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Shelton's great fire 100 years
Yesterday marked the 100th
anniversary of Shelton's first great
fire, an inferno that destroyed the
Webb Hotel at First and Railroad
and killed 11 people on September
5, 1907.
The Little town of" about a thou-
sand inhabitants was fortunate
that the blaze did not spread to
adjoining wooden buildings to the
west or much more destruction
would have occurred. As it was,
those buildings between First and
Third on the south side of the main
street survived to burn another
day in the great fire of' 1914.
The 1907 fire did jump across
First Street to destroy more prop-
erty to the east, however. A saloon
and restaurant, a shoe shop, and
a residence and barn burned down
there.
THE WEBB HOTEL, built
in 1890, was the largest build-
ing in town. The main building,
three stories high, had 44 sleeping
apartments, and an annex to the
south, situated at First and Cota,
had 22 more bedrooms.
The main hotel had a ladies' re-
ception room and parlors, a large
dining room that seated 80 and
complete kitchen, a laundry, a pri-
vate gas plant that connected to
all rooms and a bar room and bil-
liard hall. It also offered a free bus
to patrons.
Henry Faubert, who had been
general manager of the hotel since
1892, owned the business. He set
up a tent across the street imme-
diately after the fire to conduct
business and then promptly start-
ed rebuilding. The new concrete
block Hotel Shelton opened on the
same spot on December 15, 1908.
It's the building you see today at
the downtown crossroads, which
has been put on the town's historic
register.
Six years after the new hotel
was built, the second great fire
started in the Bodega restaurant
on Second Street and destroyed
17 buildings in the vicinity. In
1912 city father Mark Reed had
constructed the Lumbermen's
Mercmtile building at Third and
Railroad of concrete block in a
farsighted move. On the morn-
ing after the August 1914 fire,
the downtown was a smoldering,
steamy pile of wood ashes from
the concrete Hotel Shelton to the
concrete Mercantile Building.
THEREAFTER THE owners
of property along Railroad rebuilt
with brick and concrete.
Mason County Journal editor
THE HOTEL WEBB at the corner of First and Railroad, shown during
an Independence Day celebration sometime between 1904 and 1907, was
hosting more than 80 guests the night it burned down a century ago this
week. Eleven people died and 30 more were injured. All of the buildings
shown are wooden.
Grant Angle, who complained,
"This has been a strenuous week
for the editor," in his front-page
story of September 6, 1907, had
running commentary and facts
throughout a 45-inch story the
day after the.conflagration. Some
excerpts follow:
"It falls once, at least, in the life
of every young town to witness a
disastrous fire, and the long-ex-
pected has at last happened to
Shelton. Shortly before two o'clock
Thursday morning the three-story
annex of the Webb Hotel, the larg-
est building in town and in its very
center, was tbund to be on fire, and
almost before the alarm could be
sounded its interior a seething
mass of flame. The passengers of
the evening boat included a num-
ber of travelers and loggers and
the hotel was crowded with over
80 guests, many of the loggers
doubling up in the annex rooms.
"Early comers felt that the close-
ly built frame range was doomed,
but with the courage born of de-
THE HOTEL SHELTON was built with concrete block in
1908 on the site of the burned Hotel Webb. Six years later,
the fireproof exterior resisted the flames of the 1914 Shelton
fire that wiped out two blocks of wooden buildings.
THE ANNEX of the Hotel Webb, shown behind the main
building constructed in 1890, was the starting point of the
1907 great fire.
spair started without excitement to
fight. It was soon found that many
were caught by the swift rush of
flames, and from every side men
and women were taken by ladders
or jumped from the upper stories
to the ground below, being cut off
from the regular exits and stifled
by the smoke.
"SOON THREE streams of wa-
ter were pouring upon the burning
building, and this was continued
during the night at every point
of vantage to keep the fire from
eating further into the block, al-
though it caught across the street,
and soon Bailey's saloon and res-
taurant, Hughes' shoe shop and
J.E. Connolly's residence and barn
were briskly burning and without
water rendered into ruin.
"Small hose and a few workers
saved the Masonic Hall and resi-
dences of Margaret McDonald and
Roy Simpson. After the fire had
eaten its way into the main hotel
building, all efforts of the volun-
teer firefighters were directed to
confine the fire to this structure
and from the solid range of frame
building, including the Commer-
cial Hotel, which lined the street.
