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Acres of Ashes: The Story of the Great Fire that swept over the City of Jacksonville, Florida, on the Afternoon of Friday, May 3, 1901, resulting in the Loss of Seven Lives, Destruction of $15,000,000 in Property. Total Insurance Less Than $5,000,000.
Acres of Ashes: The Story of the Great Fire that swept over the City of Jacksonville, Florida, on the Afternoon of Friday, May 3, 1901, resulting in the Loss of Seven Lives, Destruction of $15,000,000 in Property. Total Insurance Less Than $5,000,000.

Acres of Ashes: The Story of the Great Fire that swept over the City of Jacksonville, Florida, on the Afternoon of Friday, May 3, 1901, resulting in the Loss of Seven Lives, Destruction of $15,000,000 in Property. Total Insurance Less Than $5,000,000.


The front wrapper for this copy has a drawing by F.G. Storey —a demonic figure setting the grid of the city alight with a torch. We locate a variant printing of this title with a plain printed front cover, but not ours.

This is the recounting of the events of The Great Fire of 1901. Jacksonville’s fire, the third-largest urban fire after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, destroyed nearly 150 city blocks. The text includes vivid descriptions of the horror, eyewitness accounts, information on the subsequent military rule in the city, and property loss estimates.

A large fold-out plate shows a panoramic view of the burnt district and the ruins of the city building, St. James Hotel, armory, and two churches. Other illustrations include a fold-out facsimile of the front page of Jacksonville’s The Florida Times-Union and Citizen newspaper describing the fire and a map of the burnt district.


Description: Acres of Ashes: The Story of the Great Fire that swept over the City of Jacksonville, Florida, on the Afternoon of Friday, May 3, 1901, resulting in the Loss of Seven Lives, Destruction of $15,000,000 in Property. Total Insurance Less Than $5,000,000.

Jacksonville: James A. Holloman, (1901). 98 unnumbered pages + ads and two fold-out plates. Illustrated wrappers soiled; faint edge-chipping to title-page, else very good.

[3733111]

Price: $150.00

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