November 16, 1881: Fire destroys Duluth’s Clark House Hotel

On this day in Duluth in 1881, fire destroyed the Clark House, Duluth’s finest hotel and the unofficial seat of all business in the fledgling city since it was first built in 1870. The fire had originated in an old boiler room behind the kitchen—a boiler that was scheduled to be replaced the very next day. Ironically, the Clark House had also been the unofficial clubhouse of Duluth’s volunteer fire department. They were quick to respond, but with only one hose engine, the best they could do was to save the adjacent buildings—it was already too late for the Clark House. Duluth citizens worked as fast as they could to save furniture and furnishings from the hotel, including a very large cache of liquor. They saved all the liquor, but half the furniture was destroyed. The loss was estimated at $50,000, more than $1 million today. The Duluth Weekly Tribune reported that when the fire broke out, a “drunken man was on the upper porch when the flames reached the front part of the house, and although the crowd shouted to him to come down, he remained as if fascinated by the flames. At last some men got up and lowered him down by a rope. It was said (we don’t know with how much truth) that he had his pockets filled with soap and towels—evidently with an eye to continuous ablutions during the winter. Let us soaps so.” Read a much more complete history of the Clark House here.

Member of Duluth’s “Hose Company #1″—the city’s volunteer fire department—posing on the steps of the Clark House Hotel in 1872. (Image: University of Minnesota Duluth Kathryn A. Martin Library Archives and Special Collections)