NFPA Journal - Fall 2021 - 70

A 'Splendid
and Terrible
Sight'
He would watch his building burn to
the ground later that night. Donahoe
rose at the conclusion of the dinner
to give his annual rendition of " The
Star-Spangled Banner. "
As Donahoe finished, a reporter
burst in. " Gentlemen, are you aware
that the whole city is in flames? " he
called out.
Everyone dashed for the door. Outside,
a terrible glare lit the streets with
the Tebbetts Building, a six-year-old
structure at 83-85 Summer Street at
the corner of Kingston Street. The fivestory
building, owned by businessman
Seman Klous, housed a wholesale dry
goods business and a small clothing
factory. A small steam engine in the
rear of the basement provided heat
and power to run an elevator, which
ran from the basement to the top floor.
Built about 1866, the building was
rose up the wooden elevator shaft to
the ceiling under the handsome but
combustible Mansard roof. No one will
know for sure what caused that initial
spark. The rest is a matter of record.
A little after 7 p.m., Major Augustine
Sanderson, an Army veteran and a
clerk at Boston's Custom House, was
walking on Washington Street toward
Winter Street. He stopped to chat with
an acquaintance, John S. Holmes, a
lawyer; the men almost
immediately saw smoke
rising about four blocks
John Damrell, chief engineer of the Boston Fire Department, whose warnings of a conflagration went
unheeded. Little Women author Louisa May Alcott described the fire as a " splendid and terrible sight. "
a brightness as intense as daylight,
while a crimson glow veiled the stars
overhead. The sullen granite walls of
the nearby gothic Bowdoin Square
Baptist Church were now bathed in
golden light. The young reporters
Baxter and O'Meara could see sheets of
flame rising to the left of Beacon Hill.
" Our young hearts fairly jumped to our
throats, " Baxter would recall decades
later. The pair sprinted in the direction
of the glowing sky. Baxter was about to
cover the story of a lifetime.
There are many mysteries associated
with the 1872 fire, but there's
little doubt about the ignition point:
70 | NFPA JOURNAL * FALL 2021
topped by a Mansard roof and cornices
made from wood because, as the architect
John R. Hall would later explain,
using wood saved construction costs.
By 7 p.m., the owners of the businesses
located in the building had left for the
day. The maintenance man, William
Blaney, had checked the furnace and
gas before departing. All would later
say everything was in perfect order
when they left the building.
Alas for doggerel writers, there was
no bovine perpetrator to blame for
what happened next. Subsequent investigation
showed that likely something
in the basement caught fire, and heat
away on Summer Street.
" There must be a fire, "
Holmes cried. The two ran
down Summer Street and,
as they neared Kingston
Street, they started shouting,
" Fire, fire! " Sanderson was
astonished that no one else
was " hallooing fire, " since a
half-dozen people seemed
to be watching the blaze.
Through the building's
windows, Holmes could see
a globe of fire in the basement.
Flames were bursting
out of the building's elegant
Mansard roof; to Sanderson
they seemed to burn with a
fierce glee. The fire appeared
to be spreading across a
passageway to the roof of
another building at its rear
on Kingston Street. Holmes
was mesmerized by the
shocking speed of the blaze;
the flames traveled bizarrely
fast, almost at right angles,
as if by direction, human or divine.
At that time, fire alarm boxes were
kept locked to prevent false alarms, and
police and nearby " responsible " persons
had keys. Police officer John M. Page of
Station Number Four was walking his
nightly beat when he heard shouts of
" fire. " Peering down Summer Street, he
saw flames staining the night sky with
streaks of red and orange. Although a
building blocked his full view of the
fire, he knew immediately this was a
serious burn. He was near Alarm Box
52, at the intersection of Summer, Lincoln,
and Bedford streets. He quickly
opened the box with his key, cranked

NFPA Journal - Fall 2021

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