Gazetteer of the State of Maine With Numerous Illustrations, by Geo. J. Varney
BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 57 CORNHILL. 1882. Public domain image from
On the 4th of July, 1866, a carelessly thrown cracker set fire to a boat-builders shop on Commercial street, whence the flames were soon communicated to Browns Sugar House; whence it swept on diago- nally through the city, spreading like a fan as it went. Entire streets were swept away, .'ncluding massive warehouses, lofty churches, splen- did mansions, ancestral houses and the dwellings of the poor, in the oldest and most crowded parts of the city in one common ruin. For nearly half a day, and through the night until the small hours of the morning, the vast volumes of flame and smoke held sway, sending ter- ror and anguish among the whole population. The fire ended near Munjoys Hill. The morning saw fifteen hundred buildings laid in ashes ; fifty-eight streets and courts reduced to a wilderness of chim- neys, amid which the most familiar inhabitant lost himself; ten thou-
sand people made homeless, and ten millions of property destroyed. Villages of .tents and barracks sprang up on Munjoy, and generous contributions from abroad flowed in, providing food, shelter and cloth- ing for the penniless.
In rebuilding, old streets were widened and straightened, and new ones opened; and, after a lapse of ten years, the waste places were almost wholly rebuilt, far more roomy, convenient and handsome than before. Meantime the increase of the business facilities of the city went on. In 1873, the Boston and Maine Railroad was extended from South Berwick to Portland, taking on its way Old Orchard Beach. In 187o, the Portland and Rochester Railroad completed its connections
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