{"id":2676,"date":"2015-12-09T19:01:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T19:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=2676"},"modified":"2015-12-24T21:02:38","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T21:02:38","slug":"house-herrmann-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/house-herrmann-fire","title":{"rendered":"Fire & Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Wheeling\u2019s\u00a0House & Herrmann Department Store Burns to the Ground After a Winter Storm<\/h2>\n
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\"An<\/a>
An early depiction of the House & Herrmann Department Store.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ninety-eight years ago today, on December 9, 1917, a natural gas explosion triggered one of the most destructive fires in Wheeling\u2019s history. On a quiet Sunday evening, the six-story House & Herrmann department store on the southwest corner of Market and 14th Streets, an anchor in one of Wheeling\u2019s busiest commercial hubs, caught fire. Despite bitter cold and icy conditions that hampered firefighting efforts, the blaze was intense enough to damage some of the surrounding structures. By the next morning, the retail giant, succumbing to a peculiar alliance of fire and ice, had been reduced to a smoldering, icicle-strewn ruin.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSome say the world will end in fire,<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u00a0Some say in ice.<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u00a0From what I\u2019ve tasted of desire<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u00a0I hold with those who favor fire.<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u00a0But if it had to perish twice,<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u00a0I think I know enough of hate<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u00a0To say that for destruction ice<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u00a0Is also great<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u00a0And would suffice.\u201d<\/strong><\/span> -Robert Frost<\/p>\n

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Wheeling in 1917<\/h2>\n
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By December 9, 1917, the United States had officially been embroiled in the European \u201cwar to end all wars\u201d with Germany for eight months and had declared war on Germany\u2019s primary ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, just two days prior. Recruitment of soldiers and sailors in Wheeling was \u201cVery Vigorous\u201d and \u201cexperiencing a boom such as never known before\u201d the Wheeling News-Register<\/em> reported, even as thousands of West Virginia soldiers of the\u00a080th \u201cBlue Ridge\u201d Division prepared to depart Virginia\u2019s Camp Lee for the Great War trenches. As a result of wartime rationing under the guidance of state \u201cfood administrator\u201d Col. E. W. Oglebay, Wheeling was rocked by a \u201csugar famine,\u201d forcing bakeries to cut \u201ccakes and sweet foodstuffs\u201d and citizens to \u201cdrink unsweetened coffee for breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Wheeling newspapers were full of stories about the devastating maritime explosion and fire in Halifax, Nova Scotia that killed thousands and injured thousands more on December 6. On that same day, the WVU football team had just completed a \u201cRemarkable Season\u201d featuring victories over the powerhouse Naval Academy, Washington and Jefferson College and the Carlisle Indians and a hard-fought loss to arch rival Pittsburgh. Bell telephone was lauded for shifting 4400 subscribers to a new switchboard in just 90 seconds and, beginning on December 8, a \u201cminiature blizzard\u201d swept Wheeling, dumping 11 inches of snow. The temperature plummeted to 3 degrees below zero on the evening of the 9th, according to Miss Bessie Forsythe, \u201cofficial weather observer for the Wheeling district,\u201d reporting from her outpost on the Island.<\/p>\n

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Chicago Had Its Kicking Cow While Wheeling Had Its Match-Wielding Night Watchman<\/h2>\n
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\"New<\/a>
Ironically, despite specializing in stoves like this New Torch Lick model from the Wheeling-based B. Fisher Company, a stove played a pivotal role in House & Herrmann\u2019s destruction. -image from the Joseph Hoffman Collection, OCPL Archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An<\/a>
An unfortunately prophetic ad from 1898 seems to foreshadow the 1917 disaster. It even includes a stove, the source of later trouble.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Against this backdrop, on Sunday, December 9, 1917 at about half past 5 in the evening, John Powell, a night watchman at Wheeling\u2019s House and Herrmann department store prepared to light a burner under a gas stove used to heat water for cleaning the store. The stove was kept in a small closet on the rear of the second floor where clothing and shoes were sold. Unbeknownst to Powell, a slow leak in the closet had caused a dangerous accumulation of natural gas. As Mr. Powell unwittingly struck a match, the pocket of gas flashed and exploded. Somehow unharmed, Powell attempted to use an emergency water hose to extinguish the fire, but the flames had already sprung up and down the elevator shaft, propelled by the grease on the bearings. Powell pulled the alarm, but Wheeling\u2019s worst fire was already out of control.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This image from the Joseph Hoffmann Negatives Collection, Ohio County Public Library Archives, shows the devastation of the fire. Despite the intense heat, the water applied by firemen still froze into the icicles visible in this photograph.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Your Credit Is Good<\/h2>\n
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Concept drawing from the June 1894 Intell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

