First Congregational Church fire

Wednesday, January 10, 1912

A little after 3am on the morning of January 10, 1912 the Qualey family of Elm St was awaken by the smell of smoke. James Qualey, along with sons Lucious and Emerson looked outside and saw the east end of the Lyceum building across the street on fire. James Qualey ran outside to Fire Alarm Box 34 on the corner of Elm St and Washington St and pulled the hook. The fire alarm system failed to ring in the box so Mr Qualey ran to the Telephone office next door in Long’s Block and had the night operators call any firemen they could get a hold of. He also had them call Chief Peter Williams of the Quincy Fire Department who was a friend of Qualey’s.

James Qualey then ran across the street to the First Congregational Church and along with neighbor Willis Martin ran into the church to ring the bells to alert the town of the fire. Unfortunately, the church janitor had recently replaced the rope on the bells with a length of clothesline so when Mr. Qualey pulled on the clothesline it snapped. Eventually someone ran down to the fire box at Elm St and Middle St and pulled in the alarm from box 31.

The Lyceum (left) and First Congregational Church before 1910.

Hose Co #3 of Braintree was soon on scene with a few men who proceeded to attack the fire at the Lyceum. They had difficulty with the hydrant which was frozen due to the intense cold. The temperature was hovering around 8 degrees with very strong winds blowing. Chief Williams of Quincy Fire Department arrived soon with the Auto Chemical Engine and soon had a hose line working on the fire.

The Lyceum was a two story wood-frame building and had been built in 1829 as a meeting house. It was also used by the church for Sunday school classes until 1889. In 1912 the building was used as Arnold’s General Store and White & Wetherbee, Civil Engineers on the first floor, and the Monatiquot Lodge #83 Knights of Pythias Hall on the second floor.

Braintree Fire Chief Frank Whitmarsh arrived on scene soon and called in the General Alarm. This brought out the entire Braintree Fire Department with assistance from the Quincy, Weymouth, Holbrook and Randolph departments.

Firefighters were hampered by frozen hydrants, bitter cold wind and low pressure from the hydrants. Seeing that the Lyceum was a total loss, water was directed at the church to keep the flames from spreading to it. For about two hours it looked like the church was safe. But the wind was blowing the flames toward the church and soon brands had landed on the roof igniting small fires.

James Qualey had grabbed an extinguisher from the telephone office and was using it for an hour up in the belfry trying to put out the fires on the roof. The wind was blowing so strong that it blew the copper ridge pole up from the roof allowing brands to get under the slate tiles and sheathing.

Soon fire was seen coming from under the tiles. Everytime firefighters hit it with water it would flare right up again. All the water poured on the roof created a sheet of ice so no ladder could be raised up to assist fighting the fire.  

Firefighters were able to rescue much of the furniture from the church. It was piled up in the yard out back of the church.

Within an hour the whole church was a mass of flames. Eventually the 150 foot steeple came crashing down with a deafening crash throwing up an intense mass of sparks and smoke. Pieces of wood came flying down onto the firefighters on the Stedman Ave side of the building, with one large piece of timber striking Chief Williams of the Quincy Fire Department knocking out for a few minutes. He recovered quickly and was soon directing his crews again. The bell landed under the pile of debris and was found cracked a few days later. Firefighters went in to the telephone office to thaw out throughout the morning. They were all covered in ice.

The church had been built in 1857 by the same designer that built the Town Hall that had recently burned. The congregation had celebrated it’s 200^th anniversary in 1907 and had also recently installed a state of the art pipe organ, one of the finest in New England. The church was insured for $25,000, the organ for $2800. Loss on both was over $30,000. The loss on the Lyceum was over $15,000.

The Aftermath:

Chief Williams was assisted at the scene by the Auto Chemical Engine, the Steamer and Hose Wagon from the Quincy Fire Department. Weymouth Hose 3 and Steamer 1 responded under the direction of Chief Baker. The Hose wagon made it to the scene but the steamer couldn’t make the hill on Commercial St in East Braintree due to icy roads. The Steamer from Randolph also was stopped by icy roads and was forced to turn back.

No official cause was determined, but the Old Colony Driving club had been in Pythian Hall the night before and may have left the fire burning in the stove on the second floor.

As a result of this fire and the Town Hall fire the previous July, the town set up a committee to investigate the needs of the fire department. The fire alarm system was revamped, the hydrant system was updated with better pumps installed, and the fire department was reorganized. A permanent chief was appointed instead of revolving the job each year. Permanent men were hired and assigned to each station. Motorized apparatus was purchased and by 1922 the department was completely motorized.

This would not be the last time fire visited the First Congregational Church. In December 1961 it would be hit with another devestating blaze.