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Noel V. Bourasaw, editor 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284 Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

This photo shows the aftermath of the July 24, 1911, downtown fire in old Woolley. It was taken from the roof of the Wixson Hotel, now the Gateway, which was constructed just 15 months before that. The unnamed photographer took the photo as young boys dipped gunnysacks in water barrels and swatted out the burning cinders all around. The Wixson had replaced the Osterman House, a woodframe hotel, which burned to the ground in September 1909.       In the foreground is Ferry street. Metcalf street is at the center, the heart of the fire, where all the buildings in the 700 block have been burned to the ground or completely gutted. The Bingham Bank stands unscathed at the rear of the photo. It had been gutted by fire in 1909. The photo is a reproduction of the July 27, 1911, Skagit County Times newspaper, which was housed on State street at the corner of Third street (where the Mission Market/Diamond building stands today), three blocks away from the fire.

• The famous 1911 fire of downtown Woolley. Have you ever wondered why downtown buildings are made of brick?
  
• Another photo of the fire's aftermath, looking northeast
  
• Photos of Fritsch Bros. hardware, where the fire started; a view of the fire's aftermath, looking southeast; a view of the fire's aftermath from Ferry street, looking west/southwest.
  
• 4th of July parade and view of Metcalf just days before the fire.
  
• More views post fire
  
• Do you have photos, documents or family memories to share that you can scan or copy for us? Please use the email or log into our guestbook below.
  

This view of the 700 block of Metcalf street is from about where the post office is today. You are looking northeast. You can see the new Wixson hotel in the background. To the left is the firewall of the Fritsch Hardware building. Today, that is between the pizza parlor and the chamber of commerce office. Across the street is the shell of the Condy Jeweler building, which survived the fire. It is today part of the Cascadian Farm complex.

Click on these thumbnails for full-sized photos
Far left: Here is where it all started. The Fritsch Bros. Hardware store, at the northwest corner of Metcalf and Woodworth streets, where the florist shop now stands. At the far left, just out of the photo, was the oil shed on the alley where a barrel caught fire and the fire began that morning. This photo was taken sometime in the 1890s. In January 1893, brothers Joe Fritsch and Frank Fritsch Jr. bought the store of Herman Waltz, who was the hardware man in old Sedro and apparently moved up to P.A. Woolley's company town sometime in the very early 1890s. We know that the brothers erected a new building in 1897, which could be the one in the photo. The Fritsch family, headed by Frank Sr., moved to the Sauk river from Texas in the mid-1880s after originally immigrating from Germany. Frank Sr. was a longtime businessman in Burlington.. Center: This view is southeast from about where the service station is by the railroad tracks on Ferry. The photographer was probably standing just outside the Vendome hotel, which stood at that location and was spared from the fire. It was built in the mid-1890s as the Royal Hotel by Charles Villeneuve Sr., whose son, Charles Jr., would become famous as the marshal during the famous 1914 bank robbery in Woolley. It was sold in September 1903 to Frank Bergeron, a hotel- and saloon-owner from Clear Lake, who renamed it. Right: This photo looks west on Ferry street and shows debris as well as equipment, with hulks of buildings in the background. At the rear left, you can see the back of the Condy building, which survived because of its firewalls and still stands today with the Condy clock in front of it. The door on the alley leads to the backroom where the Skagit County Courier newspaper was launched in 1901 and was still there when the fire occurred. In the rear center, you can see the firewall of the Herron building, which was about where attorney Bill McCann's office is today, across from the Gateway. At the rear right, you can just barely see the Vendome Hotel, which survived the fire because the wind was blowing from a southwesterly direction.