House & Herrmann department store was founded by Baltimore native George E. House, who opened the \u201cparent house of the firm\u201d in Washington, D.C. in 1885 and the Wheeling store at 1300 Main Street three years later.\u00a0By 1895, the store had outgrown its location and moved to the six-story Pollock Flouring Mills building at 14th and Market after a $20,000 (nearly half a million in 2015 dollars) remodel designed by Franzheim & Giesey.<\/p>\n

\"1913<\/a>
1913 flood. OCPL Archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cranmer\u2019s venerable 1902\u00a0History of Wheeling City, <\/em>offered the following description:\u00a0<\/em>\u201cThe first floor is devoted to furniture and other goods, such as chinaware, sewing machines, lamps and silverware. The show window on Market street is 60 feet long, and is attended to by an expert window dresser. The firm is the most extensive advertiser in the state, having numerous original and effective methods. [Indeed, the Wheeling papers were never without an advertisement by House and Herrmann, up to and including the day of the great fire.]<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/a>
The focal point of the last House and Herrmann ad that ran in the News-Register on December 9, 1917.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn front of the door, at the northeast corner of the building, is a bulletin board, on which are given the main events of each day, the firm having private arrangements with leading newspapers for items of public interest. The second floor is devoted to clothing, shoes, hats, trunks, etc.; and the third floor to wall paper, upholstered furniture and carpets\u2026The fourth floor contains a complete stock of bedroom suites and miscellaneous furniture. The fifth and sixth floors are used for warehouse purposes and duplicate stock, and the basement for stoves. The building is equipped with two electric light plants, the power for which is furnished by steam and natural gas is used as fuel\u2026The store is an exceedingly attractive one, and especial feature being the number of electric lights and the amount of gold leaf in use.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
In this image from the 1907 flood, the corner of the House & Herrmann building with the slogan, \u201cYour Credit is Good\u201d is visible at left. OCPL Archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Employing 60 people, House & Herrmann was said to be a pioneer of the \u201cinstallment plan,\u201d and its slogan, prominent\u00a0on the front corner of the building, was \u201cYOUR CREDIT IS GOOD.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Fire and the Firefighters<\/h2>\n
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\"With<\/a>
With the help of the Wheeling Telegraph Company, the News Register was able to go to print in the wake of serious fire damage to its headquarters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In short order, the blaze ignited by John Powell\u2019s match had spread.\u00a0\u201cThe front part of the [2nd] floor was stocked with ladies\u2019 wearing apparel, including light waists and skirts, which burned like tinder.\u201d (Intell.<\/em>, Dec. 10). Having noticed the flash of blue flame, a pedestrian on 14th Street shouted \u201cFire!\u201d More alarms were sounded.<\/p>\n

Firefighters arriving on the scene encountered a raging inferno. All of the windows on the west side of the Rogers Hotels were shattered by the intense heat. Strong winter winds blew the flames across 14th Street, gutting the upper floors of the Reilly building and part of the West Virginia Printing Company, then the home of the Wheeling News-Register<\/em>. The latter was saved from complete destruction only by a recently installed modern innovation: a sprinkler system. Even the great water tower on its rooftop burned. The nearby Bijou restaurant and The Hub department store also sustained lesser damage.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This cartoon from the front page of the December 11, 1917 Intell depicts the twin fiends of Fire and Winter joining forces to hamper firefighters during the House & Herrmann blaze.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The extreme cold and shifting winds made fighting the fire nearly impossible. Sparks were carried half a mile north, and only the fresh blanket of snow was credited with stifling a much wider disaster.\u00a0\u201cSome of the sparks were as large as a flour barrel-head,\u201d The Intelligencer<\/em> reported, \u201cand steam arose from the tops of buildings when they alighted into the snow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Firefighters who attempted to douse the volcanic flames from the roof of the Gee Electric building (now the home of the Artisan Center and Wheeling National Heritage Area) were driven from their task by the overwhelming heat.<\/p>\n

