Hopkins Street School Fire

By Rachel Dworkin, archivist

On the morning of Sunday, April 5, 1959, George and Ellen Henley of 741 Hopkins Street in Southport woke up early to do laundry. Glancing next door, he noticed a red glow coming from the basement of the Hopkins St. School and immediately telephone for the fire department. By the time they arrived shortly after 5 am, the entire north end of the school was engulfed in flames.  

Hopkins St. School was first opened in 1928 to alleviate overcrowding in other Southport schools. The two-story brick schoolhouse had eleven regular classrooms, a laboratory, industrial arts room, home economics room, combination gym and auditorium, and administrative offices. Not one room escaped the fire undamaged.   

Hopkin's Street School

The fire began in the kindergarten in the basement, gutting the classroom before racing up a dumb waiter shaft and open stairway onto the first floor. Flames ate their way through the laboratory and a section of the gymnasium. Although firemen were able to get control of the blaze before it made it to the upper story, every room in the building had smoke or water damage. All of the desks and books in the kindergarten were completely destroyed and much of the material elsewhere were made unusable. 

Basement kindergarten classroom, before & after the fire.

There was one thing which was saved: the flag! As firefighters worked to control the blaze, 14-year-old Dean Pappas waited anxiously behind the firetrucks. It was his job each day to raise and lower the school’s flags. As soon as the firefighters gave the okay, he ran into the building to retrieve the American flag as well as the school’s safety flag. Both were smoke damaged, but salvageable. Dean made the papers.

Dean Pappas with the rescued flags.

The former student who put me on to the story claimed that the fire was caused by arson, but I could find no evidence of that in the papers. It was thought to be electrical in nature. Interestingly enough, the school had recently been evaluated for risk by fire and insurance inspectors. In their report, which had been presented on March 24^th, they urged the school board to install fire doors in the stairwells to slow the progress of fire between floors. The Board of Education never got a chance to act on their incredibly prescient recommendations.

The fire exacerbated the overcrowding in the city’s schools. Three-hundred and fifty students were displaced. They were sent to Hardy School at Lyon and Perine Streets. In order to accommodate the extra children, the school schedule was arranged so Hardy School students attended class from 8:15am to 12:15, while the Hopkins St. students attended from 12:30 to 4:30pm. The Elmira City School District put $127,480 into renovating and expanding the Hopkins St. School. It opened again for students on January 25, 1960.

Principal Martha Kime and Arthur Goodwin, district director of buildings & grounds, inspect the new furniture

Southport Coverlets

by Erin Doane, curator

In the 1830s, weavers in Southport made wonderful blue and white coverlet. They were double-woven so one side is dark and the other side is light and they were usually made of a combination of wool and cotton or linen. The fancy weaving was done on a hand loom with a Jacquard attachment that used punched cards to produce intricate designs including flowers and leaves, geometric patterns, animals, and buildings. Many of the coverlets include a name, the year, and “Southport” in the corner block. There were at least seven weavers in Southport doing this type of work in the early 19^th century.

"Southport" coverlet, Elizabeth Tuthill, 1833

 The first woolen factory in Southport was built around 1821 by Silas Billings. It was one of the first such factories in the county. In 1825, Billings sold the mill to Solomon L. Smith. Soon after that, Charles Evans came to Southport and got involved in the business. He purchased the factory in 1844 and operated it until June 25, 1877 when it burned to the ground. At the time it burned, the mill was the oldest manufacturing establishment in town. Evans lived out his days in Southport and passed away in February of 1882 at the age of 83.

There was also a wool carding and fulling mill on Seeley Creek. It was built by Philo Jones in 1829 and started operating in 1830. He sold the mill to his brother Simeon R. Jones in 1843 who operated it for another five years. In 1848 he sold the machinery to William Benedict who moved the operation to Wysox, Pennsylvania.

Not only were factories in Southport processing wool, they were also producing fabric. Fancy weaving was a fairly common trade in Southport in the 1830s. Charles Evans was in the fancy weaving business from 1834 until 1837 but he was not without competition. J.S. Baker, C.S. Baker, S.G. Stryker, and a Mr. Tuttle were also producing fancy woven coverlets at that time. Jonathan Conger and David Pollay were half-brothers who grew up in Groton, New York and who both took up the trade of fancy weaving in Southport in the 1830s.

Elmira Star Gazette, 1839

Jonathan Conger came to Southport around 1837 and operated as a fancy weaver until 1839. That year, he advertised in the Elmira Star Gazette that he “wove ingrain carpet and Venetian Carpets, Double Carpet and Float work Coverlets.” He stayed in Southport at least through the early 1840s before moving back to Groton.

Elmira Star Gazette, 1842

David Pollay learned how to weave from Jonathan Conger. Pollay moved to Southport sometime in the mid-1830s and did fancy weaving for a time. For some reason, he gave up weaving and went into carpentry. Around 1843 he relocated to Hammondsport where he apparently went back into the weaving business.