Clarendon St Baptist Church Fire (historic)

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stellarfun

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CDubs said:
Very close! It was on February 27, 1982, by which time the Avery Hotel had become a rooming house (info from http://www.bostonfirehistory.org/bfdfires.html).
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Thanx CDubs

Deputy Fire Chief John Clougherty said the fire apparently started in a four-story brick building at 599 Washington st. which abuts the brick hotel at the corner of Washington and Avery streets. The Washington street building houses Snyder's Army and Navy Store on the first floor, Lebows Fur Co. on the second and Henry W. Bennett Quality Uniforms Inc. on the third and fourth floors, he said.


While firefighters struggled to reach the fire, flames shot across the courtyard at the rear of the building and set the hotel's window frames afire, Clougherty said.


While the evacuation was underway, the fire raced out of control up the hotel's courtyard walls. Firefighters began stringing hoses through the hotel's doors and over ladders through windows to reach the courtyard side, Clougherty said.
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This part of a story in the Globe.


My very dim recollection was that the fire department couldn't get equipment or hoselines to the rear of the building; there may have been an alley there.


No video of the Avery fire, but video of the Clarendon St Baptist Church burning that same year. Also, nine alarms.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXEK117HFdU

The church was rebuilt.

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The Avery, alas, for those with memories of liaisons and assignations.....
 
Re: Emerson College's Paramount Center

That fire video is really amazing. A friend of mine owns a unit in that building (His living room is behind the three small windows that are on three sides of the tower, above the two tall windows). I knew there had been a fire there, but I never imagined it was such a spectacular conflagration.
 
Re: Emerson College's Paramount Center

What's this? Doesn't look like anything I've seen near the Paramount.
 
Re: Emerson College's Paramount Center

^^It's the church from the fire discussion upthread. Took me a second to figure it out too.
 
Re: Emerson College's Paramount Center

Sorry, just following someone else's lead ... move 'em!
 
There was a fire house that faced out on Warren, just across an alley from the back of the church.
 
My great grandfather became sexton of the Clarendon Street Baptist church from 1937 to 1967. In 1947 he built a replica of the church for a collection box. The bell rings when you put coins in the steeple. He retired from the church in 1967 at the age of 88.

Several years ago I took this church from his daughters’ home (My grandmother), because it needed a home, and I couldn’t bare to see it thrown away.

I am now 50 and moving to a smaller home. I will no longer be able to keep it. I have pamphlets from the church (1949 and 1967) as seen in my pictures. I am looking for a home for it and unfortunately it must be done in the next 4 weeks. This church is large. The base is 30 inches by 18 inches and it stands 36 inches tall. I would be willing to do some repairs to it if I knew it had a place to. Like my great grandfather I am a fixer of all things.


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OMG. That's wonderful.

I will try to contact the condo association over there to see if they might want it. Assuming they promise to keep it intact and care for it, it might be a good option.
 
I now have 2 places interested in the church, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and the South End Historical Society.
Decisions . Decisions! I guess it will depend on where they will put it.
 
I love the idea that the SEHS would have it but they may not be able to show it?
 
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