Maplewood History: Yale Loop Fire

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No one asked for this post. I ran one of these images in my previous post, “Night of the Cobras”.  I had a thought while looking at the Yale Loop Fire file that my blog followers would probably like to see these other images.  That day it was 104 degrees in Maplewood.  Perhaps that explains part of the appeal of these images to me.  This is the perfect time of the year to run them.  Winter would be too depressing.

From memory, I’m fairly certain Mrs. Bode contributed the sepia toned images. Mrs. Bode somehow delivered her images to the Maplewood City Hall.  Our City Manager, Marty Corcoran, gave them to me before I had any regular methods of categorizing them.  I have since donated them to the Maplewood Library’s collection.  All of the images in this post are courtesy of the Maplewood Library.  These are all of the images that I have seen on this particular Yale Loop fire.  There was another fire about 1959 but that’ll have to wait until the next post.

The fabulous Browne building can be seen at the far left of this image.
I’m not certain where this fire started. This image is of the rear of the three story building and the two smaller buildings next to it.
The fire escape on the rear of the three story building.
The facade of the three story building. This building today is a two story building. Any wonder?
The facade from another angle.
This is the same image I ran in the last post only difference being this one is sepia toned as is the original. I believe this and these last images were donated by Mrs. Bode.
Here is her letter again to complete this file. As I mentioned last post I also have dates of 1934 or 5 for this fire.  The City Limit that she mentions was the name of the streetcar line that turned around in the Yale Loop.
The People’s State Bank building survived this fire and still exists today.  I’d love to see that sign recreated.
These overhead electrical cables were the power supply for the streetcars.
This is not a very good image but you can say you’ve seen them all.
What certainly was the world’s most dangerous fire escape on that day anyway.
It may be an urban legend but it’s not without charm. Maplewood’s finest put the fire out so fast the ice was still warm!

 

1 COMMENT

  1. I wonder if there was an ice storm throughout the city at the time of this fire. On the fire truck tires you can see they had put chains on the tires to get around. Must have been a sight to see in person. Must have been really cold because of all the ice you see. Running water does not freeze as fast as slow moving water so I have to wonder what the temperatures were on those days.

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