By Kyle Troutman editor@cassville-democrat.com
March 1 blaze the third major fire on square
April 18, 1893. June 10, 1987. March 1, 2022.
These are the dates of the biggest commercial fires on the Cassville square, the latest of which has doomed the old Hall Theatre to demolition.
The fire on March 1 started at 7:30 a.m. and continued through the afternoon, needing hotspot work in the evening and a little after 10 p.m.
The result of the blaze is a middle ground among the three, unsalvageable like the Tomblin’s fire in 1987, but much less destructive than the two blocks devoured in 1893.
Diana Doty, whose grandparents Glen and Clairece Hall owned and operated the Hall Theatre for nearly four decades, said the loss of the building was a difficult one to take.
“My mother was a teacher at Exeter before she passed away in 2015, and one of her former students sent me a message to let me know about the fire before the news came out,” Doty said. “I appreciated that more than I can say because it saved me from the surprise and gave me a chance to accept what would likely happen. I worried for the people living in the apartment and for the other buildings on the square, but I was very relieved to hear there were no injuries and grateful to the fire departments who brought the blaze under control.
“And of course, as more pictures came out through the day and it was clear the building would be lost, I felt heartbreak that a part of the town’s history and my own family’s history was lost, too.”
Doty’s memories of the theatre are few, as the building was sold before she was born. Still, the theatre managed to have a lasting impact on the family.
“[Glen and Clariece] lived in the building until the mid-1970s and raised my mother, Susan, there,” Doty said. “I was born the year they retired, but I heard stories about the theater my entire life, so much so that it felt like another member of the family. My grandparents truly loved entertaining the town and were proud to have dedicated their lives to it.
“I remember visiting once as a child — they gave me the grand tour. My mother showed me her room and the window where she used to watch all the movies, and my grandparents walked me around the auditorium and their office and helped me imagine what it had all been like. The cabinet from that office is in my own office now — it still has a roll of tickets inside.”
Other locals, like Janet Mead, have memories of the Theatre, which opened in 1946, that will last forever.
“My family moved to Cassville in early fall 1964,” Mead said. “My dad, Bob Malarkey, had just started working for Bob Mitchell at the Democrat. I was in the fourth grade, and Susan Hall was the first person my age that I met. She and I became fast friends.
“My younger brother and I walked to school every day. We lived at 500 West St. Many mornings, Glenn Hall would just be coming down from the apartment to take Susan to school. He always offered to take us, too. Susan and I always walked home. Many afternoons, I’d spend an hour or so with Susan after school. We had a great time.”
Mead said when it came to the Theatre itself, some of the best memories surrounded Christmas and food.
“I remember the Saturday afternoon matinees at Christmas time,” she said. “Glenn was the best emcee. I got to see many movies as Susan’s guest because of course, Glenn would never take my money! I remember the times I got to sleepover on Friday nights, and Susan would climb down the ladder from an upstairs bedroom to her dad’s office and she’d go to the concession stand and bring us each a candy bar.
“Her favorite was a Zero or a peanut butter cup and mine was a Snickers bar. To this day, I don’t know if Glenn knew she raided the concessions or not.”
Unlike the Hall Theatre fire, the June 10, 1987 fire on the north side of the square was damaging, but not a total loss.
At 9:30 p.m. that Wednesday, a fire was discovered on the north side of the square, continuing through the following morning totaling Tomblin’s Jewelry, Helen Emos’ Sewing Center and Taggart’s Medicine Shop. Other businesses on the north side, Jan’s Fashions, Town and Country and Johnston’s had smoke and water damage, but survived the flames.
At the time, the Cassville Democrat billed it as the most disastrous since the 1893 fire.
Despite the roof falling in at a point, Tomblin’s relocated temporarily, but returned to the location after it was rebuilt.
Business owners in the 1893 fire, including the Cassville Democrat, were nowhere near as lucky.
According to an issue of the Democrat published on May 13, 1803, the “entire business portion was swept away in a few hours, leaving but a smoldering ruin where had been the pride of the county.”
Included in that issue is a sketch of the buildings and streets surrounding the fire, which was included for historical purposes.
“We do not give this sketch so much as a matter of news as to perpetuate the history of a disaster farther reaching than any that has ever occurred in the Southwest,” the article said.
That fire also produced a few tense moments.
“The light breeze increased in force and the flames lapped over and huge cinders dropped like hail stones,” the story said. “The explosion of giant powder in Hudson & Hessee’s which shattered windows in town and was heard fifteen miles away, threw fire across the street to the large hotel of D.P. Pharis.”
The trauma of the event was never forgotten, but like the story says, Cassville turned into “The Modern Phoenix.”
The gray dawn of morning was heralded by a wearied people who for four long hours had fought hand to hand for their town and their homes,” the article said. “Some had saved but in the smoking ruins lay the years’ accumulations of many. But the men who started in life with but their hands, ambition and willingness to work, are not such as are easily kept down, and before the bricks were cool or the embers had died, plans were in progress for the re-building.”
