On This Date in Minnesota History: September 16

September 16, 1904 – For the fourth time in a decade the plant of the St. Paul Sash and Door Company, Rice and Tilton Streets, St. Paul, was destroyed by fire this afternoon. The loss is estimated at $123,000, and the insurance amounts to $7,500.

The fire started shortly after 4 p.m. in the basement under the boiler-room. Seventy-five men were at work in the factory when the building began to fill with smoke.  So rapidly did the flames spread that the men on the third floor could not get out at the usual exits, but were driven to the roof of a shed, from which they reached the ground by ladders.

Julius Bjornstad, president of the company, turned in the alarm. It was more than an hour before the fire department began getting control of the fire.

The building was a three-story brick structure and was well filled with machinery and valuable hardwood. Most of the stock was completely destroyed.

Bjornstad says that the work of reconstruction will begin immediately.

The Minneapolis Journal; “Fire Loss of $123,000. St. Paul Sash and Door Company Burned Out for Fourth Time in Ten Years.”; Sept. 17, 1904; p. 6.

Photo taken by Pamela J. Erickson. Released into the public domain 9/16/2017,
as long as acknowledgement included.  

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