CLIFTON HOUSE BURNED

LOSS, $150,000

(Press Report}

[Welland Tribune, 28 June 1898]

THE TRIBUNE gives two reports of the Clifton house fire-the general press report and a report from our own correspondent. Where there is any difference in statement is may be assumed that our correspondent’s report is correct, as he had special advantages for securing a full and correct report.

NIAGARA FALLS, Sunday, June 26^th.-The world-famed Clifton house tonight lies in ruins, being totally destroyed, together with its contents by fire this morning. When the flames were first noticed, they were in the rear of the big hotel, in the room over the kitchen, and, although the alarm was promptly given and the entire fire departments from both sides of the river responded promptly, the water supply in this particular portion of the town was not equal to the demand, as the flames shot their fiery tongues through the large hotel, and soon had it a burning furnace.

The fire was noticed about 12 o’clock, and burned fiercely until 2 o’clock. The flames that shot out of every window and towered high in the air seemed to laugh at the futile attempts of the laddies with their toy streams of water, and when they had exhausted their fury, the large four-storeyed hotel with its shady verandahs, supported with immense pillars, stood out a total wreck, the walls only standing to make the spot of the world-wide hostelry, that had been the home during the summer of the best families of America as well as Europe. The hotel counted amongst its many guests the royal families of Europe who had visited Niagara.

The hotel was a four-storeyed, a large stone roughcast-faced building, the letter “L” shape, with a court in the centre that contained a regular greenhouse of cool and shady promenades. The building contained 250 rooms, which were all very expensively furnished, and only the very best of the travel was catered for.

This morning 85 guests were on the register, and all of them, with their belongings were safely taken out of the place without a single hitch. Amongst those on the register were: Mr. and Mrs. John Penman, Paris; Dr. Laure and family, New Orleans; Mayor Taggart, Indianapolis, Ind.; Mr. James Mackenzie, Sarnia, Ont.

The hotel proper was first built by Harmanius Crysler, during 1836, who named it the Clifton House. It afterwards got into the hands of Mr. Zimmerman, who made quite an addition to it, and brought the place as a fashionable resort before the sightseers at Niagara. Its present proprietor Mr. George M. Colborn has controlled the place for 30 years past, and had everything to do with the famous name the hotel has throughout the world. Mr. Colborn is absent from home in Philadelphia, but has been apprised by wire of the loss. The hotel was owned by the late John T. Bush estate. Loss to the building, $100,000, partially covered by insurance; contents and furnishings, $50,000, partially covered by insurance. The cause of the fire is unknown as yet.