The Goodenough Store in Ontario was destroyed in a fire in 1925.
By KAREN PARKER
County Line Publisher Emeritus
The calendar had barely turned to November in 1925 when Mr. and Mrs. Merl Timmerman of Ontario traveled to Minneapolis to purchase inventory for the coming holiday season.
One might imagine the couple caught the train in Norwalk, and after choosing merchandise for their store, had the items shipped back by train to Norwalk, where a dray service might have delivered them to the Timmermans’ store, which was located in the Bank of Ontario parking lot, next to what is now RiversEnd Bar.
They left their son, Glen, in charge of the store. It was an elegant, two-story building called the Goodenough Store; Merl had married Elaine Goodenough in 1910, and evidently the couple had taken over the store from Elaine’s parents.
The family residence was above the store. There, Glen, his sister, and a clerk, Miss Sheldon, were asleep for the night.
Glen awoke when he smelled smoke and aroused the other two.
The Norwalk Star reported, “It seemed but a few minutes before the whole upstairs was a mass of flame, the roof caved in and the big store and its big stock was soon a mass of ruin.”
With a south wind fanning the flames, the fire moved quickly to the J.H. Timmerman Hardware Store.
“This too was soon reduced to ashes … glass was cracking and outer walls and roofs of buildings were being charred and blistered on all sides.”
The village had no fire protection and was dependent on boys with pails and buckets. Mounted on roofs, gables and lean-to’s, they “fought every inch of the way, some with scorched clothing and blistered faces and hands.”
The Star reported that the flames were so hot that they nearly caught the buildings on the south side of Main Street afire. It was reported the walls of the new bank building were blistered, and the glass windows cracked from the heat.
With the best efforts of the townsmen, the Baltz store was saved, but sustained considerable damage. Known in recent years as the Peeling Ceiling, it stood at the corner of Garden and Main streets until last year, when it apparently suffered the same fate as had the Goodenough Store — it was destroyed by fire starting from a wood stove.
The Star reported the Ontario businessmen were thinking of ways to increase fire protection, but they managed to delay that until 1949, when they formed the fire department. There was also speculation if the Timmermans would rebuild. They did not. The following year, they decamped to California, where they lived for the rest of their lives.
The editor scolded the Norwalk Fire Department for their tardiness in responding with assistance.
“The boys went down with the big fire wagon, taking plenty of time about getting ready and bellowing for gas at every jump. Their services were no long needed but they could have been of mighty assistance had they been on time.”
The Star estimated the loss in excess of $50,000, an enormous sum for the time. More sadly yet, fire has proved to be a curse in that block of Ontario business. In 1984, a blaze in The Pub, what is now RiversEnd, took the lives of bar owners Paul and Dodie Boldon while they slept upstairs.
Modern buildings, safer heating systems and trained and well-equipped fire departments have brought about a substantial reduction in fires. But we know they still happen, and fall is a good time to change the batteries in your smoke alarms and make sure everyone has an exit plan.
