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Old 12-29-2004, 12:55 AM   #22
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Default From The Granite State News, December 29, 1939

FAMOUS OLD LAKE SIDEWHEELER CREMATED AT THE WEIRS WHARF
LOSS OF $200,000
Railroad Station, Dock, Seaplane, Trainshed, Boardwalk Burned
LAVALLEE OVERCOME
State And Regional Officials Meet With Owners To Plan Rehabilitation

The “Mount Washington”, famous old sidewheeler known throughout the country by visitors to New Hampshire, was completely destroyed by fire Friday night, December 22, at The Weirs, where it was laid up for the winter. The fire apparently started in the Boston & Maine station, and was carried by a northeast wind down the “Mount Washington” dock and into the steamer itself, leaving the boat a skeleton of twisted steel.

The walking beam which so many of us as children watched with fascination, lay across the twisted remains of one of the old paddle wheels. About six feet of the bowsprit remained. A strange fact is that although the boat was virtually consumed to the waterline, it still remained afloat. It took considerable imagination to picture the remains as having been a boat.

Fire started shortly before 8:30 and was discovered by Leon Horne who was attending a grange meeting. He called fire and gave the alarm to Fireman Henry Allard. He notified the Laconia department and a general alarm was sounded.

Fire Chief Arthur W. Spring said that the fire started from a stove in the building. He is still investigating and has not given out a formal statement as to the cause this noon.

Horne in Charge

Archie Macomber, who has been the station agent for 27 and a half years attended the funeral of his brother-in-law in Craftsbury, Vt., yesterday and was on his way home during the fire, arriving at 9:50. He left Leon Horne in charge of the station. Leon told him, he said, that there was no fire in the passenger station waiting room as it went out and he didn’t bother to rebuild it.

Mr. Macomber said he believed that the fire started in the basement, probably in the workshop in which Capt. Lavallee and Engineer Fred Dearborn had been working during the day.

The B. & M.’s loss includes baggage trucks and equipment. The little money in the station was locked away in the safe which must be in the ruins. Mr. Macomber lost his adding machine and typewriter.

He said he thought the station was 50 years old. This morning a combination baggage and mail car arrived to be used as a temporary ticket, baggage and mail office.

Train Flagged

The southbound milk train was flagged to a stop above the fire by Police Chief Hubbard and after more than a half hour wait was switched over to another track and allowed to chug slowly past.

The fire lit the sky and could be seen for many miles. “Sparks” clogged traffic on the Boulevard and White Oaks and youngsters were seen in Lakeport thumbing rides to the fire. Special Police Officer Ted Dagenais directed traffic at the foot of the hill and the junction of The Weirs main street. Police Chief George N. Hubbard and Deputy Chief Charles E. Dunleavy were on duty also.

Fortunate it was in one way that the wind was blowing briskly from the northwest keeping the flames and sparks away from Irwin’s Winnipesaukee Gardens only a couple hundred feet from the blazing Mount and railroad station and the campground would have gone.

All but one piece of apparatus from the Laconia and Lakeport stations aided the Weirs firemen. About five thousand feet of hose was laid in eight lines but there was not a stream that could reach the flaming boat. Firemen concentrated on putting out the burning board walk and wetting down the Irwin’s Gardens. They were unable to get to the lake to pump water.

Motorists had to walk in some cases more than a mile from where they parked their cars. Cars were left as far away as Mrs. Lillian B. Carroll’s home on The Boulevard, on the hills on both sides of the bridges and Tower Hill and adjoining streets that overlook The Weirs bay. Because of the biting wind and low temperature somewhere in the vicinity of 20 motorists who were able to get their cars close enough to see the fire stayed inside and kept their heaters running.

Built in 1872

The Mount Washington, known from coast to coast as the fastest sidewheeler in inland U. S. Waters was built by Sylvanus Smith, an ancestor of Mrs. Lyford Merrow of Ctr. Ossipee, and launched in Alton Bay in 1872. Since then it has plied the waters of Lake Winnipesaukee every year. In 1896-97 it was repaired and replanked at a cost of $42,000. The original cost of building the boat was $64,000. Again in 1914 it was repaired at a cost of $11,093. The next time the boat was out of the water was in 1925 for more repairs by order of the Public Service Commission. In the fall of ’37 the 700 ton boat was drydocked at Center Harbor and after a winter of hardships and disappointments the boat was replanked and put back into the water. Capt Lavallee was given a magnificent welcome home to The Weirs in May, 1938.

Former owners of the boat are Capt. Herbert A Blackstone who was skipper for 15 years, the Boston and Maine Railroad which sold it in 1922 for $3,000 to Captain Lavallee, Sidney Baker of Tremont street who resold it to Capt. Lavallee after running it one season.

Capt. Blackstone often said that the Mount was built as heavy as many boats that go to sea.

The new owners James and George Carroll who purchased the Mount on Sept. 15 from Capt. Lavallee were planning repairs this winter so the boat was anchored at The Weirs wharf instead of in the channel where the ice does not freeze.

The Carroll brothers had already started to figure out how they would keep the boat free from ice by chopping it away as it froze.

The Boston & Maine will probably replace the huge railroad station of the type of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s with a smaller station of modern trend and it is doubtful whether or not the long trainshed which sheltered huge crowds during storms will be rebuilt.

Fred Dearborn, engineer of the boat, tried hard to reach it to take it away from the wharf but was unable to penetrate the roaring furnace.

There was an unusual thing about the fire in that most of it was below the level of the firemen and those close to the scene so that waves of heat came.

Watching the “Mount” go proudly in the flames at its dock was the Grand Old Skipper of Lake Winnipesaukee, Capt. Leander Lavallee. He stood on the brow of the hill across from Tarlson’s store when the oil tank on the old sidewheeler exploded. Previously he had collapsed in front of his home at The Weirs when he realized what was happening. He said he was subject to angina.

He had sold the boat last September to George Carroll and James Carroll, sons of Postmaster M. J. Carroll, who estimated the loss at $100,000, partially covered by insurance.

“It’s a great loss to all this region,” the captain explained. He spoke of the strong steel holding the framework of the boat and sure enough the silhouette remained through all the seething flame.

Early on the scene at The Weirs Saturday morning, when the fire ruins still hot, could be seen by daylight, Captain Lavallee said, “If I were 30 years younger, I’d start building a new Mount.”

The Weirs fire department called it quits Saturday morning at 7:30 after being all night on the job wetting down the ruins. On the job were Capt. George Wesley Tarlson, Will Lloyd, Henry Allard, Bryan Avery, Fred H Dearborn, Leon Horne, Harvey Smith, W. H. Cole, Hollis Cole, Elmer Davis was working on the railroad.

Secretary Harold Hart of the Lakes Region association and Ed Coughlin of Ossipee were on their way to Laconia Saturday afternoon for a conference with James R. Irwin and others, relative to plans for “facelifting” at The Weirs, to remove scars of last night’s fire.

The Lakes Region Association takes the stand that the loss at The Weirs is not exclusively Laconia loss, but a disaster that affects the entire region, and therefore the region should cooperate in the task of rehabilitation. A meeting of prominent people to get plans under way included Mayor Robinson W. Smith of Laconia, who is acting as chairman; ex-Mayor Edward J. Gallagher, Fred Clark of the State Planning and Development Commission, Lawrence F. Whittemore of the Boston and Maine Railroad, Capt. Leander Lavallee, Postmaster Michael J. Carroll and his sons, James and George Carroll, and others.
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