| Text According to the Courant, the fire this morning at the Asylum Avenue Baptist Church was “the most disastrous church fire ever recorded in Hartford.” In a separate article published on February 2, 1931, the Courant compared this fire to other church fires and also listed the other most disastrous fires since 1900. The other significant church fires were • May 11, 1853: Talcott Street Catholic Church, complete loss. It had been insured for $3,000 ($5,922.08 in 1931, $117,598.44 in 2023), but it was largely unused at the time, having been superseded by Saint Patrick’s. • January 24, 1875: Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church, loss at $100,000 ($133,333.33 in 1931, $2.638,947.37 in 2023). • July 7, 1884: South Congregational Church, lost at $17,000 ($26,367.35 in 1931, $521,865.31 in 2023). The initial assessment of the damage to the church was $125,000, which would have put it in second place behind the 1875 fire at Saint Patrick’s Church. The most costly fire since 1900 took place on January 29, 1917, when a fire at G. Fox & Company on Main Street caused $700,000 of damage ($831,250 in 1931, $16,506,656.25 in 2023). The damage caused by all of these fires, however, would be eclipsed by the estimated loss caused by the fire at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph on New Year’s Eve 1956, which exceeded $5 million at the time ($2,704,626.33 in 1931, $53,530,249.11 in 2023). |