Stamford, CT Town Hall Fire, Feb 1904

SAVED BY SNOW.

STAMFORD, CT., LOSES ITS FINE TOWN HALL BY FIRE.

AND ONLY HEAVY SNOW PREVENTS GREAT LOSS IN BUSINESS SECTION.

LOSS AT LEAST $175,000 -- VALUABLE RECORDS PROBABLY LOST.

Stamford, Conn., Feb. 4. -- Snow lying thick upon the roofs of adjacent buildings prevented a conflagration in the business section of Stamford, tonight, as an accompaniment to the complete destruction of the fine Town hall on Atlantic street.
As it was, the blaze was so threatening to adjacent property for a time that assistance was rushed here, in response to messages from Greenwich, Port Chester, Norwalk and Bridgeport.
The town hall was considered one of the finest buildings in the State and when built in 1870 cost upwards of $150,000. It is in ruins and scarcely any of its contents of any value were saved. The aggregate amount of the losses is not known, tonight, but it is placed at $175,000 and the chief item of insurance is $40,000, held by the town on the building.
The Stamford postoffice was on the street floor and the clerks got out the first-class mail and the records, taking them to the rooms of Hobbie Post, G. A. R., opposite which will serve as a post office until new quarters can be secured. In the building were the town and city offices. The land records in the town clerk's office are safe, but there is no certainty that the city and probate court records are intact, as the safes in which they had been kept on the second floorm, had been declared insecure.
The street floor building was used for stores, the second floor by lawyers and city officers, including the mayor and the courtrooms, the third floor as a public hall and the upper story by fraternal orders. Except on the first floor nothing was saved, apparently, as the fire broke out on the second floor and quickly enveloped the building.
The aggregate loss to the tenants is placed at $30,000, most of whom have insurance.

Daily Kennebec Journal Maine 1904-02-05
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!