      The fire apparently started in a burn barrel either in the alley or in the oil-storage shed behind the Fritsch Bros. Hardware store, which fronted on Metcalf at the corner of Woodworth. The account from the Skagit County Times is unclear but apparently the flames spread into the woodframe store sometime after the close of business that evening.
      Actually the Fritsch brothers had foreseen the possibility of fire and constructed a brick firewall that separated their store from Theodore Bergman's Star Grocery to the north. The city firehall was just 75 feet across Woodworth street to the south and there was a fairly new hydrant at the corner nearest the Fritsch store. Had the water not failed, this fire wall could have slowed down the fire and the damage could have been confined to those two buildings.
      The fault was not in the mains themselves; as the Times reported, the pressure was splendid. Instead, in the rush to extend hose to Metcalf street, the volunteer firemen made a mistake and laid the initial section of 450 feet of hose alongside the Fritsch building, which was fully engulfed in flame that time. In addition, the hose doubled back and pressure built up in the loop, which retarded the flow of water.
      The hose began to leak and a man had to be wrapped in wet blankets in order for him to detach this hose line from the hydrant. The heat was so intense that he was only partially successful and from then on the water pressure was considerably weakened. By then the fire had leaped east across Metcalf to Mr. Levy's Red Front store (now Cascadian Farm), and north across the alley from the Star Grocery to the Vienna Bakery (now the Castle Tavern) and Union Mercantile Department store, owned by George Green, F.A. Hegg and Emerson Hammer, which was located in a woodframe building at the southwest corner of Ferry and Metcalf. This Journal website about the Castle shows how that block was nearly leveled by the fire.
      From there the two tongues of flame leapt east and north to the woodframe Donnelly block (most recently Don Ostrom's Cost Less Sporting Goods) and the two blocks were totally engulfed. The heat was so intense that $2,000 of damage was sustained at the Gateway Hotel across Ferry Street (opened as the Wixson Hotel and Bank the year before after the original Osterman House hotel burned in September 1909). The hotel was saved from further damage when youngsters from town were sent up to the roof with blankets and gunny sacks, which they soaked in water and used to smother coals and flames that were blown across the street. Because the fire mainly blew north, the residences of James Gray (owner of the Palace Tavern) and Ewestern Reno (owner of the old bicycle shop on Woodworth street) were saved from major damage. Gray's house was located where the health clinic now stands across from the American Legion club. And Reno's house stood just west of where the 1930 city hall was built.

This parade was on Metcalf street on the 4th of July, 1911, just days before the fire. You can see telegraph and telephone poles at the left as you look north. The streets were apparently graveled at this point. In the center back, you can see the Donnelly building, a large woodframe structure that housed Donnelly's meat company, which supplied two dozen mills and logging camps in the area and Dale Tresner's harness shop. Center is the Red Front furniture store, which stood where Cascadian Farm is today at Woodworth and Metcalf streets. At the right is the orchard that stood in front of P.A. Woolley's mansion. At the far right, in the 800 block of Metcalf, is the original Skagit Realty in a small house, and a millinery shop to the south of it.

      Woolley was visited by several disastrous fires in the early part of its career, one of the first being May 26, 1891, and resulting in the total destruction of the Hotel Alexandria, at a loss of about $2,500, the insurance being $1,400.
      On April 26, 1893, a far more serious fire occurred in which nearly the whole of the business part of the town was consumed, entailing a loss of nearly $20,000, only partially covered by insurance. The fire started in some mysterious manner in the saloon of Joseph Matthews. The heaviest losers were Austin & Ruel, hotel building and contents, loss $5,000, insurance $1,300; Davison & Millett [mill owners], loss $4,000, being the buildings occupied by J.W. Peake, Central meat market, Chamberlain Brothers and William Doherty, insurance $2,800; F.A. Douglass, drug store and stock, loss $3,500, insurance $1,000; Ford & Hosch, saloon $2,500, insurance $1,500; J.C. Ames, barber shop, loss $250; Ben Willard, restaurant, $250, and many others, who suffered in a less degree.

Click on these thumbnails for full-sized photos
700 Block Metcalf, looking southwest, post fire.	Metcalf street, looking north, post fire.	Metcalf street, looking south, post fire, probably a week or so later. at the left, you see a temporary building that was already rolled onto the site on log rollers within hours of the fire. The man in the derby hat may have been pioneer Paul Rhodius .

You can read about our prime sponsors: Read the history websites of our sponsors and supporters, who help fund research of local history: Heirloom Gardens Natural Foods at 805B Metcalf street, the original home of Oliver Hammer Oliver Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 82 years Bus Jungquist Furniture at 829 Metcalf street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 36 years Schooner Tavern/Cocktails at 621 Metcalf street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, across from Hammer Square Peace and quiet at the Alpine RV Park, just north of Marblemount on Hwy 20 Park your RV or pitch a tent by the Skagit river, just a short driver from Winthrop or Sedro-Woolley College Way Antique Mall, 1601 E. College Way, Mount Vernon, WA 98273, (360) 848-0807 Where you will find wonderful examples of Skagit county's past, seven days a week DelNagro Masonry Brick, block, stone — See our work at the new Hammer Heritage Square See our website www.4bricklayers.com 33 years experience — 15 years as a bonded, licensed contractor in the valley Free estimates, reference, member of Sedro-Woolley Chamber (360) 856-0101

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