THE EDDY HARDWARE FIRE – Early on the morning of May 10, 1940, Bert Lacey, walking home from a night shift at Kerr's Chickery, attempted to window-shop Eddy's Hardware on Bridge Street in Frenchtown. But thick, black smoke obscured the merchandise. He and Ernest Kathman, proprietor of the Public Market, raised the alarm.
The fire had originated in the west end of the three-story building, possibly in a sawdust-filled sanding machine that had been rented and returned with a hot nail smoldering inside it. At least that was the family's theory, which sounds a little thin. Once the Frenchtown firefighters saw the scope of the problem, they called for help and eventually about 150 firemen from 11 companies were on the scene.
Holes were chopped in the roof to admit water, and as many as 20 streams of water played on the Eddy building and its endangered neighbors, including the old carriage factory behind the store. It and the upper levels of the Eddy block were being used for storage.
According to the Easton (Pa.) Express, “a heavy barrage of water was poured into the front part of the hardware store, where the stock of ammunition was kept, in a successful effort to prevent the explosion of shells, and also to prevent flames from reaching a large stock of paint.”
Undertaker Wilbur Johnson served coffee to the firefighters, and his efforts were soon augmented with hot drinks and food brought by the Odd Fellows, Borough Council and other residents.
When the fire was brought under control at about 10 a.m., the top story had been destroyed, and the rest of the building had sustained grievous fire and water damage. When the place was rebuilt in a modern style, it was without the third story.
The Candy Kitchen restaurant, which had occupied the easternmost storefront (now occupied by Hawk & Floret), moved to the western corner of Bridge Street and Trenton Avenue. (That building burned up in 2018.)
Eddy's Hardware remained in its big building until 1962. The modernized facade grew increasingly hideous as time marched on, until it was remodeled in 2002 to look the way it did before the fire.
From “Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia”
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