RODNEY HOTEL BURNS JANUARY 31, 1925.

LEWES HISTORY

RODNEY HOTEL BURNS

JANUARY 31, 1925

At first there was no panic when a flue was found on fire at the Rodney

Hotel, at the corner of Savannah Road and Front Street in Lewes, Wednesday morning of the 31^st of January, 1925. All 20 guest were at

breakfast, which they were able to finish, then leave the hotel before the

fire made any headway. The first efforts to extinguish the fire failed and

spreading flames threatened to burn not just the hotel but the town of

Lewes. A gale force wind was blowing and the decades old structure was

lost and glowing embers were being blown about town, igniting nearby

buildings. The temperature was in the single digits and snow was falling.

At 8:30 a general fire alarm was sent to other Sussex towns with fire

departments, Seaford, Georgetown, Laurel and Milton responded. Salty

water was pumped from the canal because the fire company tankers waters were frozen, and soon the hotel was filled with icicles. At 10:30 the hotel roof had fallen in and  more flames flared up but soon extinguished by

massive streams of canal water. Although the hotel was lost the firemen

had saved the town of Lewes from being destroyed by fire.

One of the responding fire companies, Laurel, 30 miles away, came in a totally open pumper, the drivers seat had no windshield and other firefighters had to hang on the side perches in the freezing snow and wind

for the more than an hour drive which they called “the coldest run ever “.

Abstract: The Laurel State Register, January 31, 1925 and “Fires in Lewes

Business District” by Hazel Downs Brittingham. LHS Journal 1999.

Delaware Diary of Michael Morgan.