{"id":2640,"date":"1976-07-04T18:11:22","date_gmt":"1976-07-04T18:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/?p=2640"},"modified":"2018-08-09T16:06:43","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T16:06:43","slug":"the-lovettsville-midtown-fire-of-1923-by-yetive-weatherly-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/the-lovettsville-midtown-fire-of-1923-by-yetive-weatherly-1976\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lovettsville Midtown Fire of 1923, by Yetive Weatherly (1976)"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Excerpted from the book \u201cLovettsville, The German Settlement\u201d by Yetive Weatherly<\/a>,<\/em><\/strong> published in 1976]<\/p>\n

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In 1923, Robert Grubb\u2019s general store, located in midtown Lovettsville on the corner of Broadway and Loudoun Street (now McClain\u2019s Store) burned. \u00a0A Mr. and Mrs. Lanham lived upstairs.<\/p>\n

While the fire had no great effect upon the future of Lovettsville, we feel it deserves a place in this book because it impressed so many people. \u00a0The who were living here at the time never fail to mention it when reminiscing about old times.<\/p>\n

Certainly the fire must have been spectacular. \u00a0It not only burned the store, living only a two story brick shell, but left the Masonic Hall net door badly damaged without a roof.<\/p>\n

Although the cause of the fire was never really known for sure, most people thought it came from a faulty Delco electric generating engine in the basement. \u00a0[It was not until 1924, the following year, that electricity came to Lovettsville.] \u00a0The old style power plant was used by Mr. Thomas\u00a0Smallwood who showed moving pictures in the rear of the building. \u00a0Subsequently, Mr.\u00a0Smallwood moved his theatre to the Kreiger Building.\u00a0 \u00a0Several persons, in recalling the days when Lovettsville had its own movie theater, remarked about the old player piano that provided music for the films.<\/p>\n

After the fire, the second story of the store was removed and the building looked as it does now, its pyramid roof being its most significant feature.<\/p>\n

McClains\u2019s Store has served its present purpose for many years. \u00a0Its grand floor, which was not burned, goes \u201cway back,\u201d old timers say. \u00a0It was a store during most of the nineteenth century and has, from time to time, been associated with such old Lovettsville family names a Frye, Eamich, Smallwood, and Grubb. \u00a0Robert and Beatrice McClain bought it in 1945.<\/p>\n

[McClains ceased operation in 1990. \u00a0Later tenants of the building include Lovettsville Pizza, Beauty On Broadway, and the Catoctin Bible Church.]<\/p>\n

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Support Our Mission<\/em><\/h3>\n

The Lovettsville Historical Society is a nonprofit organization that relies entirely on volunteer help. \u00a0Support our mission to preserve and protect the history of Lovettsville, The German Settlement, and our unique corner of Loudoun County, Virginia. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Purchase a membership or make a tax-deductible* donation today.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Visit us on the web at\u00a0www.LovettsvilleHistoricalSociety.org.<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit the Lovettsville Museum, open Saturdays 1:00-4:00 or by appointment, at 4 East Pennsylvania Avenue, next to Lovettsville Town Hall.\u00a0\u00a0GoogleMap It<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Subscribe to our free monthly electronic Lovettsville History Magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: \u00a0http:\/\/lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.us8.list-manage2.com\/s\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Join us and support our mission to preserve local history. \u00a0https:\/\/squareup.com\/store\/lovettsville-museum\/<\/a><\/p>\n

* The Lovettsville Historical Society, Inc. is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization under the Internal Revenue Code. \u00a0Contributions and membership dues are tax deductible under Internal Revenue Code Section 170.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Excerpted from the book \u201cLovettsville, The German Settlement\u201d by Yetive Weatherly, published in 1976] In 1923, Robert Grubb\u2019s general store, located in midtown Lovettsville on the corner of Broadway and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2640"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2684,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions\/2684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}