"Stuart is burning down!"

"Stuart is burning down!". Historic Sailfish Trail. It was New Year's Day 1916 and many locals took the ferry to the big Palm City picnic. They were soon called back when someone looked across the St. Lucie to see smoke billowing on the horizon and yelled, "Stuart is burning down!", And sure enough, it was., What happened, on the second floor of the J. B. McDonald Apartment House were apartments. A tenant, J. G. Moore, had lit an oil cooking stove in his apartment and left the room. The stove caught fire, setting his apartment and all the second floor ablaze. It quickly spread to the first floor where Lawton F. Geiger's Proprietary Drug Store and Ice Cream Parlor and the medical office of Dr. David M. Graham were located. Both places held containers of chemicals which began to explode and spread the fire., By the end of the day much of the Potsdam area had burned, including the drug store, many homes, and the Methodist Church – a devastating loss. Making the day slightly less tragic was the preservation of several residences, including the wood vernacular home to your right: the Thomas House., Like many Stuart pioneers, George W. and Agatha Kickliter Thomas came to grow pineapples. After five years George Thomas decided a better living was to be made in the carpentry business. To demonstrate his skills, he built a two-room house at the corner of Albany Avenue and 2nd Street and around 1902 he and his young family moved in., The house turned out to be the durable kind, not only surviving the fire but expanding over the years to include a side wing with a wide veranda and a second story with spectacular views of the river. The Thomas/Edenfield family lived in it until 1972., The space in front of you was once what many considered the most important building in Stuart – the Methodist Church. When the congregation outgrew its original building alongside the railroad tracks, they built an impressive new one complete with stained glass windows, a steeple and bell, and a separate social hall. Sadly, all were lost in the fire., Considered a sign of progress and status in the young city, the community acted quickly to replace the church. With just $2,000 from insurance, residents raised over $10,000 to build an even more impressive building on the same site, completing the new, grander church just over a year later., As told to Ernie Lyons by Charlie Beyer in "The Great Fire,” published in The Stuart News January 1, 1986., Captions: , (Top) The Thomas House showcased George W. Thomas' carpentry with Dade pine floors, mantel, and turned porch posts. Many details have been preserved , including the original wavy glass windows. , (Center) Another notable building to survive the fire was the Christian Endeavor Hall on Albany Avenue. The building was the first Stuart Woman's Clubhouse and the City's first public library before being destroyed in the 1933 hurricane. , (Bottom) The thriving congregation of Stuart's Methodist Church built this beautiful block church at the corner of Albany Avenue and 2nd Street. It burned to rubble in the Great Fire of 1916., For more local history, visit the Stuart Heritage Museum in the Stuart Feed Store building (www.stuartheritagemuseum.com) or the Elliott Museum (www.elliottmuseum.org).. . This historical marker was erected in 2014 by Stuart Main Street. It is in Stuart in Martin County Florida