Herndon’s Historic Fires
By Barbara Glakas
The railroad arrived in Herndon in the 1850s. The train station soon became the center of the
community. By the 1870s Herndon was a little village of about 400 residents. It had no paved
streets, no sewers, no electricity, and livestock would occasionally roam around the area. There
were buildings that started sparsely popping up in the downtown area near the railroad. Many
were industrial or commercial buildings – saw mills, lumber yards, general supply stores,
churches and a locksmith shop.
The Town was incorporated in 1879. By the early 1900s, Station Street, Pine Street and the
“plaza” in front of the Depot (now Lynn Street) were full of buildings. There was a jewelry
store, a livery stable, a harness shop, a furniture store, a telephone building, a carpenter’s shop, a
drug store, a shoe shop, a bank, a post office, a clothing store and several homes. Many of these
buildings were made of wood frame construction, making them highly susceptible to fire.
This article describes some of the significant 20th century fires that once ravaged Herndon’s
downtown area.
The Big Fire
One of the most horrific fires that occurred in downtown Herndon took place in March of 1917
and is commonly referred to as “The Big Fire.” The fire started in the a livery stable on the west
side of Station Street, just north of Pine street, currently the location of The Closet building. A
1917 article in Herndon’s News-Observer newspaper reported that the fire was quickly
discovered at 10:30 PM, but within a few minutes the two adjacent buildings on Station Street
were also “blazing like a furnace.” Pieces of burning wood and ember floated out into other
areas of town, causing small forest fires and endangering nearby homes. Heat from the burning
buildings was so intense that buildings on the other side of Station also caught fire. The fire
started creeping down the north side of Pine Street.
There was no Herndon fire department or any fire alarm system at the time. Many townspeople
attempted to pour water out windows and over roofs to save buildings. When the fight to save
one building was considered a lost cause, efforts were abandoned there and shifted to other
buildings.
At an effort to save the Congregational Church, formerly at the northeast corner of Pine and
Monroe Streets, it was decided to dynamite the home next to the church. The blast from the
dynamite broke many windows of nearby buildings, but it also kept the fire from spreading,
which saved the church. According to the Fairfax Herald the town was aided by a chemical
apparatus from Cherrydale, Clarendon and elsewhere until the fire was finally extinguished.
Resident Bill Moffett once recalled a story about his father when interviewed by Kate O’Connor:
“During that fire [1917] our father was 19 years old and they got the call by word of mouth –
there weren’t any telephones – that there was a fire that was threatening the bicycle shop. Dad
jumped on a mare that he used to have that you could ride without a bridle. So he swung up on
the bare back….” Bill said he got up to Park Avenue, all the streets being gravel and dirt back
then with depressions and mud holes. He continued, “So before he could lean which way he
wanted the horse to go, it hit the mud hole and fell and threw him. [It] knocked him out and
broke his collar bone.” The next day the local doctor set his collar bone but two days later one
of the local papers wrote that, “young Henry Moffett broke his collar bone jumping from the
third story of the Walker building during the fire. He never even got to the fire.” The Walker
building was formerly located at the corner of Station and Pine Streets and was destroyed in the
fire.
In the end, the fire destroyed a good portion of the downtown business district, burning fourteen
stores and homes along sections of Station Street and Pine Street. No one was killed, but the
losses were estimated at $60,000. Lottie Dyer Schneider, who lived in Herndon that year, said in
her memoir, “It is difficult to imagine what a nightmare we endured that night unless you lived
through it.”
As a result of The Big Fire, the town council held special meetings to address building
regulations and fire protection. It was agreed that future buildings should be built with brick.
The Town Council also started looking into buying fire apparatus. Herndon got its first fire truck
in 1920. By 1929, Herndon’s Volunteer Fire department was officially chartered.
The Herndon Milling Company
Another large scale fire that threatened downtown Herndon occurred in March of 1936. A feed
mill called the Herndon Milling Company caught fire due to an explosion of a blow torch when a
person attempted to light an oil-burning furnace in the mill. The mill was located at the
southwest corner of Elden and Spring Streets, across the street from the current Jimmy’s Old
Town Tavern building. In addition to the feed mill, the fire also destroyed an adjacent house and
a barn. Ironically, it also damaged the roof of the fire house next door.
The furnace in the mill exploded and, like in the Big Fire, hot embers flew high in the air and
endangered nearby businesses, including Horn Motor Company. Robert Horn put out a fire on a
nearby loading platform that was near a gas tank, saving the town from another potentially large
explosion. Luckily, at this point in time, the Town of Herndon had its own small Volunteer Fire
Department. Other nearby fire companies also responded to the blaze. No serious injuries
occurred.
