Here's a view of Old Orchard Beach, Maine, postmarked on the back August 17,1907. It's a great view of the Fiske Hotel with a ferris wheel on the beach as well. The message says,"Mr. Wallace and I was out here last to see the ruins of the big fire."
The fire the writer was talking about was the one on August 15, just two days prior. That fire destroyed the Fiske Hotel shown in the postcard, as well as 17 other hotels, 60 cottages, and an estimated 110 businesses. Voyeurs from miles around, just like our writer, came to see the ruins.
More about the fire, with lots of postcards, here: http://www.oldorchardbeachfd.org/THE%20GREAT%20FIRE%20AT%20OLD%20ORCHARD.htm
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10 comments:
I'm getting a message that the page cannot be found that you linked. I for one would be interested in following up on the other cards that you mention. Sounds like a huge fire.
Must have been a huge fire. Nice to have the card to see what the hotel and area was like before the destruction.
There is a long description of the fire on the page of the link. I cut of the end of the link that didn't work and found a link on the main page of the fire department site.
I will fix the link tonite...it worked earlier so I don't know what happened!
Resorts and fire seem to go together, but this fire is extraordinary in its scope.
Link in post is now fixed!
I went to old orchard ages ago - never knew there was a big fire. Joy is correct, there is often alink between resorts and fire.
Howdy
Happy PFF to you :)
Great post and wonderful postcard too !
Looking forward to reading up on this .
Have a wonderful rest of the weekend .
Until Next Time
Happy Trails
a wonderful piece of history...it put me in mind of the (sadly) frequent fires that always seem to burn down piers along beaches in the UK...
What a disaster - I quickly looked at the link and even without reading very much of the story I saw how enormous the fatal event actually was. It was a huge catastrophe.
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