One of last old hotels burns to the ground

by Dan McClelland

Dan and Jennifer King were in Pennsylvania to compete in a blacksmithing competition this past weekend when they received a 3a.m. call Saturday that their home and shop at 34 Main Street were in flames. The news turned their lives upside down in an instant.

They cancelled their competition plans and headed home, to find a place they had worked on tirelessly to restore in the past 18 years completely destroyed.

Members of the Tupper Lake Fire Department and of ten other fire departments from across the North Country did their best to contain the massive blaze which erupted in the back of the century-old wooden building before 3a.m., and did a good job stopping the conflagration’s spread to adjoining buildings on the northeastern corner of Pine and Main.

Departments helping Tupper Lake were Saranac Lake, Paul Smith’s-Gabriels, Lake Placid, St. Regis Falls, Owl’s Head, Mountainview, Duane, Bangor, Malone, Constable and Bombay.

Witnesses say the fire was so massive and the heat so fierce that it rivalled many of Tupper Lake’s huge fires in past decades. Most notably were the Iroquois Hotel fire in 1976 which destroyed the large hotel plus several adjacent buildings and caught the Free Press building on fire three times, or the two legendary fires which destroyed five businesses in the Park Street business block or the Owen’s Boat House fire of the early 1980s- which produced a ball of fire 70 feet high which consumed the tinder-dry marina building on the shore of Raquette Pond.

Photographer Jim Lanthier, who managed to get dozens of photos and a video which he has shared with numerous news outlets in the North Country this week, said exteriors of neighboring buildings across the street like The exterior walls of Larkins’ Junction Deli, where a new picnic pavilion was added this past year and the building that contained Tony’s Barber Shop for years and most recently the Jones’ Boys band headquarters were so hot that steam was rising off them.

The fire was extinguished by about 6a.m. but a small contingent of the Tupper Lake department volunteers remained on the scene until after 8a.m., pouring water on the steaming piles of debris.

Volunteer Fireman Ray Bigrow, one of two volunteers manning the hose that morning said when he arrived on the scene about 3a.m. the fire was in the rear portion of the building and he thought there was a chance it could be contained. Moments later, however, he and his colleagues realized the entire interior was consumed in fire- and roaring wildly through the building.

The entire interior and exterior of the old two-story building was mostly wood, and very dry and there was little sheetrock or plaster in the building after years of renovations to slow the fire’s spread.

Fire Chief Royce Cole said Saturday that he was one of the first to arrive on the scene about two minutes after the 2:40a.m. call., as he lives only several blocks away. He said the flames were starting to dance out the upper floor windows and he knew his volunteers and their colleagues from the ten neighboring departments were in for a big fight.

“Within 15 minutes the fire went through the roof and the entire building became engulfed in flame.” Just minutes later the entire building collapsed, the fire had moved that fast, he said.

A tribute to their work, however, was saving the small house immediately east of the long time hotel, occupied by Martin Hughes and the other large buildings commercial and residential buildings nearby.

Before the 3a.m. call Jen and Dan were planning to again compete like they have in the past in a contest at a conference of blacksmiths from all over the nation. The competition’s theme this year was “Forging Connections in Iron” featuring many nationally known artistic blacksmiths like Dan. Artisans are given four hours to complete a piece of iron work from scratch and then be judged on it.

The first call came to them from their neighbor, Pete Jarvis, who lives on Oak Street.

Dan said Monday the call took their breaths away, so heart-wrenching was the news.

The major fire took everything they owned, except the clothes in the suitcases they carried with them to the conference.

The couple could have lost their lives, given the ferocity and quick-moving nature of the fire, had they been home at the time and Dan said they were very grateful for that good fortune. Two pets- a cat and a rabbit were lost.

The lone human occupant was a temporary tenant, Joe Peck, who was outside when the fire started. See separate story of Joe’s harrowing experience this week.

The Kings, who have been tireless volunteers here since their arrival 18 years ago, recently purchased the Bencze Logging garage in the Junction and had just started moving some of Dan’s welding materials there, including a generator, one welder, a grinder, and “one screw driver and one wrench,” he said, trying to make a joke of a very horrible situation. The rest of his many tools and pieces of specialized blacksmithing equipment were lost in the blaze, along with all their personal contents and furniture in the residential part of their building.

What they found waiting for them in addition to the wreckage of their building was a community waiting to help them.

“This community has been so good to us, not just this week, but for the entire time we have been here,” he asserted.

Dan and Jennifer bought the Wheel Inn in 2006- buying the historic building that had been empty over two years and in dire repair. It was a mess when they bought it, full of pigeons and their droppings. Vandals had scrawled graffiti on the walls.

“Since Saturday we have friends who have rallied about us, bringing us meals, giving us whatever we need- clothing, bedding...it’s been amazing!”

The couple is in need of all sorts of household belongings- but it’s too early to receive them as they currently have no place to store them until they get permanent quarters.

Right now Dan and Jen are staying at a friend’s family cabin on Upper Saranac Lake, and can stay there until July 1. “-And its not the only lodging offer they have been extended,” he said with appreciation.

