Sparking the most damaging fire in the Sullivan County's history, on August 10, 1909, there was an explosion at the Murray Electric Light power generating plant, located on the western side of Landfield Avenue on or near the present site of the Landfield Avenue Garage. Shortly after it started, the fire spread to the adjacent Palatine Hotel, razing it and much of the vicinity. Monticello burned all night and into the next day.

By the time the blaze was extinguished, 74 properties were lost at a value of $1,000,000 (which converts to over $17,000,000 in modern economic currency). Landfield Avenue burned up to North Street. Both sides of Broadway were consumed from the site of the present Carlton Hotel up to Bank Street and across the street starting at the Village Offices up to and including both sides of St. John Street for a short distance, according to contemporary sources.

Closing the barn after the horse was out, so to speak, on the day after the fire construction was begun on a new power house on lower Saint John Street, well away from the village's central business district. Residents learned again the old lesson that new technologies bring convenience as well as hazards. In retrospect, the center of town was not a good place to put a power plant, especially in days when electric service was new and its owners inexperienced. Mr. Murray was essentially playing with fire, and all of Monticello got burned.

Electricity was introduced to Monticello by Peter C. Murray shortly after 1890. ... The Palatine was constructed of yellow brick and was very modern for that time. As a feature, shortly after the hotel was built, Mr. Murray installed an electric plan to light the hotel. The new lights proved successful and so popular that Mr. Murray was persuaded to light some of the adjoining buildings and some of the streets. Demands for electric service from more and more people caused Mr. Murray to form the Murray Electric Light and Power Company. Soon the new company was supplying electric service to neighboring communities from as far distant as Mountaindale and White Lake.[1]

Temporary Shacks were constructed on Broadway and surrounding streets immediately following the fire to house such businesses as Crain's Drugs, Carpenter Shoes, and the Palentine Hotel, and others, until the community could be reconstructed.

Amid the decimation was Monticello's first Masonic Temple. It is recorded in a lodge history, written by the editor and publisher of the Republican Watchman newspaper that, "the Masonic Temple, which was of brick and about the same style of construction as the present building, simply melted away in the fierce heat which developed around it as the old National Union Bank on the corner and the small brick Surrogate's Court building next door went down before the flames."[3]

Masons had been central to the community of Monticello since the village's inception a century earlier. The fact that John Patterson Jones and his brother Samuel Frisbee Jones were among the first Masters of the Monticello's Masonic lodge gives some hint as to the central role which the fraternity took during Monticello's formative years, as it did through much of the rest of the United States. The destruction and replacement of Monticello's first Masonic Temple was perhaps typical of the experience of many people and organizations in the community at that time who lost everything they had and rebuilt. The cornerstone of the replacement Temple makes reference to the 1909 blaze, as shown in the color photo appearing below.

Thirteen years after the fire, a member of the local fraternity recalled:

"On August 10, 1909, Monticello was visited by the greatest conflagration in its history, completely destroying the entire business section of the village, and among the buildings that were destroyed was the handsome Masonic Temple mentioned above. Undaunted by this disaster, the brethren of the Lodge again laid their plans for the erection of a new home. On November 18, 1909, the cornerstone of the new Temple was laid by Worshipful Master Walter D. Smith, with the assistance of many of the brethren, and in 1910 the new Temple was dedicated by the Grand Master Robert Judson Kenworthy, assisted by the Grand Officers of the State. The new Temple is of red brick and of similar architectural lines as the one that was destroyed. Its erection and furnishings aggregated a cost of approximately $18,000." [2]

In the wake of destruction, the reconstruction which followed the fire must have greatly benefitted the local construction industry. The buildings along Monticello's main streets were replaced, and the fire department was strengthened. As a result of the 1909 blaze, most of the construction on present-day Broadway in Monticello is of 20th century origin.

[1] Historical Journal: Monticello Sesquicentennial, 1804-1954, "1909 Fire Story", Monticello Sesquicentennial Committee.

[2] Souvenir of Masonic Fair and Carnival, July 20-23, 1920, held in The Lyceum, Monticello, N.Y., for the benefit of Monticello Lodge No. 532, F.&A.M. The above photo captioned "Destruction of Monticello by fire, Aug. 11, 09" was scanned from the same source.

[3] Alvin O. Benton (1942) Early Masonry In Monticello And Sullivan County: History Of Monticello Lodge No. 532, F.&A.M, privately published, p. 99.

 

 

ABOVE TEXT © 2001 BY TOM RUE,
POSTED 02-17-2001.