Devastation—Most of the north end of town was destroyed by a fire in 1933 that leveled several businesses and left a gaping hole along Main Street.

North Main Street in Sparta was destroyed in 1933 fire

Editor's Note: The following is the first story in a two-part series on the fires that destroyed downtown Sparta. Information for this story was located in newspaper archives, from local residents and from the Alleghany Historical and Genealogical Society. The articles are part of an ongoing series this year in honor of the county's 150th anniversary.

Sparta has the dubious honor of being one of only a few towns that can boast being destroyed by fire twice in this century.

The two fires, the first in 1933 and the second in 1986, have left lasting impacts on the downtown area and lasting memories for many local residents.

On the anniversary of the first fire to destroy much of downtown Sparta in 2008, two local residents were discussing the issue when they realized it had been 75 years since the event.

Bob Edwards was downtown getting a haircut early one Saturday morning in December 2007 when he saw a historical photo of the fire at Kermit's Barbershop on Main Street. Proprietor Kermit Pruitt collects historical photos and displays them on the wall of his shop.

Edwards recalled later, "I have a lot of interest in the history of Alleghany...Kermit had the picture on the wall of when the town burned in 1933 and I looked up there and saw the date on it and said, ‘You know, it will be 75 years in January from when the fire took place. Wouldn't it be neat to take the picture on the same day 75 years later?'"

The fire, which took place on Jan. 5 in 1933, swept through the town, at least partially utilizing the board sidewalks, and destroyed most of the downtown and the county courthouse.

Stories about the fire abound, but two historical photographs of the damage show the devastation and also indicate that signs of the fire are still visible today. One of the most visible signs is the reconstructed wall at the top corner of the building that houses the barbershop. The jagged line shows where the building was damaged back in 1933 and then repaired. The brick wall apparently stopped the fire from spreading southward along Main Street.

A story printed in the newspaper in 1986 talks about the fire and its impact on the town. The story was made more poignant given that the town had suffered another similar calamitous loss in January of that year, 53 years after the first fire. At the time, the town had no fire department, no fire truck and few resources with which to fight the blaze.

The fire burned itself out after reducing all the businesses north of the former B&T Drug Store location (now Kermit's Barbershop) to little more than rubble.

The late Millard Pruitt was interviewed for the story in the Feb. 13, 1986 edition of the newspaper. Pruitt said he was working on a road crew in Twin Oaks at the time and remembers the fire must have started around lunch because he was having a hot dog and a Coke in Reeves' Restaurant. The fire reportedly began in an oil heater at Ray Phipps Lunch Room, which was also called a hot dog stand by one witness. The two restaurants were close to each other, close to where the Sparta Restaurant is now located.

"We were fighting the fire with nothing to fight it with," Pruitt said. Since the town had no water system, water had to be pumped from wells. A bucket brigade brought water to be poured on the roof of the Sparta Bank, located at the intersection of U.S. 21 and N.C. 18.

Elkin was called for assistance, but that town also lacked a fire truck. Most of the efforts were targeted at salvaging the stock from local stores.

According to reports from the time, deed books were thrown out of the windows of the Courthouse and moved to safety and law books were carried out of Rufus Doughton's law office. Judge Richard Doughton recently relayed the story of Floyd Crouse throwing the county's deed books out the window to save them from the fire. Crouse also practiced law in the county courthouse.

Although the fire badly damaged the Courthouse, the back portion remained standing and only the front was destroyed. The fire apparently jumped the street when birds' nests in the belfry of the courthouse, which had just been built new in 1910, caught fire when sparks blew across the street. However, the board sidewalks of the town have also been blamed for spreading the fire in news accounts.

In the end, dynamite was used to destroy the last building on North Main Street, the Holbrook

This view of downtown Sparta shows the location of the row of buildings that were destroyed by the 1933 fire (top picture). Careful examination shows that the ragged edge of the bricks on the edge of Kermit's Barbershop shows that the damage from the fire is still visible.

 

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