Since the Kings bought the place, they’ve undertaken one renovation project there after the other, including the creation of a two-story apartment unit, over and including the former liquor store on the uptown end of the building. They have invested thousands of dollars in improvements.

The once-grandiose hotel featured many 11 foot high floor to ceiling walls and some ornate woodwork. But it had fallen into decay in the years before they bought it. “The first year we had it, we took out 19 tons of construction debris” before renovations could begin.

The building- a landmark in the downtown commercial district since the early 1900s, was built in 1908 by Moses Elly and it was operated as a dry goods store for many years. In 1919, according to Louise Simmons’ “Mostly Spruce and Hemlock,” Jenny Elley, widow the first owner, sold the property to Walter Yanuskewich, Nicolai Kiklowich and Walter Kiklevich. Mr. Kiklevich bought out his partners’ interest soon afterwards and operated the place as Hotel Kiklevich until 1957. It was operated thereafter under lease by Zigmund Fraczek and his wife Dorothy and by Cyril and Myrtle Malbouf, who renamed it “The Evergreen.”

In 1965 after the death of Mr. Kiklevich it was purchased by Irene LeBlanc, who modernized its exterior and renamed it The Wheel Inn. Under her ownership the building also featured a liquor store and barber shop on the building’s uptown side.

It was something of a family affair in that neighborhood after 1965. Irene’s brother Al “P-2” LeBlanc owned operated the bar across the street, which is currently owned by his daughter Michelle Blair. Under her ownership what was previously “Al’s Lounge” and now “P-2’s Irish Pub” has seen many improvements, including in recent years an outdoor bandstand and large exterior tent.

This Friday there will be a benefit at Michelle’s bar to benefit the Kings, beginning at 5p.m. The local band, “Junction Jam,” is performing.

Local residents are invited to stop by and share their stories about The Wheel Inn, which was operated for many years by Michelle’s colorful Aunt Irene.

The couple has been active in the community as volunteers from the first days they arrived here.

One of Dan’s first offers of help came the first week they arrived in town, he helped the Next Stop! Tupper Lake volunteers install windows in the first part of the emerging train station.

“I said to myself: those people are working to build a train station in my neighborhood...I’m going over there to help.” -And he did.

Mr. King reported they had some insurance on the building and its contents, the proceeds from which will help them cover some of their extensive clean-up costs ahead and to start over at their new property.

“We intend to comb through every bit of the debris to find anything and everything we can.” They are hoping some of their contents underneath the piles of burned debris may have been somehow spared.

They intend to cordon off the site with fencing or some type of barrier to permit that extensive search to be done, he noted.

“People who have gone through this sort of thing have been telling us not to give up in a search. They have told us we’ll be surprised by what has been spared and what we will find in the debris!”

Underneath the last piece of building still standing they have found Dan’s large fly-press, a blacksmithing tool that hold pieces of metal together for welding procedures. It was given to him by his mentor, a master smith when he retired. The device, which dates back to the 1800s, holds sentimental value for Dan. “It’s one of my prized possessions, and it’s still standing under the front wall.”

The business’ “Hammersong” sign was saved by the firefighters.

On the day of the fire, their daughter Alamanda’s boy friend, Cruz Carriere, started a GoFundMe campaign which was approaching $30,000 less than 24 hours later on Sunday- another strong testament to Tupper Lake’s generosity to help neighbors in their time of need.

Cruz and Attorney Kirk Gagnier are apparently administering the fund currently underway, according to Dan.

“If it weren’t for our firefighters and those from around the area who came out to fight that fire, it could have been a lot worse,” Dan said on the upside. He credited them with saving many neighboring buildings in close proximity to their building.

This is not the first time that the building has been damaged by fire. During his renovations, Dan discovered burned timbers in the attic, from a fire obviously there many years ago that was successfully extinguished.

“Some of the firefighters told me later it was one of the hottest blazes they’ve experienced in a long time. Some of the new members had never fought one that big and all-consuming,” he said.

He called the eleven-department response amazing and he and Jen are so appreciative of everyone who helped fight the dramatic fire and who have extended so many kindnesses to them since the loss.

The fact that the building burned totally to the ground with the exception of an entrance way over the old liquor store speaks volumes of the fire’s severity and force.

He said their attendance at the blacksmith event may have been a blessing in disguise. “Jen and I are so grateful we didn’t have to watch it burn in real time...the pain would have been more profound than it already is!”

He said their loss pales by comparison to what would could have been the case had any harm from it come to his family or his friends, or the firefighters. “There’s not one thing in that house that I would ever trade for anyone’s safety. We are so grateful no one was injured!”

“This was a tragedy, but we’ve also received many blessings!”

He said, for example, Dom Dattola at Tupper Lake Supply, who runs the new welding shop there, has already offered the use of the shop to get Dan’s blacksmithing business going again until he’s set up at his new place. “People have come forward with so many offers of help,” he added.

“You can’t imagine how our hearts are so swollen with love for all the people here who are trying to help us get back on our feet! Tupper Lake is a wonderful place to live!”

The Kings eventually plan to build a house on the four acres they own at the Bencze garage property. In the meantime there is a hook-up to village services there where they may place a temporary camper trailer for use during the summer months.

“It would give us a few months to figure out what we want to do next,” he explained.