The Pantagraph actively preserved the memories of early Bloomington through its interviews of old settlers. In August 1901, Mr. G W Chalfont returned to Bloomington for a visit and was interviewed by the Pantagraph. One incident he recalled was the fire that destroyed the Pike Hotel in 1856.
The fall of 1856 was one of the driest ever in McLean County and at that time, no city water supply was available to residents for drinking water or water for fire fighting. All residents had private wells, and because of the drought, the wells were dry. Water was hauled all the way from Sugar Creek for one dollar a barrel.
The Pike Hotel was "an immense frame hotel" standing on Center Street south of Market. On the date of the fire political speeches took place at the Pike House, with none other than one of the Lovejoys and a lesser known man named Dick Yates orating throughout the day. It was about ten pm when the fire in the hotel was noticed. Winds were blowing the fire to the north and west and the entire city was in danger of burning. There absolutely no water available for fighting the fire, so the people went to the roofs of the buildings and fought the fire by beating it out with brooms as firebrands landed on the neighboring roofs. "They did it by an immense army of sweepers, who got brooms of all kinds and mounted the roofs of buildings for many blocks north and west of the hotel. These people swept the burning brands from the roofs of the buildings as fast as they fell and thereby saved many a structure from being destroyed."
Mr. Chalfant did not name the day of this fire, and apparently there is some disagreement as to exactly when the Pike Hotel burned down, or possibly it burned more than once. The Pike House was in existence after 1856, and did burn once on December 23, 1863. Sadly, the Pantagraph from 1856 has not been preserved, so we cannot know if Mr. Chalfant correctly remembered the date of a fire at the Pike House, but his story of the people of the town banding together to prevent the destruction of the city is an inspiring one!