Merriman’s Block on Ford Street destroyed by fire

1. Residents of the Townsend Building discovered a fire burning in Merriman’s Block.
2. Two of the residents, identified as Sawyer and Armstrong, rushed outside, and they saw a fire in the hatchway of Seidler & May’s furniture factory.
3. Sawyer and Armstrong also observed a burning pile of bed slats through a window in a door to the hatchway.
4. Around this same time, a watchman at the railroad depot saw the fire. He raised “a cry of fire” that was heard by Watchman Pease at the “government envelop works” on High Street.
5. Pease went to Pearl Street and rang the alarm in the fire box there.

The alarm bell at Fire Box 16 rang, probably by Watchman Pease.

The fire engines that responded to this alarm arrived quickly.

A second alarm bell rang.

Henry Eaton arrived and determined that the whole fire department should be called out.

A third alarm bell rang, probably on orders from Henry Eaton.

1. The fire spread rapidly to the “large stores” of paper in the Plimpton Manufacturing Company.
2. The fire then grew in strength and consumed the whole of the building.

The side walls toward the rear of the building collapsed.

1. Firefighters sprayed water from the street and from the roofs of the neighboring buildings.
2. The fire was contained to Merriman’s Block.
3. During the fire, residents of the Townsend building next door removed their furniture from the building, some by throwing it out their windows.
4. Residents of the Hurlbut Block similarly removed their furniture from their building.

The last two fire engines stopped spraying water on the smoldering remains of the building.

1. Employees at Seidler & May frequently stored bed slats near or at a door to the hatchway where Sawyer and Armstrong observed a pile of bed slats on fire.
2. At some point after discovering the fire, either Sawyer or Armstrong closed the “heavy iron shutters” at the Townsend Building, and he was credited with saving the building.
3. The buildings on either side of Merriman’s Block, the Pratt Block and the Townsend Block, were both saved by their “extremely thick fire walls.”
4. There was a throng of onlookers throughout the day, and they watched the fire from the surrounding streets and from Bushnell Park.
5. The fire engine that was stationed at the corner of Ford and Asylum streets drew water from the “Little River,” now known as the Park River.
6. George W. Pomeroy provided dinner for 82 firefighters at his restaurant, at the request of Morgan G. Bulkeley.

The fire marshal believed that the fire was arson:  “Fire Marshal Rust is quite confident that the fire was incendiary, and so far as his investigations have progressed the appearances are that the fire was through the broken glass of the front door, so as to ignite the combustible material near the hoistway.”

1. Merriman’s Block: estimated at $45,000
2. Plimpton Manufacturing Company: estimated at $120,000

• Machinery and the stored paper were completely destroyed.
• The company store, which was in the Townsend building, was unaffected.
• The fire forced the company to lay off 200-300 employees.

3. Seidler & May: estimated at $30,000

• Some items that had been next door in Pratt’s Building were believed to be salvageable, although the upper portion of the building had scorched by fire and flooded by the firefighters.
• Furniture stored in Howard’s building was not affected.

4. George D. Bartlett: estimated at $30,000

• Some stock on the first floor was believed to be salvageable, but it had been completely soaked by the firefighters.
• Bartlett believed that he could have saved much more had he and his employees been allowed access to the store by the firefighters: “As it is, the stock is damaged by water and the debris more than by the fire.”

1. There were several people who not identified, at all or fully, in the article:

• Sawyer and Armstrong, residents of the Townsend Building
• The depot watchman, which would have put him at or around Asylum and Union Place
• Watchman Pease, who worked for Plimpton Manufacturing Company at their factory in the Batterson Block at High and Ann (now Ann Uccello) streets
• Fire Marshal Rust

2. Some of the timing of the alarms as described in the article is confusing:

• There were three alarms
• Watchman Pease sounded one, which was probably the first
• Chief Eaton sounded the last, which was probably the third

If I’m right, then Fire Box 16 was on Pearl Street.

The Courant will report that Plimpton Manufacturing Company had leased space in the new Batterson Block on Asylum Street on February 8, 1877.

The fire at Merriman’s Block reminded onlookers of the fire that had destroyed Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church, at the corner of Church and Ann (now Ann Uccello) streets in 1875:  “No fire so picturesque has been seen of late years, except that which destroyed St. Patrick’s church, more than two years ago.  As the tower of the new St. Patrick’s was reflected in the glow yesterday morning, the burning of the ‘old’ church was forcibly brought to mind.”

1. “It was a moonlight morning and the weather was not severely cold. There was hardly any wind.”
2. “The material in both the furniture and envelope works was of the most combustible nature.”
3. “The immense cloud of fire, starred with innumerable sparks, bore off across the park, and illuminated with a lurid glow the city for a great distance.”

1. The Townsend Building adjoined Marriman’s Block.
2. Henry Eaton was the Hartford Fire Chief.
3. Merriman’s Block was owned by Joseph Merriman, who lived in East Hartford. It had originally been constructed by S. N. Hart & Company as a carriage factory.
4. Losses in equivalent 2025 dollars would have been as follows:

• The building - $1,384,491.43
• Plimpton - $3,691,977.14
• Seidler & May - $922,994.29
• George D. Bartlett - $922,994.29

Unattributed.  “A destructive fire,” Hartford Daily Courant, January 29, 1877, page 2.