1901 Gresham Fire

More about this item

Description

View of 1901 fire that burned 7 buildings in Gresham's business district. Photo taken from south side of Powell, showing a bridge that spanned a gulch that has since been filled in. The photograph shows the Rexall drugstore from the southeast, and other buildings at the intersection of Powell and Main, including a meat market and the Gresham Hotel (building with second-story deck). There are burned trees, smoke, and charred debris in foreground.

Provenance

Found in collections. The 1901 fire was the first of a series of fires that burned significant parts of Gresham between 1901 and 1914 - the strong east wind, the trees surrounding the city, and the frequency of wooden frame construction (which provides a greater surface area for fires to spread) in the downtown area all contributed to the destruction caused by the fires. This particular fire started on the second story of D.W. Metzger's shop, and burned Shattuck Bros. Mercantile (which housed the only telephone in the area), Fisher's bike shop, a barber shop, the town's entire winter grain supply, and a number of other buildings. The newly built schoolhouse and the Gresham Hotel narrowly escaped destruction, although the hotel would burn in another significant fire in 1903.

Date

10/2/1901

Subject

Gresham, OR

Fire

Natural disasters

Downtown Gresham

Location

Gresham, Multnomah County, Oregon, United States

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Identifier

ghs0456

Contributor

Gresham Historical Society

Extent

Print, Photographic

Type

StillImage

Item sets

Gresham Heritage