There have been many many fires in Carleton Place– especially when the oil lamps burned bright. Today I was looking over a large list of Carleton Place fires that spanned from 1851 until 1987.
What was life like when candles and oil lamps were all we had to light our villages towns and cities with? Dangerous, definitely, but never dull. No one really knows whether we were born with an instinctive fear of the dark, or we acquired it gradually as a result of the myriad awful dangers like fire that emerged after night fell. As a rough estimate, one 60-watt electric bulb generates the light of approximately 100 candles.
Carleton Place Ocean Wave Dept on Bridge Street 1895- Photos from the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
Valerie Edwards also sent me a story about the Edwards Grocery Store fire in 1905 which is also up today.
When you drive down Beckwith Street and see the empty spots, it is a reminder of the 1910 fire. The park in back of the library once held this stately home belonging to the Gillies family and today we remember it and the Zion Church, Drill Shed, St. Andrew’s Manse, and the list goes on.
James Gillies (1840-1909) home built in 1884 and sat on the corner of Franklin and Judson and destroyed by fire in the fire of 1911. The house was valued at $20,000. This was what was left after the fire.
Photo from The Ottawa Journal, 21 May 1910, Sat, Page 12
Wendy LeBlanc–
This fabulous home was destroyed in the 1910 fire that covered a good portion of its neighbourhood including the old Zion Church at the corner of Beckwith and Albert.
When we first came across this photo on the Museum, we were certain it wasn’t a CP home. Some follow-up sleuthing through the National Archives gave us the info we needed.
A couple of interesting facts … the home was only 25 years olb when it burned. Mrs. Gillies who was by then a widow donated the land to the town to be used in perpetuity as a public space. I remember tennis courts there ( the south-west corner of Franklin and Judson corner) when I was a kid.
By the way, Mrs. Gillies’ generous donation preceded the much-lauded similar donation of the Stewart family (Stewart Park) in Perth.
RELATED READING- Carleton Place Fires
The Howard Little- Olympia Fire on Bridge Street
Food Fit For Olympians in Carleton Place
The Moffat Street Fire in Carleton Place– Archie Hudson
In the Year 1923 —- “BHM”– (Before Howard McNeely)
Tales From the Maguire Block in Carleton Place
The Almonte Fire of 1909
Do You Know What This Building Used to Look Like in Carleton Place?
The Rencraft Fire Dept Photo Brings Back a Familiar Name
The Edwards Grocery Fire
Scotch Corners Union S.S. #10 School Fire
Who You Gonna Call? The Fire Boxes of Carleton Place
What if You Had a Fire and No One Came?
Fire, Could End All You’ve Become — Photos of those that Protect Carleton Place
Burning Down the House in Carleton Place
When The Streets of Carleton Place Ran Thick With the Blood of Terror!- Volume 1- Part 2
Carleton Place Main Street Fire — Okilman’s
The “Chosen Friends” of Carleton Place –The Fire of 1904
Trying to Straighten Out the Moffat Street Fire in Carleton Place–Archie Hudson? Harold Fischer?
Burnin’ Old Memories –The Mississippi Hotel Fire
Fire Drills, Loud Bells and a Whole Lot of Noise — Learning How Not to Burn in School
The Carleton Place Library Fire
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