Simpson County KyArchives News.....FRANKLIN IS HIT BY $150,000 FIRE January 28, 1924 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/kyfiles.html ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Walter Chisholm ezecho@aol.com October 23, 2006, 12:11 am Courier-Journal January 28, 1924 The Courier Journal January 28, 1924 Section 1, Pg. 1, Col. 6 FRANKLIN IS HIT BY $150,000 FIRE Part of Business District Is Wiped Out By Early Morning Blaze Special to The Courier Journal Franklin, Ky., Jan 27. - A large part of the business district of Franklin was wiped out today by the most disastrous fire the city has known since the War Between the States. Loss was estimated at $150,000 of which $87,000 was covered by insurance. The blaze was discovered at 2:45 o’clock in the Keystone Drug Store on the public square. It spread rapidly to the Keystone Hotel which it destroyed and was not checked until half the block was laid in ruin. Several guests in the upper floors of the hotel, a three-story brick building, were forced to flee by the fire escape when the stairway burned. W. R. Shelton and W. C. Wheless, operators of the hotel, fled the blazing buildings in night clothes. Besides the hotel and drug store, buildings destroyed were the building owned by Mrs. E. J. Hobdy and Mrs. H. H. Knapp, the offices of Moore & Moore, attorneys; the offices of Dr. B. W. Neely and Dr. J. W. Hays; offices of LaRue, Angela & Vance, real estate dealers; the store of Colly Brothers; the H. Fainberg Dry Goods Store; the office of J. C. McLain; Jasper’s Grocery, E. R. Ray’s store, H. G. Guthrie’s restaurant, the office of the Postal Telegraph Company and the lines of the Kentucky Utilities Company. By destroying the utility Company’s lines the fire cut off electric power for lights in the city. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/simpson/newspapers/franklin434gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/kyfiles/