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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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The Advocate
Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
Thursday, March 5, 1908


                               SCHOOL HOUSE BURNS
                    Magnificent Structure Completely Destroyed
                        Early This Morning - Loss $65,000;
                              Insurance $32,500.
                       
           The beautiful high school building, the pride of our city,
         is a mass of ruins, having been totally destroyed by fire
         early this morning.
           The blaze, which to all appearances, started in the rear
         part of the building on the bottom floor, in what was origi-
         nally intended for a gymnasium but which was being used for
         instruction in manual training, was not discovered until
         the interior was a roaring mass and flames were bursting
         through the windows. The alarm was sent in by a resident
         living near by who had arisen early to catch the train, it
         being about 4:30 o'clock.
           When the department arrived it was seen at once that there
         was no hope of saving the magnificent structure, the only
         hope lying in preventing it from getting so hot that fly-
         ing embers would cause adjoining property to become ignited.
         The flames spread in the building with great rapidity and
         in less than half an hour the whole bottom floor was a mass
         of flames. In about an hour after the alarm was given the
         roof of the building fell in, carrying with it part of the
         west wall.
           Both engines and the chemical were pressed into service,
         the latter apparatus being used in subduing incipient blazes
         in the business section in the line of the flying embers,
         several fires having started from this cause at the hight 
         of the blaze in the school house.
           After the floors had collapsed the danger from this
         direction was passed and the department enabled to turn all
         their attention to the main fire. This consisted principally
         in an effort to reduce the damage to the heating apparatus,
         engine and boilers to the minimum by keeping the heat down
         as much as possible.
           Along about 7:30 o'clock there was nothing left of the
         building but the tottering walls, and those on the south-
         east and west side were razed to prevent any possible danger.
         The northeast and north walls remain standing. There was a
         light breeze from the northeast during the blaze that car-
         ried the flying embers over the business portion of the
         city, and is the cause of the walls on the opposite side
         going out.
           The blaze from the burning structure illuminated the
         entire city and half the population was at the scene.
           This magnificent structure was erected in the summer and
         fall of 1901 at a cost of $44,000, the heating plant sub-
         sequently put in bringing the aggregate up to $52,000.
         The building was built by the late H. R. Edwards of Racine.
         There was an insurance of $30,000 on the building and
         $2,500 on the contents. The loss above the insurance 
         will aggregate fully $30,000.
           Not a cents worth of property was saved from the structure,
         all the valuable records beind destroyed with the building.
         The loss in school books will foot up into the thousands of
         dollars, there not being a family in the city who have not
         a loss from $3 to $15 on this account.
           A joint meeting of the city council and board of education
         was held this forenoon and immediate steps will be taken to
         secure rooms to carry on the school, and make arrangements
         for purchasing the necessary supplies, etc.
           The question of rebuilding will also be taken up as soon
         as possible after the adjustment of the insurance.
           Supt. C. G. Strangel is out of the city, having been
         called home by the illness of his father. Among the individual
         losers by the fire was Dr. H. A. Norden who yesterday loaned
         the high school class a skeleton that he valued at $50.
         
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