The Pocomoke Public Eye

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Time Machine Special Edition: April 17th in Pocomoke City One Hundred Years Ago.

APRIL 17, 1922

(The Worcester Democrat was able to publish on Saturday, its regular publication day, five days after the fire.)

Picture at upper left: Market Street looking north from Second Street.

Picture at upper right: Market Street looking south from Front Street.

(Above reads: No one who was not an eye witness can adequately picture the rapidity with which the flames accomplished their destructive and desolating work. When the big clock on the front of the Citizens National Bank struck the noon hour on Easter Monday, everything was peaceful and serene, people were plying their usual vocations, or enjoying their noon-day lunch; the town with its clean streets and its beautiful trees decked in their new spring foliage, never looked prettier. Two hours and a half later, 250 people were homeless, property estimated at $1,500,000 had been destroyed and the scene in ten businesses and residential blocks in the very heart of the city could be compared with exaggeration to the scenes in the war-devastated region of France and Belgium after the invasion of the German troops.

The exact origin of the fire is not known. Mr. Davis had been buring trash int he alley that morning and while some hold to the theory that a spark from the burning trash may have caused the conflagration, still this theory has not been definitely established.)