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Tour, Breakfast to Commemorate Fire That Destroyed Part of New Bern in 1922

Craven County

NEW BERN - Two New Bern organizations are working together to host a commemorative tour on the anniversary of the fire that leveled 40 city blocks and left 3,000 people homeless.

The Uptown Business and Professional Association and the New Bern Firemen’s Museum are hosting a breakfast and a bus tour to retrace the path of the Great Fire of 1922, which destroyed many black neighborhoods from Kilmarnock Street down to the waterfront.

The tour will be held on Dec. 1, the 86th anniversary of the fire.

“A lot of people who live here, particularly the ones who have moved in from somewhere else, don’t know anything about the fire,” said Mary Peterkin, president of the association. “And even some people who have lived here all their lives have only heard of the fire, but they don’t really know much about it. It’s an important part of the city’s history that needs to be told.”

The tour begins at the Firemen’s Museum on Hancock Street at 9 a.m. on Dec. 1.

A continental breakfast will be served, and guests will get a brief history of the destruction, which was caused by two fires on opposite ends of town on a day when many people were attending a championship football game in Raleigh.

The information presented during the tour is the result of a year and a half of research, much of it done by historian Bill Hand.

It details the first call that firemen received that day - to Rowland Lumber Company, the state’s largest lumber mill at the time and a major employer in New Bern. The mill was in the area of East Front and Queen streets.

When a second call came an hour later for a seemingly minor chimney fire in Five Points, the blaze was left to burn for 45 minutes. When firemen finally got to the second fire, they had an equipment problem and lost time as wind and sparks made the fire spread across the street and down the block.

By noon, the fire was raging across a quarter of the city.

When it was over, 1,000 structures were gone and $2.5 million in damage was left.

“People had to sleep in the Cedar Grove Cemetery,” Peterkin said. “So many people were left homeless - and jobless.”

Stops on the tour will include Ebenezer Presbyterian and St. Peter’s AME Zion Church, both of which were rebuilt after the original sanctuaries were destroyed in the fire.

St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church on Johnson Street is also part of the tour. The church served as a makeshift hospital in the days following the fire.

“This fire is such an important part of our history and we hope it will generate interest and business in this part of the city,” Peterkin said. “We hope a look at our history will help jumpstart our present.”

Tickets for the tour are $20 each. Tickets can be reserved by calling (252) 633-9053 or e-mailing .

Primary Agency: New Bern Fire Department

Source: New Bern Sun Journal

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Posted on Fri Nov 28 2008 at 22:05

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