1. Point of Origin: Commercial & 11th
Flames were first seen in the basement of Thiel Bros. Restaurant and Billiard Parlor as smoke began to billow from Bee Hive department store on the Northside of Commercial St. It then spread in all directions. To this day, the cause of the fire remains unknown. Upon the sound of the alarm at 2:12 a.m. Some began banging on doors to awaken slumbering people and get them out of burning buildings, others attempted to save uninsured merchandise from various shops by throwing stuff out the windows and into the streets.
2. Young Building: Commercial & 14th
Due to its exterior brick walls and reinforced concrete frame, this was one of two buildings on Commercial St. that survived the fire. This street was once much more narrow and used mainly by foot traffic, horse pulled vehicles, and trolley tracks. Downtown reconstruction involved widening the streets, to make room for autos, the newer and more popular means of transportation. In order to keep the structure and accommodate the project, the first floor of this 1916 building was recessed to make room for the sidewalk below. The second floor was then supported by steel columns.
3. St. Mary’s Hospital: 15th & Exchange
Built in 1905, St. Mary’s Hospital was once a grand four story building. On the night of the fre, St. Mary’s and the old City Hall (present day CCHS Heritage Museum) were spared from destruction by the tireless efforts of citizens on the roof spraying water at the flames as nearby buildings were purposely blown up with dynamite to slow the crawl of conflagration. Patients of the hospital were moved to the high school (present day Clatsop Community College Towler Hall) at the top of the hill. The wooden building was eventually disassembled. The 1931 brick addition (present day Owens Adair Apts.) and remnants of the old building’s foundation walls remain.
4. YMCA: Exchange & 12th
This 1914 building was saved from destruction due to young people throwing buckets of pool water at the flames. After the fre, the YMCA became headquarters for the General Relief Committee. Here, food and shelter were provided to displaced citizens, the gym housed 100 cots, the basement held gatherings for free lunches, the handball court was used as a restaurant, and the reading room opened temporary office space to businesses and the local newspaper, The Evening Budget, who began reporting about the fre the next day.
5. Fire Reach Monument: Exchange & 9th
The southern point of the great fire ended here where it reached solid ground. The business district consisted of wooden structures and wooden streets supported by wooden pilings which provided an air supply beneath the fre. A recipe for disaster. Downtown Astoria was rebuilt in 1923-25. The streets were filled in with dredged river sediment and the new buildings were constructed out of concrete and brick. Only three individuals died that night: Norris Staples, president of the Bank of Commerce and Lovell Auto business partner, sufered a heart attack while moving an inventory of new autos out of the way; a boatman out on the river pumping water toward the fames fell from his vessel due to smoke and drowned; and a perhaps unrelated suicide had occurred beneath the docks.
6. Spexarth Building: Commercial & 8th
Constructed of reinforced concrete with a composition roof, this 1910 building acted as a firewall and was able to slow the spread of the fre. To its west, the courthouse and post office (rebuilt in 1933) were saved. Since the structure, itself, did not require reconstruction, this block of Commercial St. was not widened during the rebuild and the street is more narrow than the rest of Commercial St. heading east toward downtown.