On Saturday, July 11, 1931, at around 9 p.m., a fire broke out on the first floor of Gladding McBean’s main factory building in Lincoln. According to the July 16, 1931, edition of the, Lincoln News Messenger, “The fire spread rapidly from lower floors to the third floor and then leaped to the clay shed and trestle. This unit was soon consumed, leaving only a great steel framework.”
Joining the Lincoln Fire Department to fight the conflagration was a pump engine from the Auburn Fire Department led by Fire Chief Guy Lukens;, a pump engine from the Roseville Fire Department led by Fire Chief Walter Hanisch; and a pump engine from the State Forestry Department led by Fire Chief A. E. Frost. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company sent a fire engine from Roseville, but when they arrived the fire was under control, so it was on standby.
The total damage from the fire was estimated to be $150,000. The factory resumed limited operations the following Monday, July 13, and reconstruction began almost immediately.
Gladding McBean, established in 1875 as a terra cotta plant manufacturing garden pottery, figures, pipe, tiles and brick, is still in operation today. To learn more about Gladding McBean, please visit the Lincoln Area Archives Museum in Lincoln. Learn more
Photo: Gladding McBean Factory, c. 1915
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