Fortunately what little wind there
was bore toward the bay, and after
three hours of hard work, aided
by the splendid gravity pressure
given from our water system, the
effort was successful and with its
heart eaten out the west walls fell
toward the pyre and the business
center of Shelton was saved.
"There was little excitement,
but the workers realized that
they had the fight of their lives
before them, and saddened by the
knowledge that many must have
been burned to death, fought to
redeem as much as possible from
the fire fiend. Those who know the
dangerous character of the block,
evidenced by an insurance tariff
of 8 percent, will realize what a
valiant fight was made. The hotel
building and its annex, the origi-
nal parts built nearly 20 years
ago, was three stories high, 180
feet long and 60 feet wide, and so
quickly did the fire travel through
long halls as to shut off many who
seemingly had ample time for es-
%
cape by the stairways.
"THAT VOLUNTEER
should hold down such a prospqL
for wiping out Shelton is a ccr,E .:
to their work and the splen,aNL
gravity system of" water good .
five hours of continuous playml°:
with three streams..]
"The loss of the splendidLt
tel, the leading hoteL, upon w ak
modern improvements cos tiL1
$8,000 have just about been c0ge
financial 1 w
pleted, and the .adl
caused by the fire, all can
be rep!aced by the new ,,sheltfal
spirit, but unfbrtunately the li]t
are gone forever. To have such lq
calamity happen at home, coupl l
with the events of an unfortu [Pe
week, for the moment both sttr t
dens and unnerves us." [a.
At that point, just a day a.
l:
the fire, authorities knew of eig
dead and 17 injured. More were.'m
be confirmed dead and injured ,,e
er. Thirty were seriously injur' at
In the September 6 issuer
gle gave this sketch of the eil i
known dead: t}
"Ida May Bailey, (hotel) empl
ee, aged about 35 years. Mrs. MJ
Gay, elderly, mother of' Mrs. &,l
Mudge. Leo Rabideaux, about.lL 't
years, bartender. The three ab° s
were the only employees of the .g
tel who lost their lives, each be 'l--r,
burned in their rooms. "e:
"W.M.. m hi#
HOLMES, aster
chanic in the Penm lal
su ar Mac-.m
who escaped from the b /
shops,
ing and called by the screai
Miss Bailey, his fianc6e, went
to perish in the attempt
D.J. Hennessey, a logger,
years, who jumped from the
floor and was so badly
that he soon died. Pearl S.
a young man employed as
of Connolly's meat wagon.
Westfall and wife, an elderly
man couple, who were
from the camps of the
Lumber Company, where they
been employed as cooks." ,/
"Of the dead, but two bo
were recovered intact,"
wrote, "but from the ruins
or less of the remains of seven
man beings have been
Workers are clearing the ruin
it is only surmised how many
will be found."
The hotel had overnight
as well as boarders, the
plained. "In the hotel were
haps 20 persons who made it
home, and they lose all their
fects, as well as most of the
sient guests, • ' " "
m any;SgPtc/
tle more than thei
To those early on the scene s
of' the sights will be indelibly
pressed on their memory, as
more tha"n one instance the he
less ones were seen at wind° /
surrounded by flames and re
ing their fate, that came so
possible'
swifter than relief was
"That the old building was
firetrap has long been felt, btl!/
was thought that the impr0/
ments were being made in
direction...The origin of the fit€/^l
unknown, but it was first se,-.,
/
a storeroom under the rear st ta
and
it is presumed that a c
matches or possibly some drai
person had dropped there to st
the holocaust."
Angle wrote that doctors W
Beach and Gage worked
during the night and all day
ing the injuries of those
caped from the burning
"For these homeless quarters
be provided in the homes
town," he added.
#Oge r rhomPS
Exhaust spec'o\\;'¢'
)'our exhaUSt
OVer 25 o
exhaust
WHAT'S LEFT of the Hotel Webb smolders on the morning of September
5, 1907. Had the wind been blowing the other way, most of downtown
Shelton to the west probably would have gone up in flames, too. The
wooden buildings shown survived to burn in the great fire of 1914.
