A Surging Holocaust

Looking across a debris field from Water Street following the September1900 fire. Commercial buildings in the background are believed to be on Main Street.

Late in the 19th century, Water Street was still a working waterfront crowded with sailors and stevedores, merchants, clerks and customers, fishermen, salesmen, men looking for a day’s work or a fast buck. Horse-drawn drays jostled for space at pier heads and warehouses, hauling freight to and from the waterfront. By one estimate, between $2 million - $5 million) in merchandise passed through the port annually in the 1890s, a current value between $75 million - $190 million.

For most of that decade the street was unpaved and treacherous in wet weather. It wasn’t until 1896 that the city began using shells from J.S. Farren & Company’s oyster cannery to pave the business district. In 1892. the editor of the Washington Gazette warned that on Water Street “danger from drowning is imminent….” [1]

Believed to be the corner of Main and Market Streets, September 1900. This gutted brick building would have been beside the John Gray Blount house, known at the time as the Rodman house. Men and children are working in the rubble.

A Boisterous Street

Water Street was transformed at night. It was crowded with saloons. The Pamlico Bar closed at 12 am but opened again three hours later. The Palais Royal offered the only billiard and pool tables in town. The J.W. Mayo saloon became the CCC Drinking Saloon. The Union Café became the Club House Saloon. The Bowery Bar offered the finest whiskey in town. Several saloons, like Continental, offered their clientele food, liquor, and a room for the night.

The names and proprietors changed but you could always get a drink and a cigar on Water Street, as well as something else.

“If there is a place that to all intent and purposes must be in league with hell it is a street lined with bar rooms and houses of ill fame,” the Washington Progress complained about Water Street in 1896. “We do not believe you can find a place so debasing on a public throughfare outside of the great cities, and it looks like our people must gently submit and see their sons drawn into the terrible vortex of eternal ruin.” [2]

There was a Washington ordinance against keeping a disorderly house within the town limits. Another ordinance stated that “No female person known to the Town Sergeant to be a lewd woman, shall be allowed on the streets of the town after 10 o’clock p.m.” [3]

Looking from Water Street across what is likely the ruins of the Farrow Marine Railway and the Pamlico Iron Works Machine Shops and Foundry. To the right would have been the J.S. Farren & Company cannery.  A sloop lies close inshore and Castle Island can be seen in the background.

A Pervasive Danger

Fire was a chronic hazard on Water Street. In May 1890, the store of E.K. Willis caught fire. The Salamander Fire Company arrived in about three minutes. The building was saved but the goods were nearly all damaged by fire and water.

In July 1898, a fire destroyed the saloons of W.B. Barrow & Company and J.W. Mayo as well as the grocery store of J.W. Brabble. The loss was estimated at $5,000. None of the properties were insured. [4]

In June 1900 the East Carolina Dispatch warehouse caught fire, filled with several hundred bales of hay owned by J. & R.B. Havens Company. The fire spread to an adjacent brick warehouse also filled with hay. A wooden warehouse filled with barrels of molasses owned by S.R. Fowle & Son burned as well.

East Carolina Dispatch was a fast freight line connecting major cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Norfolk with New Bern, Washington, and Eastern North Carolina.

Besides the bales of hay, the East Carolina Dispatch warehouse was full of freight recently unloaded from a steamer.

The cause of the fire was blamed on spontaneous combustion. [5]

Mosquitoes & Bad Water

The summer of 1900 was unusually dry across much of the southeastern states. There was little rainfall during the growing season, especially May through August. In Beaufort County it hadn’t rained enough since the middle of June to raise the water level in the wells.

Pasturelands dried up; livestock died or were sold early. Fields were parched, crops wilted, and dust covered the roads. Cornfields, cotton, peanuts and tobacco withered. Dry marshland, fields, and grasslands in Hyde County burned sporadically.

