1968, July 18 – New Marion Hotel on W. Main St. Gutted by Fire

Fire Wednesday night gutted the New Marion Hotel Building on West Main Street west of the C &EI railroad station, destroying three businesses on the ground floor and seven apartments upstairs. Damage was estimated at upwards of $100,000. The building was owned by Paul Childers, who for the last 18 months had been remodeling the 30-room New Marion Hotel on the second floor into apartments.

Destroyed also in the fire were the Tap Room, in the corner location, operated by Alfred Layman, a barber shop owned by Larry Baysinger, and a Western Union service shop operated by Dee Reynolds. The repair shop contained a number of communications machines valued at thousands of dollars which may revise the estimate of loss upwards. Firemen confined the fire to the one building. Fire damage was principally to the second floor rooms although the businesses on the first floor were ruined by water and smoke. Some furniture and appliances stored in a room adjacent to the work shop were also destroyed.

Fire Chief James C. Dungey said the fire apparently started in the back room of the west half of the ground floor on the building. That part of the building, which was formerly occupied by Wohlwend Drug Sundries Store, was no longer occupied except for storage. The first fire truck was called out at 7:45 pm. Other units were summoned in rapid order as it became apparent the fire had spread to the second floor.

Johnston City’s fire truck came in to Marion and occupied the fire station on standby while all Marion equipment was at the fire scene. Carbondale’s “snorkel” ladder truck and a pumper from Herrin joined the Marion units in pumping water on the blaze and on other threatened buildings. A fire truck from West Frankfort was on hand. Rescue trucks from Christopher and the Williamson County Civil Defense Unit provided electric lighting for the assistance of firemen, and Civil Defense volunteers helped handle traffic at the fire scene. Additional firemen came from Murphysboro and Harrisburg.

The Salvation Army from West Frankfort set up a mobile kitchen for firemen. Carbondale Truck Helps: The big ladder equipment from Carbondale enabled firemen to get water on the fire from above, and was a mainstay of the fire fighting force which fought the flames for four hours. Chief Dungey said that firemen were hampered in the early stage of the fire by smoke which prevented them getting at the source of the fire. By the time firemen were called the flames had burned upwards from the vacant kitchen into the apartments upstairs.

It was smoke seeping into other parts of the building from the former Wohlwend store that first gave the alarm. Paul Childers, the building owner, was one of several persons in the Tap Room next door when someone shouted, “Let’s get out of here. The place is on fire.” Smoke was coming into the tavern room around the edges of the wall separating it from the room next door. Those in the tap room rapidly evacuated. Fear for other buildings: As the fire spread upwards into the apartments on the second floor, it was feared the fire might reach other nearby buildings. Some equipment and merchandise were removed to the street from the former Lampley Electric Supply Co. in the building adjacent to the Childers building on the west, but was later returned.

A cocktail lounge next to Lampley’s had been undergoing some remodeling and had not been open for business. The Four-Way Cafeteria, operated by William Davis who recently also acquired the cocktail lounge, closed during the fire but reopened later. In anticipation of the possibility that the fire might spread, trucks and U-Haul trailers were backed up in front of the former service station now occupied by Cox Tire & Battery Co. on the corner of West Main and South Court Streets. They were loaded for removal of the store’s stock if necessary, but were not moved.

Although the fire posed a threat also to the building of E. Blankenship & Co. building across West Main Street from the hotel building, the flames did not cross the street. As a safety precaution, workmen for the Central Illinois Public Service Co. cut off electric power in an area from Court Street to the Public Square and from the Illinois Central Railroad on the north to Boyton Street on the South from 10 pm to 12:05 am. Illumination in the darkened area was provided by civil defense units, fire trucks and a C&EI locomotive. The locomotive approached the fire scene from the north pulling a freight train, but stopped near the junction of the I.C. and C& EI railroads north of the area because fire hoses were stretched across the tracks.

At the request of City Commissioner Rex Presson the train crew cut the engine from the train and moved close to West Main Street where the locomotive headlight illuminated a wide area of the fire zone. The area darkened by the power interruption included the Marion fire station where Johnston City firemen operated an auxiliary generator. Fireman Paul Barnwell suffered abrasions of the hand and a bruised leg when he fell about 20 feet from a roof of a building adjacent to the hotel building. He continued to assist in fighting the fire. Plans of Paul Childers, owner of the New Marion Hotel building on West Main Street, to turn the 30-room into a modern apartment house were wiped out by Wednesday night’s fire.

During the last year and a half Childers had practically completed a remodeling project at the cost of thousands of dollars, converting the former hotel rooms into seven apartments complete with kitchen equipment which was destroyed in the fire. The ceiling had been lowered and the walls and halls paneled and aluminum storm windows installed. A thousand square feet of paneling not yet used was stored in a lower floor room where it was ruined by water. But there was one bright thought in Childers reflections upon the fire that wiped out 18 months of work and expense. He had purchased $1000 worth of carpet for the apartments which had not been installed. He had planned to store it in the vacant room on the first floor but the roll of carpet was too big to go through the door and he had to store it elsewhere outside the building. Had it been in the building it would have been ruined. Childers expressed doubt that he will resume the apartment project.

Looking at the burned upper floor rooms and the water drenched smoke blackened furnishings of the businesses on the ground floor Thursday morning, Childers said he doubted if he will rebuild. Pointing to a bulging second story wall, he said he believed the building would be torn down. Childers said that at the time he insured the building it was estimated that its cost of replacing it would be $104,000. It was built in 1923.

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(Extracted from local newspapers and compiled by Harry Boyd, posted at http://www.marionfire.us )

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