An undated, pre-1924 photo of the Hoffman Brothers Garage, on the northeast corner of Center Street and South Street, Gratz, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. In the Great Gratz Fire of 1924, the garage burned to the ground and was later replaced with a one-story, concrete block building. The replacement building is still standing today but is no longer part of a business – and it is in great disrepair, part of the blight evident in a few sections of the community.
The garage sign reads:
Repairing — Accessories — Tires
All Work Guaranteed
Pictured are:
Marlin Umholtz (1905-1967), on motorcycle, one of the leaders of the Gratz Ku Klux Klan. Standing next to the auto are Russell Hoffman (1899-1962) and his brother Earl Hoffman (1895-1944), operators of the garage, who also were members of the Klan, as was their father, George Wellington Hoffman (1873-1946), not pictured.
One old-timer in Gratz indicated that the Great Gratz Fire of 1924 was believed by some to be caused by members of the Klan who attempted a burn a cross behind the Rogers Union House Hotel across from the Hoffman Garage. The old-timer could not speculate who the Klan’s target was, but perhaps it was the hotel operator who may have been renting rooms to people the Klan considered unwelcome and undesirable. In any event, it was a windy evening and somehow the ice house behind the hotel caught fire. The fire then was then out of control and and a gust of wind sent it across the street where it consumed the Hoffman Brothers Garage and Harry Smith‘s establishment on the southeast corner of the same intersection. Years after the fire, the sister of Marlin Umholtz told historical researchers that her brother was home when the fire broke out, and immediately went to aid the townspeople who were trying to put the fire out.
The fire was officially labeled “of suspicious origin.”
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