A Washington Progress correspondent from Lake Mattamuskeet reported “Dry weather, plenty of mosquitoes, people drinking bad water, air full of smoke, dust surrounds you when you drive, crops short about one half, merchants short of groceries, money scarce, little cotton and corn coming in.” [6]

On Monday, September 10, 15 members of the Salamander Fire Company left to attend the annual colored State Fire Association meeting at Salisbury. It was three days before Water Street burned.

Salamander Fire Company

There were three fire companies in Washington at the turn of the century: the Ocean Fire Company, the Independent Hook & Ladder Fire Company, and the Salamander Fire Company. Four if you counted the Volunteer Fire Company composed of boys from 12 to 18.

The Salamander Company was unique in that they were a volunteer, all black organization. They struggled with limited resources and aging equipment throughout the 1890s. Sylvester Dibble, captain of the Salamanders, had frequently appealed to Washington’s citizens for new equipment.

In 1890, he complained that the little hand engine the city had previously supplied would not throw two streams of water further than 15 feet, and one stream no more than 50 feet. The company’s firemen were at risk approaching a fire so closely.

Captain Dibble was still appealing for better equipment in 1897 and in January 1899, their response to a fire near Main Street, hampered by equipment failures, drew the attention of Washington’s citizens.

The Washington Gazette reported “The Salamander boys did their best, but the hose carriage failed them, and it was plainly seen that something must be done to furnish better tools to fight fire.” [7]

The following month, in February 1899, there was a heated meeting of the town’s Board of Commissioners about the age and unreliability of the town’s primary fire engine, the need for more hydrants, and either replacing or upgrading the Salamander’s equipment.

The Washington Gazette warned: “Unless the council prepares now, the next fire will be far worse.” [8]

On October 1, 1900, while the gutted buildings of Water Street were still smoldering, Washington’s Board of Commissioners authorized the purchase of a new fire hose wagon for the Salamanders. [9]

The Fire

The fire of September 14, 1900, burned uncontrolled for eight hours, from Farrow’s ship railways on Water Street to Mrs. M.M.B. Rodman’s house on Main Street and both sides of Market Street in between. It burned wooden buildings, iron buildings, and brick buildings, shacks, shanties, and wharves. Main Street was only saved by a lull in the wind.

“A surging holocaust,” The Washington Progress lamented on September 20, 1900. “Washington in ashes.”

It began in Brabble’s oyster saloon Friday between 1 and 2 pm, sparked by a defective stove flue. It spread by a strong southerly breeze to wooden buildings dry as tender from the long drought. The Salamander Fire Company responded shorthanded and still were almost able to contain the fire until their equipment failed.

Thought to be taken from Market Street looking west toward Ballard’s Grocery Store on Water Street. Smoke has blackened the wall above the grocery store windows.

On Water Street looking westerly toward the Market and Armory. Ballard’s Grocery Store is in the background. Two women walk past what is likely a utility pole waiting to be erected.

Drastic measures were taken to contain the spread of the fire. When the Salamander’s fire hoses ruptured under pressure, fire breaks were created by tearing down buildings with axes and crowbars, even using dynamite and black powder to demolish them.

“When water failed them, they fell upon the next block with hatchet and hammer.” [10]

Townspeople formed bucket brigades from nearby wells and the Pamlico River, passing water hand-to-hand to douse spot fires and wet roofs to prevent embers from igniting new blazes.

The Raleigh News and Observer posted an eyewitness account. “Ladies and children passed water by the pail. It was like a scene from a siege.” [11]

When the J.S. Farren & Company oyster cannery next to Brabble’s Oyster Saloon first caught fire, it became obvious to Mayor Studdert that the fire couldn’t be contained with the equipment on hand. He telegraphed for help. Cities responded.

Tarboro — “Command us, and any assistance will be rendered you. Can send 700 feet of hose, and hook and ladder. L. Arnheim, Chief.”

Greenville — “Yes our engine goes to the depot at once. J.G. Moye, Mayor.”

Rocky Mount – “Will leave at once. Have fuel and two horses meet at the train. J.H. Baker, Jr.”

