DUANE
Duane's take
This one comes straight from the official marker — let me tell it to you the way it happened. Now, most fires have the decency to start during daylight hours when somebody's awake to notice. This one did not.
February 21, 1911, around one-thirty in the morning, a fire broke out in the Capitol Drug Store on Chambers Street — what folks today call North Main — in downtown Conroe. And by the time anybody noticed, the blaze wasn't getting started. It was already well underway.
Then the wind got involved. Northerly winds caught those flames and began sweeping them southeastward, straight toward the railroad tracks, and there wasn't a whole lot standing in the way to slow them down. The volunteer fire department showed up, God bless them.
They had one hose cart. One. And it was pulled by hand.
They dragged that thing to the fire and found something worse waiting for them than the flames themselves — no water pressure. You can have all the courage in Montgomery County and it won't matter a lick without water pressure. The fight was called off.
The fire had won the night. And it took everything with it. The post office.
A meat market. A saloon. A grocery store.
The Masonic lodge. Businesses that men and women had built from nothing in southeast Texas. And here's the part that really stings — a good number of those business owners lived above their stores.
Their inventory downstairs and their personal belongings upstairs, all of it, gone before dawn. Sixty-five buildings, wiped out that early February morning. The estimated loss came to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars — which, when you do the conversion, sits somewhere north of three and a half million dollars in today's money.
Now here's where the story turns, and it turns fast. The very next business day — not the next month, not after a long period of grieving and hand-wringing — the city council was already in session. They passed an ordinance requiring buildings to have fireproof materials protecting those wooden structures.
A year later, they went further. The council voted to amend that ordinance and require buildings to be constructed out of brick and stone. Brick.
And stone. And so Conroe rebuilt. Not the same, but stronger.
The stately brick business buildings that rose from the ash of 1911 are still standing today — over a century old — giving visitors a picture of a bygone era that the fire itself, in a strange way, helped create. Conroe calls itself the town that faith built. After February 21, 1911, it's hard to argue with that.
What the marker says
On February 21, 1911 around 1:30 in the morning, a fire broke out in the Capitol Drug Store on Chambers (today North Main) Street. The blaze was well underway before it was discovered and northerly winds began sweeping the flames southeastward toward the railroad tracks. The volunteer fire department had only one hose cart which was pulled by hand to fight the inferno and the lack of water pressure led to the fight being called off. The post office, meat market, saloon, grocery store and Masonic lodge were among the businesses caught in the path of the fire as well as the homes of their owners who lived above their stores. Sixty-five buildings, store inventories and personal belongings were lost that early February morning, costing an estimated total of $150,000, over 3.5 million dollars in today's money. The following business day, the city council created an ordinance requiring buildings to have "fire proof" materials protecting the wooden structures. A year later, the city council voted to amend the ordinance to require buildings to be constructed out of brick and stone. The 1911 fire in downtown Conroe and the prompt response to its destruction by Conroe residents reflected the resilience of Texans as they settled, struggled and prospered in southeast Texas. Despite the tragedy caused by the fire, the resurrection of stately brick business buildings provides current city visitors with a picture of a bygone era with buildings over a century in age. It further echoes the town's nickname, "The town that faith built!" (2013)