The Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 began just after noon on 21 May 1917 in the
Old Fourth Ward
The Old Fourth Ward, often abbreviated O4W, is an intown neighborhood on the eastside of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The neighborhood is best known as the location of the Martin Luther King Jr. historic site.
Geography
The Old Fourth Wa ...
of
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
.
It is unclear just how the fire started, but it was fueled by hot temperatures and strong winds which propelled the fire.
[ The fire, which burned for nearly 10 hours, destroyed and 1,900 structures displacing over 10,000 people. Damages were estimated at $5 million, ($ million in ).][
]
The Day of the Fire
It was a clear, warm and sunny day with a brisk breeze from the south. This was not the only fire of the day, but the fourth call in the span of an hour: a small fire at the Candler Warehouse at 11:39 AM and at 11:43 a fire seven blocks north that destroyed three houses; and at 12:15, south of the Georgia Railroad from the big fire, ten homes were destroyed before being extinguished. At 12:46 a call came from a small warehouse just north of Decatur Street between Fort and Hilliard, and the crew sent to inspect it found a stack of burning mattresses, but had no firefighting equipment with them. If the fire department had not been spread across so many different parts of the city already, the fire would have been put out there; but by the time reinforcements arrived, it was quickly leaping north.
The Great Fire
The fire spread quickly up to Edgewood Avenue and from there throughout the main residential areas of Sweet Auburn
Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, ...
, sparing little. The area between Decatur and Edgewood was crammed with shanties and lean-tos, which provided fuel for the fire to grow very strong and move fast through the area.
A corridor was burned due north between Jackson (now Parkway and Charles Allen Charles Allen may refer to:
Politicians
*Charles Allen (Massachusetts politician) (1797–1869), American politician and congressman in Massachusetts
*Charles Allen (Australian politician) (1833–1913), Australian politician and member of the T ...
) and Boulevard, with a few prominent bulges at Highland and just south of Ponce de Leon Avenue. At Houston Street, the fire was still being stopped on the east by Boulevard (just sparing John Wesley Dobbs
John Wesley Dobbs (March 26, 1882 – August 30, 1961) was an African-American civic and political leader in Atlanta, Georgia. He was often referred to as the unofficial "mayor" of Auburn Avenue, the spine of the black community in the city.
...
' block). When the fire reached Highland, it raced both east and west through many fine homes. Around 4:00 in the afternoon, fire-fighters had begun to stall the fire by using dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...
to destroy many homes along Pine, Boulevard and finally Ponce de Leon.
By nightfall the fire crossed Ponce de Leon. While reduced, it headed north through the recently built-out neighborhood along St. Charles, Vedado Way and Greenwood Avenue. It finally stopped at 10 PM, more than north of where it began.
In eleven hours, of water were pumped to put out the fire. Additional fire trucks had been sent from nine Georgia towns (as far away as Macon and Augusta), as well as from Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
and Knoxville in Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
. 1,938 buildings were destroyed over spanning 73 city blocks. Fires smoldered for the rest of the week.
Aftermath
Since more than 85% of the destroyed buildings had wood shingles
Shingles, also known as zoster or herpes zoster, is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a localized area. Typically the rash occurs in a single, wide mark either on the left or right side of the body or face. ...
, the city quickly passed an ordinance banning them for new construction. By 1931 all older buildings had replaced the wood shingles. In the history of the city, only Sherman
Sherman most commonly refers to:
*Sherman (name), a surname and given name (and list of persons with the name)
** William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891), American Civil War General
*M4 Sherman, a tank
Sherman may also refer to:
Places United St ...
's fire of 1864 did more extensive damage.
Rebuilding was sporadic, with large swaths kept open for years. Commercial strips were quickly built on the destroyed portions of Edgewood and Auburn where busy streetcar routes ran: 17 and 3 respectively. Where large estates with spacious front yards had been, along the entire stretch of Boulevard up to Ponce, dozens of two- and three-storey apartment buildings
An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are man ...
that hugged the sidewalk were built. Large open spaces were left at what is now the King Memorial and at Bedford-Pine Park, now named Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
(host of Music Midtown
Music Midtown is a large music festival that was held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, annually from 1994 to 2005, and—after a six-year hiatus—returned in 2011. During its original run, the festival ran for one weekend each year. The event ...
in the 2000s).
Low-income housing developments were built in the destroyed extreme southern section and the areas south of North Avenue. Some around Boulevard and Highland were eventually developed as the campus for Atlanta Medical Center. Except for where single family homes were quickly rebuilt north of Ponce de Leon, the character of this large area of Atlanta was changed forever.
The next U.S. fire of more significance wouldn't occur for more than 70 years: The Oakland Hills firestorm
:
The Oakland firestorm of 1991 was a large suburban wildland–urban interface conflagration that occurred on the hillsides of northern Oakland, California, and southeastern Berkeley over the weekend of October 19–20, 1991, before being ...
of 1991.
References
*''Atlanta Journal'', 22 May 1917
*Campbell, Steve B., "The Great Fire of Atlanta, May 21, 1917", ''Atlanta Historical Bulletin
''Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South'' was a publication of the Atlanta Historical Society. It was established in 1927 with one issue per year as the ''Atlanta Historical Bulletin''. In 1937, the journal began publishing three o ...
'', Vol. XIII, No. 2 (June 1968), p. 9-48
*Garrett, Franklin, ''Atlanta and Its Environs'', 1954, Vol II, p. 700-706
*Pomerantz, Gary, ''Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn'', Scribner, 1996
External links
Frank B. Davenport Photographs, 1917 from the Digital Library of Georgia
{{Atlanta history
Atlanta metropolitan area disasters
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products.
At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
1917 fires in the United States
1917 in Georgia (U.S. state)
20th century in Atlanta