4 The Great Fire of 1901
How Government Response Raised Jacksonville from the Ashes
Carson Welch
“It is not necessary for me to say that our city has met with as great a disaster as has ever fallen upon an American city, nothing but a barren waste remains… but there is immediate relief necessary, and for this purpose action must be taken at once.”1
C. E. Garner, president of Jacksonville’s Board of Trade
As the people of Jacksonville, Florida woke up to the final workday of the week on Friday, May 3, 1901, they were unaware of the fact that most of downtown Jacksonville would burn to the ground before the day ended. While the speed of the fire and its consequences for the people of Jacksonville were remarkable, the recovery and relief efforts in the days after the fire were equally swift and consequential. The Governor of Florida, the Mayor of Jacksonville, the Jacksonville City Council, and other city boards and committees took immediate, decisive action in response to the Great Fire of 1901, which demonstrated the resilience and focus of Jacksonville’s people and institutions.
On May 3, 1901, a small fire began at the Cleveland Fiber Factory on the northwest side of downtown Jacksonville. Over the course of roughly eight hours, the fire swept across the urban landscape and damaged or destroyed roughly 130 street-blocks in the city.2 Many of Jacksonville’s houses, shops, mills, factories, churches, hotels, and government buildings were reduced to ash as the fire spread rapidly from west to east through Jacksonville’s downtown. Contemporary estimates of the loss caused by the fire were as high as 15 million dollars.3 The Great Fire of 1901 flattened Jacksonville’s urban core, and what followed was the displacement of thousands of people and the disruption of economic activity. Although only seven people died in the fire, over nine thousand were left homeless.4 The destruction of the fire created an immediate, widespread need for food, clothing, housing, and economic recovery.
In the first week after the fire, the response of state and local government was swift, focused, and effective. The first governmental response to the fire was the proclamation of martial law in Jacksonville by Governor William S. Jennings. On the evening of May 3, State’s Attorney Augustus Hartridge “telegraphed the governor on behalf of a group of ‘prominent citizens’ that martial law be declared,” and the Governor declared martial law in Jacksonville before the sun rose the next day.5 Just hours after the fire, the Governor responded to fears that Jacksonville would quickly become a lawless, chaotic city.
Some citizens criticized Governor Jennings for imposing martial law on Jacksonville because of the strict, authoritative control exercised by the occupying Florida State Troops. However, the presence of troops in the chaotic hours after the fire successfully protected the city, for the most part, from the looting and anarchy that could have followed the fire’s destructio