Notes A transcribed article from the Union County Public Library:

Headline:  Monroe Graded School Burns For Second Time in Its History

Monroe Journal, Friday, October 27, 1933, page 1

Subheadlines:  Nothing But Ruins Remain After the Disastrous Blaze

Property Loss Large But Considerable Insurance Carried On the Building

An Exciting Time At Fire

Amid hundreds of crying, shouting, laughing men, women and children,, the Monroe graded school building went up in smoke yesterday morning.

As the fire alarm sounded at 9:15, warning of a public fire, word spread rapidly that the grammar school was on fire and parents rushed on foot and in cars to the burning building.  Frantically, they dashed hither and thither looking for their children.

Some of the children were gathered around looking at the fire; others were going through the clothes, books, and things that volunteers were bringing from the burning building; small ones were being looked after by their larger friends; still others without their wraps were sitting in cars belonging to the first arrivals.  Some mothers spent fifteen minutes before finding their children.

“Are all the children out?” That was what everybody asked the minute they arrived.  And the assurance that every one was out quieted the fear of the parents.  Within two minutes after the first alarm the building had been emptied of all occupants.  The weekly fire drills, the calmness of the teachers and the children themselves, allowed the departure of all in an orderly and quick manner.

Exciting Scene

From a short distance from the grounds, it sounded like a hive of giant bees buzzing and buzzing.  Some of the children were wearing scared looks, a few were crying, but most of them were intently watching the fire, commenting on what was happening to their room, darting out to salvage a wrap they spied, or books.  None seemed to be very much frightened and one youngster remarked about another who was crying, “Aw, he’s crying because his lunch is burning up.”

For two hours, grown-ups and children stood around and watched the eager flames eat up the woodwork from the top of the building, where the fire started, to the very last piece that would burn.  The dry wood burned like tinder and the minute one stream of water was diverted to another section the flames started raging again.  Soon the top fell to the second floor and the entire interior became an inferno.  One chimney fell with a crash, plowing through the flaming timbers.  Four lines of hose seemed to make little impression on the hungry flames and finally only the gaunt, bare walls remained standing as a grim witness to the wreck of the building wherein for years Monroe children received their elementary education.

Other Buildings Threatened

The heat from the flaming structure was intense.  When it first became apparent that the building was really threatened volunteers rushed into it and appeared again and again with armloads of books, wraps, chairs, desks, anything that was removable.  Two pianos were gotten out.

Three times a line of hose was rushed to nearby dwellings which caught flying sparks from the school building.  A nearby store was also threatened and firemen concentrated on keeping the fire from spreading to other buildings and in this they were successful.

Origin of Fire

The fire was discovered shortly after 9 o’clock in a gable on the upper left hand side near the top by negro workmen.  They notified Janitor J. B. Parker and the alarm was sounded.  The children marched out orderly within two minutes.  The fire spread rapidly and when firemen arrived the left top of the building was in flames.  It is thought the fire started from a loose wiring or a rat.

At 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon small blazes appeared here and there among the ruins but there was little left to feed on.  The walls left standing were today deemed unsafe and Fire Chief Armfield ordered them torn down.

The building was a total loss and while some removable things were carried from the building, most of the contents was a total loss.  Insurance carried on the building was $40,000 and $5,000 was carried on the equipment.  Even with the full amount of the insurance collected the loss will be large for the replacement value of the building and equipment is much more than this.

The school library containing over 500 volumes was destroyed as were also records of books of the teachers.  The building itself was a two-story brick structure containing 13 class rooms, an auditorium and other rooms.

No definite plans have been worked out yet for rebuilding but it is understood that a new building will be erected on the site of the old with possibly another one in the [eastern?] part of the city.   [end of Monroe Journal article]

Notes:  Classes met at Central Methodist Church for almost two years; perhaps even in other churches as well.  The new school building was erected at the old site and was renamed “John D. Hodges” after the first principal/founder of a still-earlier “Monroe High School” (a boarding school of higher learning) that was also at this site but burned in 1891.  The “John D. Hodges” school was renamed/dedicated October 12, 1935.  It is not clear if the building was already in use, but more than likely it was.  The address (in later years) for John D. Hodges School was 606 Lancaster Avenue.  The building was used at times by administration offices beginning in 1964 when the new elementary school building was erected in front of the old Walter Bickett High School across the street.  Abandoned by 1971, another fire, this time in the auditorium in February 1974, was the catalyst for its inevitable demolition sometime around July 1975.  At this time, there is no photo of the John D. Hodges building in this on-line collection, however, there are some images available within the library’s vertical files, UCVF:  Union County Schools History – John D. Hodges. 

Transcription and notes written by Patricia Poland, Dickerson Genealogy & Local History Room, Union County Public Library, Monroe, NC (Sept 2012)  Transcribed ‘as is’ from microfilm print-out with [ ] used when a word was difficult to read.