Many descriptions of the Great Gratz Fire of November 4, 1924, have been published – including the accounts of newspapers of the local area and region and summaries of the fire written specially for local histories.
It is believed that the fire began behind the Union House on the southeast corner of Center Street and Market Street. When it was finally extinguished, it appeared to have taken out half of the main square of the town – at least ten buildings burned to the ground!
The account that follows here was written by Hal Hepler, a Gratz resident who witnessed the fire.
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I was living at the opposite end of the double house where I am not when the fire broke out in 1924. The neighbors on the other side pounded on the wall at two o’clock in the morning to tell us about the fire. We hurried up to our barn which was in danger, and began to take the things out. We were able to save the implements, tools and equipment such as the hay baler and tractor. The animals – hogs, horses, mules, etc. escaped. But the barn was destroyed, and more than one hundred tons of hay also burned. A barn that stood on the site of the present [1987] Post Office property was also destroyed. There were no injuries to people. Clean up after the fire was lots of work. It was a community project. The barns and other building were rebuilt by men from the area who went over the mountain to cut trees and lumber, and hauled it back to town.
Harry Smith‘s place had been destroyed, so election scheduled for the next day was held at the bank.
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From Memories, Volume 2, Gratz Historical Society, 1987.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.