Fires gave downtown Madera a new look

For The Madera Tribune

The Cottage Saloon, the Madera Restaurant, and the Bank Saloon shown here were destroyed by fire in 1918.

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Madera was founded in 1876, and from then until now it has been ever mindful of the constant threat of fire. That fear is real. There have been enough conflagrations on Yosemite Avenue alone to fill a book on the subject.

One of the more memorable blazes was the 1886 fire, which destroyed Mace’s Hotel on the corner of Yosemite Avenue and E Street. Another disaster that stands out in the city’s history is the 1890 burning of Cornelius Curtin’s livery stable at the corner of Yosemite and C Street. History of course will always remember  the courthouse fire of 1906.

By any calculation, these fires were disasters. Both money and lives have gone up in flames on Yosemite Avenue. There is one downtown fire; however, the results of which caused very little distress to the residents of Madera. Very few mourned the flaming inferno of 1918. In that fire, a good portion of the block on the south side of Yosemite Avenue between D and C Streets was wiped out, and only a handful of people cared.