Page 26 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, September 6, 2007
Shelton's great fire 100 years
Yesterday marked the 100th
anniversary of Shelton's first great
fire, an inferno that destroyed the
Webb Hotel at First and Railroad
and killed 11 people on September
5, 1907.
The Little town of" about a thou-
sand inhabitants was fortunate
that the blaze did not spread to
adjoining wooden buildings to the
west or much more destruction
would have occurred. As it was,
those buildings between First and
Third on the south side of the main
street survived to burn another
day in the great fire of' 1914.
The 1907 fire did jump across
First Street to destroy more prop-
erty to the east, however. A saloon
and restaurant, a shoe shop, and
a residence and barn burned down
there.
THE WEBB HOTEL, built
in 1890, was the largest build-
ing in town. The main building,
three stories high, had 44 sleeping
apartments, and an annex to the
south, situated at First and Cota,
had 22 more bedrooms.
The main hotel had a ladies' re-
ception room and parlors, a large
dining room that seated 80 and
complete kitchen, a laundry, a pri-
vate gas plant that connected to
all rooms and a bar room and bil-
liard hall. It also offered a free bus
to patrons.
Henry Faubert, who had been
general manager of the hotel since
1892, owned the business. He set
up a tent across the street imme-
diately after the fire to conduct
business and then promptly start-
ed rebuilding. The new concrete
block Hotel Shelton opened on the
same spot on December 15, 1908.
It's the building you see today at
the downtown crossroads, which
has been put on the town's historic
register.
Six years after the new hotel
was built, the second great fire
started in the Bodega restaurant
on Second Street and destroyed
17 buildings in the vicinity. In
1912 city father Mark Reed had
constructed the Lumbermen's
Mercmtile building at Third and
Railroad of concrete block in a
farsighted move. On the morn-
ing after the August 1914 fire,
the downtown was a smoldering,
steamy pile of wood ashes from
the concrete Hotel Shelton to the
concrete Mercantile Building.
THEREAFTER THE owners
of property along Railroad rebuilt
with brick and concrete.
Mason County Journal editor
THE HOTEL WEBB at the corner of First and Railroad, shown during
an Independence Day celebration sometime between 1904 and 1907, was
hosting more than 80 guests the night it burned down a century ago this
week. Eleven people died and 30 more were injured. All of the buildings
shown are wooden.
Grant Angle, who complained,
"This has been a strenuous week
for the editor," in his front-page
story of September 6, 1907, had
running commentary and facts
throughout a 45-inch story the
day after the.conflagration. Some
excerpts follow:
"It falls once, at least, in the life
of every young town to witness a
disastrous fire, and the long-ex-
pected has at last happened to
Shelton. Shortly before two o'clock
Thursday morning the three-story
annex of the Webb Hotel, the larg-
est building in town and in its very
center, was tbund to be on fire, and
almost before the alarm could be
sounded its interior a seething
mass of flame. The passengers of
the evening boat included a num-
ber of travelers and loggers and
the hotel was crowded with over
80 guests, many of the loggers
doubling up in the annex rooms.
"Early comers felt that the close-
ly built frame range was doomed,
but with the courage born of de-
THE HOTEL SHELTON was built with concrete block in
1908 on the site of the burned Hotel Webb. Six years later,
the fireproof exterior resisted the flames of the 1914 Shelton
fire that wiped out two blocks of wooden buildings.
THE ANNEX of the Hotel Webb, shown behind the main
building constructed in 1890, was the starting point of the
1907 great fire.
spair started without excitement to
fight. It was soon found that many
were caught by the swift rush of
flames, and from every side men
and women were taken by ladders
or jumped from the upper stories
to the ground below, being cut off
from the regular exits and stifled
by the smoke.
"SOON THREE streams of wa-
ter were pouring upon the burning
building, and this was continued
during the night at every point
of vantage to keep the fire from
eating further into the block, al-
though it caught across the street,
and soon Bailey's saloon and res-
taurant, Hughes' shoe shop and
J.E. Connolly's residence and barn
were briskly burning and without
water rendered into ruin.
"Small hose and a few workers
saved the Masonic Hall and resi-
dences of Margaret McDonald and
Roy Simpson. After the fire had
eaten its way into the main hotel
building, all efforts of the volun-
teer firefighters were directed to
confine the fire to this structure
and from the solid range of frame
building, including the Commer-
cial Hotel, which lined the street.
