Fire Devours Spokane Church Block as Lodging House Keeper Leaps for Her Life
An early-morning blaze consumed All Saints' Episcopal parish property, including the new rectory and tenements, injuring a lodging-house keeper and causing $30,000 in loss.
SPOKANE, July 25.—Fire early this morning destroyed almost the entire block owned by All Saints' parish of the Episcopal Church, including the new rectory and a number of tenements. Mrs. Hotman, who conducted a lodging house, jumped through a window, breaking her breastbone and receiving internal injuries. Others had narrow escapes. The total loss is $30,000; insurance, $20,000.
“Mrs. Hotman, who conducted a lodging house, jumped through a window, breaking her breastbone and receiving internal injuries.”
Spokane's early wood-frame blocks and lodging houses burned often, and a parish-owned block could house both worship and working-class renters. The loss shows how fire risk fell hardest on people packed into tenements.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.