St. John's, Canada · 1892Great Fire of St. John'sDowntown and the cathedral gone in one evening, from a pipe. How did it beat every stone wall?On 8 July 1892 a dropped pipe in a stable started a fire that took the cathedral and the Water Street and Duckworth Street businesses.
Photo: Hubert Howe Bancroft · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Burned and Rebuilt? · San Francisco, United States (approx.)
San Francisco Fire of 1851
The open question
A fire wipes out the records and the old buildings in one go. Who decided what got rebuilt, and in what style?
On the record
Before it was checked by reaching the waterfront, it burned down some 2000 buildings altogether, amounting by some estimates to three-quarters of the city. As the wind increased to a gale, the fire became beyond control; the brick buildings on Montgomery crumbled before it; and before it was arrested over 1000 houses, many of which were filled with merchandise, were left in ashes.
- Year
- 1851
- Kind
- burned-rebuilt
Sources
More from Burned and Rebuilt?
St. John's, Canada · 1892Great Fire of St. John'sDowntown and the cathedral gone in one evening, from a pipe. How did it beat every stone wall?On 8 July 1892 a dropped pipe in a stable started a fire that took the cathedral and the Water Street and Duckworth Street businesses.
Saint John, Canada · 1877Great Fire of Saint JohnA third of the people homeless in a day. How did the city come back in brick so fast?On 20 June 1877 fire destroyed more than 1,600 structures, two-fifths of the city, and left about 13,000 people homeless.
Toronto, Canada · 1904Great Toronto FireA hundred downtown buildings, one death. What was in those buildings?On 19 April 1904 over 100 buildings in downtown Toronto burned; one person died.
Vancouver, Canada · 1886Great Vancouver FireA city named in April, burned in June, rebuilt within the year. Why so soon after the new name?On 13 June 1886 fire destroyed most of the city, just two months after it was incorporated.