Fortunately what little wind there
was bore toward the bay, and after
three hours of hard work, aided
by the splendid gravity pressure
given from our water system, the
effort was successful and with its
heart eaten out the west walls fell
toward the pyre and the business
center of Shelton was saved.
"There was little excitement,
but the workers realized that
they had the fight of their lives
before them, and saddened by the
knowledge that many must have
been burned to death, fought to
redeem as much as possible from
the fire fiend. Those who know the
dangerous character of the block,
evidenced by an insurance tariff
of 8 percent, will realize what a
valiant fight was made. The hotel
building and its annex, the origi-
nal parts built nearly 20 years
ago, was three stories high, 180
feet long and 60 feet wide, and so
quickly did the fire travel through
long halls as to shut off many who
seemingly had ample time for es-
%
cape by the stairways.
"THAT VOLUNTEER
should hold down such a prospqL
for wiping out Shelton is a ccr,E .:
to their work and the splen,aNL
gravity system of" water good .
five hours of continuous playml°:
with three streams..]
"The loss of the splendidLt
tel, the leading hoteL, upon w ak
modern improvements cos tiL1
$8,000 have just about been c0ge
financial 1 w
pleted, and the .adl
caused by the fire, all can
be rep!aced by the new ,,sheltfal
spirit, but unfbrtunately the li]t
are gone forever. To have such lq
calamity happen at home, coupl l
with the events of an unfortu [Pe
week, for the moment both sttr t
dens and unnerves us." [a.
At that point, just a day a.
l:
the fire, authorities knew of eig
dead and 17 injured. More were.'m
be confirmed dead and injured ,,e
er. Thirty were seriously injur' at
In the September 6 issuer
gle gave this sketch of the eil i
known dead: t}
"Ida May Bailey, (hotel) empl
ee, aged about 35 years. Mrs. MJ
Gay, elderly, mother of' Mrs. &,l
Mudge. Leo Rabideaux, about.lL 't
years, bartender. The three ab° s
were the only employees of the .g
tel who lost their lives, each be 'l--r,
burned in their rooms. "e:
"W.M.. m hi#
HOLMES, aster
chanic in the Penm lal
su ar Mac-.m
who escaped from the b /
shops,
ing and called by the screai
Miss Bailey, his fianc6e, went
to perish in the attempt
D.J. Hennessey, a logger,
years, who jumped from the
floor and was so badly
that he soon died. Pearl S.
a young man employed as
of Connolly's meat wagon.
Westfall and wife, an elderly
man couple, who were
from the camps of the
Lumber Company, where they
been employed as cooks." ,/
"Of the dead, but two bo
were recovered intact,"
wrote, "but from the ruins
or less of the remains of seven
man beings have been
Workers are clearing the ruin
it is only surmised how many
will be found."
The hotel had overnight
as well as boarders, the
plained. "In the hotel were
haps 20 persons who made it
home, and they lose all their
fects, as well as most of the
sient guests, • ' " "
m any;SgPtc/
tle more than thei
To those early on the scene s
of' the sights will be indelibly
pressed on their memory, as
more tha"n one instance the he
less ones were seen at wind° /
surrounded by flames and re
ing their fate, that came so
possible'
swifter than relief was
"That the old building was
firetrap has long been felt, btl!/
was thought that the impr0/
ments were being made in
direction...The origin of the fit€/^l
unknown, but it was first se,-.,
/
a storeroom under the rear st ta
and
it is presumed that a c
matches or possibly some drai
person had dropped there to st
the holocaust."
Angle wrote that doctors W
Beach and Gage worked
during the night and all day
ing the injuries of those
caped from the burning
"For these homeless quarters
be provided in the homes
town," he added.
#Oge r rhomPS
Exhaust spec'o\\;'¢'
)'our exhaUSt
OVer 25 o
exhaust
WHAT'S LEFT of the Hotel Webb smolders on the morning of September
5, 1907. Had the wind been blowing the other way, most of downtown
Shelton to the west probably would have gone up in flames, too. The
wooden buildings shown survived to burn in the great fire of 1914.
Page 26 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, September 6, 2007