Wilmington – “Am exceedingly sorry to hear of the fire. We have dispatched a fire company by special train from Greenville, and also one from Rocky Mount. Hope the damage will not be so bad as you anticipate. J.R. Kenly, General Manager, A.C. [Atlantic Coast] Line.”

The Greenville engine arrived about 5:30 pm. By the time the Rocky Mount engine was loaded on a special train, the fire was contained. [12]

Looking from Market Street toward the Pamlico River and the ruins of the Armory and town market. All that’s left of the two-story building is an empty shell.

Aftermath

Following the fire, Water Street looked like the victim of aerial fire-bombing during World War II. Isolated brick walls stood like massive tombstones; buildings were gutted; debris were piled high.

Most of the burned businesses were grocers, eight of the roughly thirty-five total. Their inventories were charred and scattered across the ruins. [13]

Grocery stores on Water Street carried a variety of goods. E.S. Hoyt’s store advertised:

“Agricultural implements!Hubs, rims, spokes, shelf and heavy hardware, cook and heating stoves, clay chimneys, crocks, sewing machines, flower pots, lawn rakes, crockery, tinware."

“Field seeds! Red and white clover, Fall meadow oat grass, orchard – grass, timothy, onion sets, wheat, red rust proof oats."

“Lamps from 20c. to $3.50, wicks, chimneys, founts burners, reflectors, brackets, chandeliers. The best kerosene."

“School books! Stationary. A well selected stock of the above goods is offered to the inspection of the public.” [14]

On Water Street, believed to be next to Ballard’s Grocery Store. A man sifts through the rubble for anything of value.

The Cost

Many of the properties on Water Street were either underinsured or entirely uninsured. Pulaski Cowper, president of the North Carolina Home Insurance Company, said many of the burned buildings were very old and in such condition that the insurance rate on them would have been very high. [15]

Shortly after the fire, the best estimate of loss amounted to $125,000, with less than $25,000 being insured.

Perhaps because of the prohibitive insurance rates, several merchants on Water Street carried minimal policies of $2,000 or less with several different underwriters. Spencer Brothers was insured for $2,000 each with Southern Stock Mutual of Greensboro and Goldsboro Underwriters, as well as $1,000 each with Virginia State, Globe—Rutgers, Helvetica, and New York Underwriters.

It's notable that Spencer Brothers was among the first to relocate to Main Street, then build their own brick building on the corner of Main and Market Streets.

Similar insurance strategies were employed by E.K. Willis, Peterson & Company, and E.S. Hoyt.

Those without insurance were required to bear their losses stoically. [16]

The ruins of Spencer Brothers Company located on the southeast corner of Main and Market Streets, one of the few buildings on Water Street that was heavily insured.

Notes

[1] Washington Gazette, January 21, 1892: 2.

[2] Washington Progress, September 8, 1896: 1.

[3] Washington Gazette, June 18, 1891:4.

[4] Washington Progress, December 22, 1896: 3.

[5] Washington Progress, June 24, 1890: 3.

[6] Washington Progress, August 30, 1900: 3.

[7] Washington Gazette, January 1899. Source ChatGPT, unconfirmed.

[8] Washington Gazette, February 1900. Source ChatGPT, unconfirmed.

[9] Washington Board of Commissioners meeting notes, October 1, 1900.

[10] Washington Gazette, September 15, 1900. Source ChatGPT, unconfirmed.

[11] Raleigh News and Observer, September 16, 1900.

[12] Washington Progress, September 20, 1890: 1.

[13] Washington Progress, ibid.

[14] Washington Gazette, October 8, 1891: 3]

[15] News & Observer (Raleigh), September 15, 1900: 5.

[17] News & Observer (Raleigh), September 18, 1900: 6.

Credits

I’d like to thank both Ray Midgett and Stephen Farrell for their help in identifying the location of the photographs included in this article. The photographs are from a Samuel R. Fowle family album, contributed to the George H. & Laura E. Brown library by the Carter family and published for the first time here.