Many descriptions of the Great Gratz Fire of November 4, 1924, have been published – including the accounts of newspapers of the local area and region and summaries of the fire written specially for local histories.
It is believed that the fire began behind the Union House on the southeast corner of Center Street and Market Street. When it was finally extinguished, it appeared to have taken out half of the main square of the town – at least ten buildings burned to the ground!
The account that follows here was written by Iva [Koppenhaver] Wentzler, a Lykens Township resident who witnessed the fire.
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My daughter was a baby, and she slept in a separate bed from her parents in another room. When I got up to nurse the child, I saw flames in the sky at Gratz, but I didn’t mention it to anyone – it was around election day. The reason for not saying anything is because a few nights before that, when I went to put the children to bed, I saw what looked like a flame over at the Boyer farm which was close to where we were living. That night I told the men, “I think there is a fire at the Boyer’s.” The men left immediately to help with the fire, but when they got there, they found that some people had a car in the barnyard and were busy testing the lights. When they adjusted the lights to go up and down, it looked like fire. The men teased me so much about that episode, that I didn’t dare tell this time! Next day they heard in town.
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From Memories, Volume 2, Gratz Historical Society, 1987.
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