Dan's Papers - July 13, 2007 -

The fires of 1817 and 1845 in Sag Harbor were epic, tragic and devastating. The first fire was perhaps the major contributing catalysis for the creation of the Sag Harbor Volunteer Fire Department, the first ever in New York State, founded in 1819. The second fire, in November of 1845, was a horrid vision of a town being nearly completely destroyed, thus depriving the town of wares and products needed for the coming winter. In that fire, one hundred structures burned, including dozens of homes. With the surviving homes already overcrowded due to the success of the whaling industry, many people were dispirited, displaced and devastated. And yet the town came back to be one of the busiest in the country due to the true grit of its inhabitants and the lucrative nature of the whaling industry.

The 1817 fire started along the wharf in the springtime. Many warehouses containing whale oil were consumed and destroyed, as were twenty homes. Historian Henry Hedges, born the year of the fire, believed it started at two p.m. in a small barn. With winds at gale force, the combination of wooden structures, the wind and the fact that, at that time, this section was the most developed part of Sag Harbor meant that in three hours, twenty houses and fifteen barns, warehouses and other structures were entirely consumed. Eyewitnesses recalled seeing desperate homeowners and shopkeepers hauling furniture, family valuables and merchandise out onto what is today's Bay and Main Streets to save them. It was a scene of falling timbers, collapsing walls and desperate citizens fighting a losing battle to save their possessions. That day, many went from prosperity to poverty in only three hours. Formerly proud, successful families were left to accept charity from the town. Some believe it was the first test of the resolve of the moral fabric of a community that now prides itself on its civic awareness.

The fire of 1845 occurred on a Friday morning -- November 14. The fire started in a commission room for furniture in the Suffolk Building. Unlike the previous fire, there was almost no wind at all that day. And yet, the heat caused by the consumption of 100 buildings by the fire eventually caused a distinctive current. With 57 stores all stocked for the coming winter, the loss was devastating to the town. Large percentages of its food stock, winter clothing that had been spun all summer and other necessities went up in smoke. The damage was estimated to be in the neighborhood of $200,000 to $250,000, a huge sum at that time. The heroic actions of the volunteer fire department and others helped many businesses and residents survive the fire. In the words of Henry Hedges, who was 28 years old at the time, the heroes' actions "saved 3/4ths of their goods. Some lost half and some less, but few lost all." The businesses affected included the Phelps's Hotel, Steam Mills and Pumps, Suffolk County Bank and J. Hildreth, among others. On that fateful night, Henry Hedges remembered Doctor Abel Huntington, Collector of the Port, declaring that the fire that climbed up Main Street, stopping at the west side to the north brick walls of three buildings owned by Major John Hildreth. Those buildings saved the rest of Sag Harbor. Mr. Hedges believes the fire of 1817 was limited to "nearly quite the same lines."

The fire of 1845 damaged or destroyed most everything east of Division Street.

With so many stables and barns destroyed, the town was rocked. There would be two other fires, in 1877 and 1881, that would destroy multiple homes and businesses, but no other disaster in the town's history would compare to the fires of 1817 and 1845. Indeed, these fires are the reasons why so many of the historical buildings in Sag Harbor are made of brick. After the fires, wealth from the whaling trade enabled the owners of businesses to buy bricks.

Sag Harbor has been described as being the "epitome of the history of the country." One thing is certain, a walk up and down its Main Street, no matter what the season, is a treat that brings you up and down a road filled with history.