Chamblin’s Drug Store
Chamblin’s Drug Store formerly stood to the left of the Cushman Insurance Company and
Maude Hair Salon building at the corner of Station and Lynn Street. Bert Sasher bought the
store in 1934 and the Sashers ran the drug store until the 1960’s. It was later sold and became
The Pet and Hobby Shop.
Fire heavily damaged the store in 1969. It was later discovered that the store owner had removed
all the animals from the building prior to the fire occurring. Some in town thought the fire may
have been arson but charges were never brought for lack of strong evidence. The building was
eventually torn down in 1971 and Lynn Street was later extended through the property where the
drug store used to stand.
The Larro Mill
The Larro Mill and Starlight Room Dance hall was part a partially vacant General Mills Granary
which had stopped operations in the 1960’s. The mill was located on the property which is now
the town green behind the current Herndon Municipal Center. This mill burned in 1971,
threatening the nearby Murphy and Ames building, Sterling Concrete and the Citizen’s National
Bank.
According to the Herndon Tribune, the fire resulted from Mr. Charles Guilford leaving his food
cooking on an old wood stove while he went out for a visit. Mr. Guilford was the former owner
of the General Mills store who resided in part of the building. One long-time town resident
remembers that Mr. Guilford “ran his form of a ‘car rental agency’ out of the building, along
with raising chickens and ducks in the building while he also lived there. [His] chickens and
ducks were often seen wondering on Station and Pine Streets and the junk cars he
collected/rented, about 100+, were strung along the creek bed from the General Mills building
down to Willow Street (now Center Street).”
The building had no electricity and the stove had been the cause of three or four earlier fires.
Two years prior to the 1971 fire, Herndon’s Fire Chief had demanded that Mr. Guilford get an
estimate to bring the building up to code. A county inspector had attempted to inspect the
building several months prior to the fire, but he was met with locked doors.
The fire resulted in a total loss of the building.
Duddings Hardware Store
The hardware store that used to stand on the west side of the Nachman building on Lynn Street
had an accidental fire in 1980 and was subsequently condemned and torn down. Prior to the fire
it had housed the Herndon Farm and Garden Center and the Taylor Rental Center. Between
1920 and the 1960s it had been Duddings Hardware Store. Between 1909 and 1920 it had been
The Schneider Hardware store.
The fire started in a kerosene space heater. A newspaper reported the building’s frame was a 100
years old. Damage was estimated to be $250,000. After the fire the building was taken down
and it was never replaced. Today we see a small parking lot where the store once stood.
The Congregational Church
Built in the 1870s, Herndon’s Congregational Church had been saved from the Big Fire in 1917,
but it later burned down in a fire that occurred in March of 1980. According to the Herndon
Observer, the church had been in use until 1968, when the church was sold and the congregation
moved to a new location. The building was occupied by a business called The Swap Shop at the
time of the fire.
The fire was discovered after midnight by a passerby who saw flames through the first floor
windows. Flames quickly spread to the steeple. Firefighters responded quickly but they were
hampered by low water pressure when 600 feet of hose had to be run from three different fire
hydrants. Additionally, the heavy church bell was suspended directly over the fire’s origin,
making it dangerous for fire fighters to enter the building. Documentation on the cause of the
fire was not found. The piece of land where the church once stood is now occupied by the Pine
Street Plaza, a small office complex.
Conclusion
As devastating as these fires were, they also spurred new beginnings in Herndon. The Big Fire
motivated Herndon to invest in fire equipment, which led to the establishment of Herndon’s
Volunteer Fire Department.
The Big Fire also led to replacing the formerly wooden buildings with many of the brick and
stone buildings that we see today. The old Walker building, that used to stand at the corner of
Station and Pine Streets, has been replaced with the building that now houses Zeffirelli’s
Restaurant.
A few years after some of the homes along Pine Street were dynamited to save the
Congregational Church, a beautiful new stone church was built, the original St. Josephs’ Catholic
Church, which is now occupied by HRI Associates insurance agency.
The spot where Larro’s Mill used to sit is now the town green, surrounded by the Fortnightly
Library and the Herndon Municipal Center.
A Fairfax Herald reporter said it best in 1917 when he explained that those who lost property
after The Big Fire intended to immediately rebuild, claiming “Herndon will arise from its ashes,
better and more handsome than ever.”