Anacortes Landmark Reduced to Ash
A mysterious morning fire consumes the Keystone Block, leaving behind only charred timber.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Keystone block in Anacortes, situated on 1st Avenue, was destroyed by fire early this morning. Owned by E. W. Moyer and constructed at significant cost, the building was a total loss; only a few charred timbers remained by dawn. The alarm was raised around 3:00 a.m., but the fire had already spread beyond the control of the local department by the time they arrived. The origin of the blaze remains a mystery.
“The origin of the fire is a mystery.”
Rapid urban fires were a constant threat to the wooden construction of 1890s Washington towns. The loss of a commercial block often meant the sudden collapse of local small businesses, a struggle echoed in the vulnerabilities of modern historic commercial zones.
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