr. Turner made clear in his statement that it was an attack on the lives of the women inside. He claimed in this statement that gasoline flares had been thrown at the doors of the house to prevent the women from leaving, but this comment garnered the ire of the press in the backlash to what was considered “violent” protests by Black students. A response column in the Daily Sun wrote that Dr. Turner had exaggerated the event to incite anger at the white assailants. The authorities found evidence of only one, unlit kerosene lamp thrown by the front door, which was treated as evidence of Dr. Turner's exaggeration. This fire hit highlighted the imbalance of the press coverage on white and Black student demonstrations. Even the Ithaca Journal spent more pages in the weeks following discussing Black students who had received restraining orders for breaking curfew, than the investigation into the outbreak of fires.Explore building records and maps for 320 Wait Avenue throughout the twentieth century on the HistoryForge Ithaca database: https://www.historyforge.net/buildings/3341Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.LISTEN HERE
Zeta Beta Tau Frat House Fire
Date: May 9, 1957Location: 1 Edgecliff Place, IthacaAround six in the morning on May 9th, 1957, the 37 fraternity brothers at the Zeta Beta Tau Frat House woke up to a blaring fire alarm. The fire was said to have originated from a mattress left out on a sun deck, and the flames spread through the insulation in the roof to the rest of the house. The fire was put out relatively quickly by the Ithaca Fire Department, but Chief Frank Stamp was seriously affected by smoke inhalation and the intense heat. He was transported to the hospital for medical treatment. Despite the quick response, the roof and attics suffered extensive damage. Luckily the lower floors remained untouched by flames, although not by smoke and water damage.For two of the fraternity brothers, this was not the first time they had been forced from their rooms by a fire. David Hirsch and Howard London had been rooming in the Wind and Waves Hotel in April of the same year when a fire ripped through the building, displacing its residents. A month later, in the rush to escape the frat house, Hirsch managed to grab a single personal possession: his copy of the Ithaca Journal that had described the fire in the Wind and Waves hotel.Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.LISTEN HERE
Fire on the Frontenac
Date: July 27, 1907Location: South of Farley's Point on Cayuga LakeOn a summers day in 1907, the new boilers on the steamboat Frontenac exploded and the boat went up in flames. Wind and rough waves prevented the Frontenac from stopping at Aurora, and the ship sunk into Cayuga Lake south of Farley’s Point around 1-1:30 pm. The passengers that day were primarily women and children. When the boat burned, the men on board escaped, but eight people, all women and children, died in the accident. Some of the women on board and a few male bystanders made heroic efforts to save the passengers. Subsequent media coverage lambasted the the men aboard for failing to risk their lives to save the others.Steamboats have transported people across Cayuga Lake since the 1820's. The Frontenac, which was the largest side-wheel steamship on the lake, had been built around 1869, launched in 1870 and was in service until the fire in 1907. The Frontenac transported passengers up and down the lake, taking a route from Cayuga Lake Park to Sheldrake, to Aurora, then back to Ithaca. The Frontenac was a popular ride across Cayuga Lake in the late 19th century.The burning of the Frontenac “...signalled the end of the steamboat era on Cayuga Lake”, though steamboats were already on the decline, with only six ships left at the time of the fire. Afterwards, Brown Transportation Co. announced plans to build a new steamer but never constructed it. The railroad and automobile eventually took over as the main forms of local transportation. Meanwhile, the Frontenac was submerged in the lake, and parts of the wreck remained there until WWII, when demand for scrap iron led locals to raid the shipwreck. Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.LISTEN HERE
A&P Grocery Fire
Date: February 3, 1970Location: 200 Hancock StreetLate at night on February 3rd, 1970, neighbors of A&P Grocery called the fire department to report an “explosion” that had shattered the front windows of the store. Shortly after the call, flames had risen through the roof and could be seen from the Cayuga Heights Police Department. The fire caused an estimated half a million dollars in damage. Ithaca Police deemed the fire “suspicious,” since it had started in an incredibly short amount of time. At 10:15pm, a patrolman came by the store and noted nothing unusual, but by 10:36, flames were “exploding” out the windows. Firemen were able to put out the fire, but the building was completely destroyed. Bystanders described the water from the fire hoses making an ice rink out of the parking lot, and cans and bottles exploding out of the rubble. The fire was shrouded in an extra layer of suspicion as it occurred at the tail end of a wave of violence targeting A&P Groceries. A federal investigation revealed that these other firebombings were linked to the New York-based Genovese crime family. The family had gained control of a company that manufactured cleaning products, and were looking for retail locations. A&P refused to stock its products, judging them too low quality. The Genovese family retaliated in the most extreme manner possible, resulting in the destruction of sixteen warehouses and stores across the U.S., and the death of one supermarket manager. Ithaca authorities denied that there was any connection between the fire at Hancock St. and mob activity, but the timing and severity of the fire was cause for rumors and suspicion. LISTEN HERE
