08/05/07
Filed under:
General
Posted by:
Beverly @ 1:47 pm
One of the delights of the intense research required by writing a novel set in past times is discovering something that was earth-shaking news when it happened, but is now forgotten by all but professional historians. As I go forward with this fourth book in the City of Dreams series – wait for a new title announcement coming soon! – I’ve run into just such an event.
Do you know about the New York City fire that was the worst urban blaze since the Great Fire of London nearly two centuries earlier? Every one I’ve sprung this on so far, including my very historically knowledgeable husband and ditto agent, says no. Or maybe that they’ve a vague memory of reading something…
- It happened on a night of 17 below zero temperatures on December 16, 1835.
- The fire was fought by 1500 volunteer firemen who pulled their wagons by manpower, jogging along in unison and REFUSED to allow the city to buy them horses, or steam engines to operate their pumps. Not macho enough. Most people – who regularly bet on one fire company over another – agreed and cheered them on.
- There were hydrants and cisterns all over the town, but when they tried to use them, everything was frozen. Even the water they tried to get by cutting into the East River froze in their hemp hoses.
- The firemen formed long lines and jumped up and down on the hoses to melt them, but a howling gale blew what water they could force through the hoses back in their faces.
- They wound up having to pour brandy into their boots to keep their feet from freezing.
- The glow in the sky could be seen as far north as New Haven and as far south as Philadelphia.
- Eventually they held the fire in check by using gunpowder to blow up buildings that stood in its path. Even so, everything from Broad Street to the East River, and from close to the southern tip of Manhattan north to Wall Street burned – over 700 buildings.
A year later six hundred of them had been rebuilt, the city had finally committed itself to a proper supply of running water and to constructing a huge reservoir at 42nd and Fifth (where the main New York Public Library now stands), and two of the most famous pleasure palaces of old New York went up as a direct result: The Astor House Hotel and Delmonicos.
Of course, for the Turners and the Devreys, this is a very personal tragedy…