{"id":10580,"date":"2016-07-07T19:52:13","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T23:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=10580"},"modified":"2017-09-08T07:26:30","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T11:26:30","slug":"the-randolph-mill-fire-disaster-indignation-and-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2016\/07\/the-randolph-mill-fire-disaster-indignation-and-recognition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Randolph Mill Fire: Disaster, Indignation and Recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Randolph<\/a>
Randolph Mill and Pennsylvania Hosiery Mill in 1879. (Between 5th St. and Randolph St., north of Columbia, now Cecil B. Moore Ave.) Hexamer General Survey, vol. 15 (GeoHistory Network\/Free Library of Philadelphia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two front doors on Randolph Street were locked tight. They said this was \u201cpartly to keep intruders out, and partly to keep the male hands in\u201d during work hours. You know, to \u201cprevent their slipping around the corner to get a drink.\u201d Worst of all, in spite of the three-year-old law requiring fire escapes, the five-story mill building had not a one.<\/p>\n

On the night of October 12, 1881, when fire struck Landenberger’s Dress Goods Manufactory, destruction multiplied into horror and death.<\/p>\n

A little before 10pm, neighbors heard the \u201cshrieks of agony and despair\u2026issuing from the building.\u201d They looked to the windows on the third and fourth floors to see “the forms of men and women gesticulating frantically and screaming for aid, their retreat being cut off and the flames sweeping around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Don’t jump,” someone on the ground shouted. “We will get ladders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fire spread faster. As an eyewitness described it, \u201cthe first thing we knew, down came a girl, and then another and another. When the first was picked up it was found that she had broken her back over the railing of the iron steps. The next leaped from the fourth story and was crushed out of shape upon the pavement. And so the work of desperation went on until nearly a score of victims had been cruelly and in most cases fatally injured.”<\/p>\n

Mattie Conlan was somewhat luckier, \u201clet down by a shawl from the third story window.\u201d The smoke \u201crising round her and the flames streaming upward\u201d\u2014and she let go. Conlan\u2019s injuries weren\u2019t fatal. Kate Schaeffer and Annie Brady \u201cjumped hand-in-hand from the third floor window. Brady died instantly.<\/p>\n

What became of the 35 others working the night shift? According to newspaper reports, no one even knew exactly who they were. \u201cLandenberger\u2019s people positively refused to furnish the list of those who were in the building when the fire broke out.\u201d And without a list, loved ones were at loose ends: angry, confused, and grieving.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking West from 5th and Columbia, now Cecil B. Moore Avenue to Randolph Street, October 19, 1934 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following morning, as the coroner searched the ruins, relatives \u201cbegged pathetically to be allowed to enter the building and look for missing husbands or sons.\u201d Five victims were retreived that day, including the 16-year old Elizabeth Franck, who had lived with her family at 1706 Waterloo Street. Her funeral services would be held at St. Jacob\u2019s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 3rd<\/sup> and Columbia (now Cecil B. Moore). \u201cSix young ladies clad in white\u201d were Lizzie Franck\u2019s pallbearers.<\/p>\n

Even two days after the fire, searchers worked all day looking for bodies\u2014 “but discovered none.\u201d James McMunn\u2019s wife waited nearby, sadly watching. So was Joseph Glazer\u2019s mother. Annie Straub\u2019s brothers looked on \u201cwith anxious hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the morgue, George Matheson barely recognized the body and polka dot blue and white dress of his 15-year old daughter, Mary. He had her remains transferred home to 1419 Hope Street. Later the same day, authorities sent a contingent by \u201cto see whether the body was not really that of the missing Annie Straub.\u201d Matheson angrily turned them away, refusing access to Mary’s body. What he expected<\/em> was a visit by Charles Landenberger, who, Matheson snapped to a reporter, \u201cmight have come to see the family, as any gentleman would have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling around the neighborhood was intense, and many people, while they unreservedly condemned the owner of the building, Joseph Harvey,” they also challenged Landenberger\u2019s denials of culpability. He<\/em> knew<\/em> the upper floors were dangerous. He claimed to have urged Harvey, time and time again, to install fire escapes. So, they asked, \u201cWhy did he send so many people up there to work?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Surrounding streets filled up with expressions of distress. \u201cKnots of employees of other mills were grouped here and there earnestly discussing the sad event, and strongly denouncing the false economy which failed to provide suitable means of escape from the burned mill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPopular sentiment, urged on by the atrocity of this case, with its ugly exposure of indifference to human life and human suffering and sorrow\u201d led to the organization of an \u201cindignation meeting.\u201d About 600 people crowded onto the lot adjacent to “the scene of slaughter\u201d at Randolph and Columbia.<\/p>\n

The coroner\u2019s inquest into the fire and the nine deaths it caused produced an undisputed verdict: \u201c\u2026the fire was caused by the improperly constructed and inefficiently managed apparatus for lighting the building; \u2026Joseph Harvey, owner of the mills, is criminally responsible for the loss of life, in neglecting to furnish proper means of escape in case of fire; \u2026the city of Philadelphia is responsible for not enforcing the laws in compelling Joseph Harvey to erect proper fire-escapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the Randolph Mill Fire turned out to be a pivotal disaster. A specially appointed committee of the Franklin Institute examined technologies and design possibilities for fire escapes and elevators and, as historian Sara Wermiel tells us, made \u201cfarsighted recommendations\u201d leading to \u201can important advance in the field of life safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, PhillyHistory people, we ask ourselves: Do we remember and recognize any<\/em> of this at the site today<\/a>?<\/p>\n

[Sources Include: Sara E. Wermiel, \u201cNo Exit: The Rise and Demise of the Outside Fire Escape,\u201d<\/a> Technology and Culture<\/em>, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Apr., 2003), pp. 258-284; \u201cReport of Committee of the Franklin Institute on Fire-Escapes and Elevators,\u201d<\/a> The Journal of the Franklin Institute<\/em>, (Philadelphia, 1881), pp. 408-414; and in The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cAnother Horror. Fatal Result of a Mill Fire,\u201d October 13, 1881; \u201cA Holocaust. The Mill Fire Disaster,\u201d October 14, 1881; \u201cAround the Ruins,\u201d October 14, 1881; \u201cAt the Hospitals. How the Wounded Are Faring,\u201d October 14, 1881; The Man-Trap. More About the Mill Disaster,\u201d October 15, 1881; \u201cLast Week’s Horror. The Disaster and Its Results,\u201d October 17, 1881.]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two front doors on Randolph Street were locked tight. They said this was \u201cpartly to keep intruders out, and partly to keep the male hands in\u201d during work hours. You know, to \u201cprevent their slipping around the corner to get a drink.\u201d Worst of all, in spite of the three-year-old law requiring fire escapes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}