The great fire lit the night sky, drawing onlookers from all parts of the city and from across the river in Ohio. \u201cApropos of the fire while at its height,\u201d the News-Register<\/em> later reported, \u201cautomobilists state the National Pike at Woodsdale hill was so brightly illuminated from the reflection in the sky, lights were turned off on motorcars as the speedway was light enough to distinguish cars going to and coming from towns at great distances.\u201d A crowd estimated at more than 10, 000 people gathered to watch. The police held them back as they jostled for position. Sparks rained down, causing burns.<\/p>\n

Firefighters from Bellaire, Martins Ferry, Bridgeport, Woodsdale, Edgwood, and Warwood joined their Wheeling brethren in an effort made more difficult when the Market Street wall of the House and Herrman building fell, crushing the hook and ladder aerial truck under tons of brick and stone. Several firemen were nearly crushed as well.<\/p>\n

Salvation Army workers and members of the Fort Henry Club served hot coffee to the firemen, who were \u201ccovered in a coat of ice.\u201d In fact, the landscape was one of frozen fire as the \u201cintense cold lathered everything touched by water with a thick coating of ice and gives the whole situation an odd appearance.\u201d At the peak of the battle, more than 30 streams from fire-hoses were trained on the blaze, but to little avail. Again, the cold exacerbated the problem.\u00a0\u201cThe firemen encountered much difficulty by water freezing in the hoses and bursting\u2026\u201d said The Intelligencer<\/em>. The river of runoff on the ground also froze, embedding the fire-hoses in thick ice. Heavy with ice, trolley cables and electric power lines crashed to ground.<\/p>\n

Less than an hour after it had started, the \u201cfire fiend\u201d (as The Intelligencer<\/em> dubbed it), had completely consumed House & Herrmann, leaving only a smoldering metal skeleton.<\/p>\n

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Epilogue<\/h2>\n
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Remarkably, despite the chaotic scene, featuring explosions, falling walls, sparks, and cables and a predatory fire\u00a0\u2014\u00a0there were no reported deaths or serious injuries. But the property damage was extensive. Initial estimates put the tab at half a million dollars \u2014 more than ten million 2015 dollars. Most was covered by insurance. The state and city fire marshals seemed satisfied with Mr. Powell\u2019s story and no further investigation was discussed. The store\u2019s records actually survived the fire in a steel vault. But the long-term fate of those records is unknown.<\/p>\n

Over the next several days, crowds flocked to gawk at the smoking, frozen ruins. \u201cSightseers were again in evidence throughout the day looking over the ravages of the blaze,\u201d the News-Register<\/em> reported on December 12. \u201cThe ice-crusted ruins offered elegant material for Kodak owners. \u00a0The Reilly block and West Virginia Printing company building were draped in appropriate Christmas array, ice-coated wires being strung at all angles from top to bottom.\u201d Firemen were seen using picks and shovels to retrieve their hoses still embedded in the ice.
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\"The<\/a>
The Christmas grafonola ad, News-Register, Dec. 12.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, House & Hermann continued to do business from a temporary headquarters at The Hub, it\u2019s gracious neighbor on 14th and Market. A supply of records and Columbia Grafonolas (record players) apparently survived the fire, and House & Herrmann placed ads to sell them to Christmas shoppers.<\/p>\n

But despite these efforts, the company could not rise from the ashes. In the 1919 city directory the former House & Herrmann address was listed as a vacant lot.<\/p>\n

\"Postcard<\/a>
Postcard of the new Central Union Trust Co. Building. OCPL Archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Designed by architect Charles W. Bates (Capitol Theatre), the Central Union Trust Company Building was built on the site in 1924 by the R. R. Kitchen Company.<\/p>\n

Though a sad end for House & Herrmann, the fire and ice battle inspired a positive development for the Wheeling Fire Department. The poor performance of Wheeling\u2019s old steam pumpers, especially when compared to the modern, motorized pumpers from Bellaire, finally convinced city leaders to spend money on more modern equipment for their firefighters. At long last, Wheeling\u2019s antiquated horse-drawn steam pumpers like those picture below were replaced with motorized fire trucks.<\/p>\n