October 2017 16 The Pony 2nd Hand Store We Collect & Deliver Your Merchandise FREE LOCAL DELIVERY AVAILABLE 662 W. Wickenburg Way Wickenburg • Open Monday–Saturday thepony2ndhandstore.com 928-231-2730 • 928-232-2019 We Carry Quality 2nd Hand & New Merchandise Your Home Furniture Supplies Store Specializing in Appliances Jane and Peter Kibble peter.kibble@hotmail.com OUR SPECIALTIES INCLUDE: Horse Fences • Arenas/Corrals • Round Pens Shades • Chain Link • Wrought Iron • Rail Fences Vinyl Fence • Pool Fence • Wood Fences Privacy Fences • View Fences • Dog Runs Cat Runs • Gates • RV Gates • RV Shades Snake Fences • Repairs • Masonry Work A Full-Service Residential & Commercial Fence Company (480) 595-7528 continued from page 15 DISASTERS RIDDLED JEROME’S PAST Meetings were held. A large sum of money was raised. Rebuilding started immediately. There was the talk of incorporation, an effort some thought would permit the town to build an adequate pressure water system and fire department. George Hull, the town’s largest property owner, and mine boss Talley opposed any move to incorporate, fearing higher taxes. A LITTLE BRICK USED Jerome rebuilt, again with wood and canvas. Dave Connor and a couple of other businessmen decided to use better materials. Jerome got the two story brick Connor hotel and saloon that year, which still stands. The Fashion Saloon rebuilt, using reinforced concrete. The Clinkscales Building which now houses the Mile High Grill & Inn was rebuilt out of the same material. Some of the wood buildings going up out of the ashes were constructed with firewalls between buildings. JUST REBUILT, ANOTHER FIRE By May 19, 1899, the town was mostly rebuilt. It was that day that Jerome had its third disastrous fire within two years. There was a hotel called the Leland, a frame building that had been built on First Street between Main and Hull. About 10 a.m. a heavy wind blowing up the hill carried the warning. “Fire!” Pushed by strong winds, the wood and canvas buildings in the path of the flames vanished quickly. The Ryan Hotel, next to the Leland, went first. Then a bowling alley. The flames swept up the hill to the home of Doctor Carrier, turned, raced through the Grand View block to Hoover and Cordiner’s fireproof building, then through Chinatown and to the Connor, which survived the flames, and on to a point just across from the new company hospital. All that was standing after the fire burned itself out was the adobe C.M. Clark building, The Clinkscales building, the Connor, the Fashion Saloon, the brick Masonic Hall and a brick block owned by Kuchler, Munds, and Bailey. An estimated 30 business buildings had been lost, including the post office. Forty homes had been lost. This time the town council passed stiff building codes, banning tents and pine and canvas buildings inside the town limits. A bond issue brought a new pressure water system. A fire department was formed. Jerome’s disastrous fires were far from over, however, but there were no others as severe that swept the town as the three during the two years prior to the turn of the century. THE MONTANA HOTEL In the wake of the 1899 fire, the elaborate Montana Hotel was built, “the finest and most ornate in Arizona.” Its brick, stone and concrete construction did not prevent the Montana from being gutted by fire in 1915 and its shell damaged beyond repair. In 1918, the business district came close, very close, to experiencing another major conflagration. This one started at the home of Salvadore Saavedra down the hill in the Mexican Quarter. It was spotted about 8:45 a.m. MEXICAN QUARTER BURNS Within 45 minutes, the entire Mexican Quarter was in flames and they were racing up the hill toward the back of the buildings on upper Main. There was adequate water pressure that day but the hoses were too short to reach the Mexican Quarter or the business buildings atop the hill above it. The flames reached the Little Golden Star Laundry building, gutting it. The New State Garage was destroyed just after volunteers managed to remove all the cars. The Wigwam Saloon and the Nevada Café fell to the flames. So did Si Gibson’s bottling plant and Nehill’s Plumbing, owned by the family of the fire chief Homer Nehill. Then, the wind changed, driving the fire back down the hill and into itself. That shift of wind saved the Jerome business district. As the fire burned itself out, the hill of the Mexican Quarter was bare. Gone was the blanket of wooden homes, boarding houses, small businesses and other structures that clung tightly and closely to the hillside. Some 800 to 900 persons were homeless. More than 100 structures were destroyed. Damage was estimated at $100,000. Most of these buildings across from the slide area on Main today look much as they did in the 1920’s when businesses across the street from them began to crumble. Women who had walked through the ashes of old Jerome’s Mexican Quarter looking for any belongings that might have survived return to the top of the hill and Hull Ave, empty handed.