John Vonderlin: 1894–Fire!!! At the HMB Occidental Hotel!

Story from John Vonderlin

Email John ([email protected])

Hi June,

It took a disaster, but Spanishtown made it into the Record-Union, Sacramento’s newspaper. This story was from the April 13th, 1894 issue. Enjoy. John

FIRE AT SPANISHTOWN.

A Block in the Center of the Place

Destroyed.

Halfmoon Bay, April 12. —Fire broke

out yesterday afternoon in the Occidental

Hotel, destroyed that building, spread to

adjoining houses and consumed almost

the entire block in which the hotel was

located. The only buildings left standing

are the feed mill and two dwellings be-

longing to the J. B. Dollof’s estate and

Charles Bowman’s small saloon building.

The burned block is right in the center

of Spanishtown and included a large por-

tion of the business part of town. The

loss is between $10,000 and $17,000. Had

the flames gained headway on the other

side of Main street 90 per cent of the town

would now be in ashes.