ROTHSCHILD'S CORNER
DESTROYED BY FIRE.
DAMAGE TO STOCKS AND BUILD-
ING ESTIMATED $150,000.
Clothing Firm Carried Insurance of
$100,000 -- Plan Seven-Story
Steel Structure to Replace
Burned Building.
FIRE AT TENTH AND MAIN THAT DESTROYED
ROTHSCHILD & SON'S CLOTHING STORE.
ESTIMATED LOSS BY FIRE.
Rothschild & Sons.........$120,000
A. A. Pearson, building and stock.......$1,000
A. D. Mitchell, photographer....$100
Dr. He Ly Yuen......$50
Damage to building......#30,000
Total.......$151,000
Insurance, $131,000
Property valued at $150,000 was destroyed by a fire which started in the basement of the old three-story brick building at the southwest corner of Tenth and Main streets at 9 o'clock last night.
The entire stock of Rothschild & Sons, clothiers, valued at $120,000, was practically ruined; the building, owned jointly by J. S. Loose and the Soden estate, and valued at $30,000, was gutted, and its walls will have to be torn down; the Mitchell studio, on the third floor in the north wing of the building, was destroyed, and the outfit of Dr. Ho Ly Yeun, a Chinese physician, went with the flames.
A. A. Pearson's millinery stock at 1010 Main street was also slightly damaged by water.
It was one of the quickest and most ferocious fires that the Kansas City department has ever had to combat. The alarm came in from three sources at 9:05 o'clock. It was five minutes before the first fire engine arrived. The fire, first sighted on the third floor, near the elevator shaft, quickly ate its way to the lower floor, and before the firemen had started water on the building the inside of the clothing store was enwrapped in flames.
POOR WATER PRESSURE.
A general alarm was turned in, but the fire had gained such headway that the Chief Egner's men found that they could do nothing but confine the flames to the one building. That poor water pressure hampered the earlier efforts of the firemen is attested by persons who were on the ground when the flames were discovered. R. J. Quarles, a retired banker, who was at the scene, says that it was fully five minutes before a company arrived, and that it was another five minutes before water was thrown into the building, and then only a weak stream.
The only accident recorded was a minor one, Chief J. F. Pelletier of the insurance patrol running a sliver into his right hand while directing his men inside the Rothschild store.
WHEN THE ROOF FELL IN.
Members of hose companies Nos. 4, 5 and 6, were on the roof of the building when the structure began to creak, and Chief Egner ordered them to move to the next roof. His order was given none too soon, for a minute later the roof fell in.
Thousands gathered to witness the spectacle, and several hundred went home with clothing thoroughly drenched. A hose attached to an engine in front of the United cigar store, at the northwest corner of Tenth and Main streets, burst suddenly , and a score of persons standing in front of the cigar shop were soaked with water.
Twenty-one fire companies lent their efforts toward putting down the flames, but with this force it was long after midnight before the fire was completely under control.
CARRIED $100,000 INSURANCE.
Rothschild & Sons carried $100,000 insurance on their stock, and Frank Ferguson of the insurance firm of Ferguson & Taft, sitting in his office in the Dwight building, Tenth and Baltimore, saw the flames and was one of the men to turn in an alarm. U. B. Hart, a Pinkerton patrolman, turned in an alarm about the same time as did John W. Schroeder, bookkeeper for Rothschild's, who was in the store.
Louis P. Rothschild, resident member of the firm, says that they had only recently reduced their insurance policies now aggregating about $100,000. The Mitchell Studio was fully protected.
Rothschild & Sons had a ninety-nine year lease on the Soden property, and sublet to the other tenants. The clothing store occupied the three floors of what was known as the old building, 1000 and 1008 Main street, and the first floor of the corner building.
ROTHSCHILD'S TO REBUILD.
Originally the old building, fronting fifty-two feet on Main street, was two stories in height. This building was erected by J. S. Loose. The adjoining building at the corner had a frontage of twenty-three feet on Main street, and was erected by the late Peter Soden. The two buildings were remodeled into a sort of a combination structure and a third story added.
Louis P. Rothschild said his firm had contemplated razing the building at an early date, and erecting a steel structure in its place. This idea will now be carried out, the plans providing for a seven-story building, to cost $200,000.
The safe containing $3,000 in cash, as well as all the books and records of the Rothschild firm, was unharmed.
The firm of Rothschild & Sons was established in Fort Leavenworth fifty-five years ago, and last night's fire was the first in the history of the firm. They moved to Kansas City in 1901.