Ithaca High School Fire (Now DeWitt Mall)
Date: February 14, 1912Location: 215 North Cayuga Street, IthacaEarly in the morning, a “laborer” passing by noticed smoke coming from the windows of the high school. He went to the police headquarters to raise the alarm, and soon after, the Ithaca Fire Department responded. Much to the firefighters’ dismay, the cold weather had frozen the fire hydrants and prevented them from pumping any water. Quick to problem solve, they built small fires to melt the ice that prevented access to the water line. Although this step proved successful, they discovered that the water pressure was too low to be effective at extinguishing the fire. The focus turned to rescuing what could be saved from the fire: a new time clock that rang the bell between classes, irreplaceable student records, and a music teacher’s favorite mug, made for her by her students. At seven in the morning, the walls of the building collapsed completely onto Cayuga St. The crowd of onlookers watched as the school fell, with an atmosphere more approriate for funeral. One teacher, however, was overheard commenting that although it was sad to watch the building burn, “It was the most inconvenient place I ever taught in.”Explore building records and maps for 215 North Cayuga Street throughout the twentieth century on the HistoryForge Ithaca database: https://www.historyforge.net/buildings/17Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.LISTEN HERE
Common Ground Fire
Date: June 30, 1988Location: 132-4 West State Street, IthacaA fire that started at 6:00 am burned for nearly the whole day and destroyed the popular nightclub and bar Common Ground, at 132-134 W. State Street. Firefighters determined the official cause to be a burning mattress on the third floor. However, some local community members believed it to be arson, due to an unexplained ten foot hole in the dance floor and fire in the basement. A candlelight vigil was held the night of the fire to commemorate Common Ground.Founded by gay couple Doug Miller and Kris Marshall in 1978, Common Ground was a fixture in the LGTQ+ community and well-known for its salsa nights. The owners themselves did not classify it as a gay bar and emphasized that everyone was welcome. As Miller himself stated: “The whole purpose behind naming it ‘Common Ground’ was to bring in all different types of people from all different walks of life. Gay, straight, old, young, men, women, anything, all different types of occupations, students as well as townspeople — all in one place to have a fun time.” Following the fire, Common Ground relocated to Danby Road, and in 2008 the nightclub changed ownership and was renamed Oasis.Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.LISTEN HERE
The Dark Legacy of the Franklin House
Date:Location: 102 West State Street, IthacaFew fires have a history as long and sordid, and filled with crime and superstition and vigilante justice as the fire at the Franklin House in 1845. The story begins back in 1818, when Luther Gere, proprietor of the Ithaca Hotel, built the Columbia Inn on the corner of Owego and Cayuga. The hotel attracted clientele of a less respectable status than Luther was used to at the Ithaca Hotel. Among the less respectable included a couple named Guy and Fanny Clark, who came to stay the night one hot August evening in 1831. Guy had met Fanny when they worked as school teachers in Pennsylvania. He fought in the War of 1812, and returned a changed man, with a reputation as a drunkard.Guy Clark checked into the hotel in the evening, and by morning had swung an axe through his wife’s head. Guy Clark was quickly arrested and in February of 1832 became the first person to be executed by hanging in Ithaca. A reported 20,000 people came to witness the execution. Guy was buried in Fall Creek but before morning the body had disappeared, alledgedly snatched by doctors wishing to study the body and brain of a murderer.After the murder, the Columbia Inn struggled to attract patrons, and Luther Gere tore down the building. The land and lumber from the inn was bought by a Mr. Carson to build a tavern. Ithacans knew where the lumber had come from and refused to patronize the tavern, so Mr. Carson decided to sell the building to a Mr. Franklin who wanted to open the Franklin House. Still, the tavern did not do much business and failed to attract respectable customers. Passerby would cross the street to avoid coming too close. The superstition proved prescient. In 1841, the site played a prominent role in another murder, this time of a shoemaker named John Jones, further souring the reputation of the building site.The situation finally came to a head in June of 1845. According to local memory, two men were overheard in the Franklin House bar discussing their plans to commit a murder. Only a few days later, someone set fire to a stack of hay in the stables, igniting a fire that would burn down the entire block. Who set this fire, and whether it was to help or prevent this murder plot, is unknown. Unlike many fires viewed as tragic accidents, this razing was thought to have cleansed the street of the evil energy and mystery of the past twenty years. Explore building records and maps for 102 W State Street throughout the twentieth century on the HistoryForge Ithaca database: https://www.historyforge.net/buildings/6944Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.LISTEN HERE
