Over the years there were several fires in downtown Fountain that caused damage. Years ago I did a series of stories about the businesses on Main street starting in the 1890’s. I noticed quite a change from 1910 to 1920 and heard that there was a fire. I have seen pictures of early Fountain and noticed that many of the buildings on the east side of Main were different that those in the later pictures. Some of these pictures are at the museum. I have a diagram of the stores that dates from 1914. I have looked for the "big" fire that took many of the original store buildings. There was a fire in 1914 that damaged some of the shops on Main Street, but I just found the story of the 1916 fire, which was the big one!
In September, 1916 a fire started in D.L. Hullinger’s general store in the early hours of the morning. The fire destroyed the Rhinehart block of buildings. This block of stores included a feed store belonging to R.A. Porack, Hullinger’s store, a restaurant and bakery run by Mrs. Mamie Wolf, and a garage operated by Mr. Wolf. For a while it was thought that the entire block would be lost, it was finally saved by the volunteer fire department. The fire spread slowly enough that some of the merchandise from the stores was saved, piled just across the street on the sidewalk. This was done by some of the spectators and firemen who turned out at the alarm. Several automobiles and many of the tools were saved from the Wolf garage.
The fire was pretty intense, but the firemen worked to keeping it from spreading to other buildings in the area. The biggest threat was to the lumber yard which sat on the north side of the block, near where the News office is located today. The buildings were owned by M.L. Rhinehart, who was up in Manitou when the fire started. He had insurance on the building, but it seems none of the shop owners had insurance on their losses. The buildings which burned sat in the middle of the block on the east side of Main Street, where the lawn is in front of City Hall. The buildings that were built to replace those lost in the fire were torn down when city hall was built.
We are lucky that the west side of Main Street still contains many of the historic buildings which were built over a hundred years ago. I have done several stories on buildings along Main Street, including many in this block as well as others in the area. Now I know where, and when, the old frame buildings went.