Gothenburg: The Auditorium Garage Burns

Part 2 in a special series from Gothenburg, Nebraska and the John Fredling family photo album.

In the last Gothenburg post, I made note of the location of The Auditorium Garage. It's a curious name for a garage...maybe they combined functions? Automobiles were still very new, almost luxury items for a lot of people in the mid-1910s, so it is interesting to me to find such a large building catering to the repair of automobiles. At anyrate, one day a fire started in at back of the building, and Gothenburg's meager firefighting resources were no match for the blaze.

The fire started in the back of the garage, and one small stream of firefighting water is being directed fruitlessly on it. The building in the foreground, immediately to the west of the garage, is the Frank M. Beckley Livery and Stables. Signs on the building advertise Bellemont Hats for $3 and Yeast Foam, a cracker-like food supplement guaranteed to give you excellent digestion.

In the above photo, the nearest 2nd story window has been busted out, presumably so someone on the ladder could spray water in.

The facade of the building is tin stamped to look like brick...but it's still just metal...so why spray it with water? That little stream, where it's been directed, seems like a complete waste of effort.

The firefighters seem to have given up on the garage and are trying to protect the building next door.

The photographer, possibly John Fredling, was quick on the shutter, and shot just as the front of the building starts to collapse. The two photos below might be from this same fire, but might not. They were in a different part of the album (which doesn't really mean anything, because there seems to be very little organization, photos were just glued in randomly), and more importantly the printing is different. There was still a lot of smoke, and that plus the general fading made the images very light; I've significantly enhanced the contrast in order to bring out more detail.