There are more than a handful of historic fires that changed
Maynard, or at least the architecture of Maynard. These can be roughly divided
into businesses and schools. All are well documented in the collection of the
Maynard Historical Society, including many photographs.
The paper mill fire was reputed to be arson. At the gunpowder mill, fires caused explosions and explosions caused fires so frequently that the company had its own fire-fighting equipment. A compilation of various records show 24 explosions and 29 fatalities. The wool mill fire of 1920 meant the end of original wooden buildings from 1846.
DATE WHAT BURNED BUILT AFTER THERE NOW
1835-1940 Gunpowder mill gunpowder
mill Stop & Shop; car
dealers
5/14/1894 Paper mill ????? Tedeschi's/Dunkin
Donuts [7-11]
11/26/12 Music Hall Tutto's
Bowling Alley recently torn down
buildings
9/20/16 Nason St. School
2/11/17 Naylor Block one-story storefronts Gallery Seven, Serendipity
1/25/18 Trolley building rebuilt office
building
2/1/19 Bent Ice House another ice house that
one burned in 1950
8/17/20 Wool mill more
mill buildings Mill & Main
buildings
1/29/21 Maynard Hotel Memorial Park Memorial
Park
7/14/34 Riverside Block same building, fixed Gruber
Bros Furniture [gone]
1/30/36 Riverside CO-OP brick building Knights
of Columbus [KoC left]
12/17/52 Woodrow Wilson School Town hall and library Town
hall and police station
3/13/55 Fraternal Order Eagles two story building Masciarelli Jewelry [gone]
7/29/65 Amory Maynard's house apartment building apartment building
Not listed above, but Booth's Bowling Alley burned in July 6, 1906. Suspicions at the time were that a pet monkey, which had the run of the place at night and knew how to strike matches, was responsible for the fire (the monkey suffered burns, but survived).
Naylor Block, corner of Nassan and Main, the morning after the February 11, 1917 fire (courtesy Maynard Historical Society) |
Amory Maynard's mansion is the only private dwelling listed
here. It was built on the hill south of the mill in 1873, went up in flames in
an early morning fire on July 29, 1965. The Maynard family was long-gone from
town and the building divided into apartments. His son's former house still
stands at
In the modern era, the two-story building on
To paraphrase Robert Frost, someone there is that doesn't love a school. Often a student. This is not to believe that school fires do not happen by accident. But history records five school fires (two in the table plus Nason Street School in 1879, Emerson-Fowler School in 1977 and Maynard High School in 1992) - and no record of any major church fires.
This write-up was not published in the Beacon-Villager
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