By JUDY DRISCOLL
Herald columnist
POULSBO — One hundred years ago, the summer of 1914 was hot and dry, similar to this year. Several fires had foreshadowed the disaster to come.
On July 31, the Grand Trunk dock and about half of the Colman dock in Seattle burned, causing an estimated loss of $400,000. Poulsbo’s steamer Athlon was charred and singed badly at Colman dock before she got up steam to leave.
Fires plagued Fjord Drive during the first week in August. An overturned oil lamp at the Matson home burned the summer kitchen and part of the fence. Neighbors fought to keep the fire from spreading to the house and barn.
Later that week, a brush fire in the woods spread near the Matson property again. Poulsbo’s volunteer near the Matson property again. Poulsbo’s volunteer fire department turned out to fight that blaze. When the fire flared up again that night, Mr. Matson fought it alone for four hours until it was out.
Herald Editor Peter Iverson cautioned had been campaigning for a water system for years with little success. Poulsbo had neither a community waterworks nor an official fire department. A few galvanized fire buckets with rounded bottoms had been purchased by the city and were kept in a locked shed on Borg’s dock near today’s Blue Water Gallery, along with a small chemical fire “engine,” not much more than a manually pulled cart.
About 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1914, disaster struck. The Herald of Sept. 18, 1914, not normally given to banner headlines, proclaimed:
ONE THIRD OF POULSBO BUSINESS SECTION IN ASHES
“Tuesday morning, September 15th, was a memorable time for Poulsbo. Eight business places were destroyed by fire and the ninth damaged.
“Poulsbo is now a rather sorry sight, desolated by fire …
“People were awakened Tuesday morning about half past one o’clock by the cry of ‘Fire!’ As the fire messengers tore through the streets with the cry ‘Fire! Fire!’ the cry was emphasized by a horrible lurid glare shooting skyward and casting the hue all over the bay.
“Crowds of people were rushing pell-mell to help wherever it was needed, and sometime where it was not. Furniture, clothing, office furniture, show cases, dishes, looking glasses, trunks, valuables of various kinds were being hurriedly carried to places considered more safe. The drug store and Langeland’s dry goods store were practically emptied of their stocks. Thus the confusion was kept up for about three hours.”
These were the words of Josephine Iverson as she sat at the typecase, setting type for the news story on the fire.
The mystery of how the fire started was never solved.
The lengthy Herald article of Sept. 18, 1914 is reprinted in full in “The Spirit of Poulsbo.”
Poulsbo didn’t wait long to get back to business. In the same Sept. 18 article, it is noted that Mr. Mallory was selling bread at the Poulsbo Meat Market and John Twedt set up his barber shop in A.N. Nelson’s machine shop.
By Oct. 9, the milliner was operating out of rooms near the drug store. Mr. Myreboe was installing new plate-glass windows in the front of his cement building. It was nearly business as usual.
Poulsbo’s City Council met in regular session the day after the fire, Sept. 16. High on the agenda was discussion of the fire. The committee on police and fire protection reported that many of the fire ladders had been lost in the fire. A vote OK’d the purchase of new ladders to replace those lost.
A week after the fire, the Herald reported an oversight: “In our description of the recent great fire in Poulsbo, we missed an item that should have appeared. Mr. Martin of the cod fish plant brought up in his auto a large hand pump from the plant that did good work in saving Mr. Eliason’s warehouse. This, together with the Hyak, did good work.”
What was learned as a result of the fire? The most noticeable change to the town was the rebuilding of businesses out of cement rather than wood. The Myreboes opened their new cement building in 1915, along with Young’s Block across the street. Both buildings have engraved names at the top with “Myreboe’s” and the year 1915.
It took a little longer for the Olympic Hotel to reopen in its building claiming to have such thick walls it would never burn again. The hotel celebrated its grand opening in January 1916.
The extent of the fire is fairly easy to spot on today’s Front Street. The tree on the street in front of Sogno di Vino marks the starting point at the original Olympic Hotel. The fire burned down the east side as far as Boehm’s Chocolate Store, whose large cement mass acted as a firestop.
On the west side, the fire jumped Front Street and burned from Young’s Block to Flicka clothing store, formerly the Poulsbo Meat Market.
