The Original Italian Restaurant engulfed in flames!

When I first reported to you about this fire on January 7 there were several of my followers who couldn't access the link to Kim's FB page. After coaxing her to post it on YouTube it will now be easier to see this terrible and damaging fire. The good news is that they will rebuild and, in the meantime have another plan for a temporary restaurant. There is a "Paint & Sip Party" and Spaghetti Dinner planned for February 11 to support the employees after the loss if their livelihood when the restaurant was destroyed by fire. This is a wonderful and caring community!


After reaching +60° yesterday -  YES that's correct, we are back to +14° with some snow and strong winds. During the night (early morning) we had a power loss and it has been restored after 61/2 hours. We heard on our scanner that a tree up the road fell down on the lines. I wondered why the plows hadn't come through at least once since we awoke. Thank goodness for our stand-by generator! 

News Video of Fire

Link to public post or our town's loss of the Restaurant below.

 I'm getting word that people cannot access Kim's page with her very descriptive photos. Although that route won't work for some, the one below should.

 This should work. http://wnep.com/2018/01/07/montrose-community-reacts-to-restaurant-fire/

Awful Cold and Awful Fire

I think we're stuck at -8°! This was at 7AM. At least the sun is shining earlier!

We went grocery shopping and when we returned it was still below zero, but now, late afternoon it is all the way up to +19° so there is hope for a warmup.

Last night in this freezing weather a local family- owned Italian restaurant and pizzeria burned. A local photographer took fine pictures of this dramatic happening and put them on Facebook. I won't snatch any of her photos but hope you may see them by clicking on her FB link and then scroll down to the 42 shots that tell the awful story of the fire. This is an old town with old buildings and it is a great loss.

 Town Fire in Freezing Cold Night

Square Deal Saga

Well I misled you and have a blog today. I am compelled to get this down and this is the easiest way for me.  I mentioned a project that I was starting to work on and I have already jumped into my first diversion. I discovered a piece of (family) history that I was not aware of and have dwelled on it all yesterday after reading about the tragedy. Here are some things I discovered after some follow up research. It may not be interesting to you, but to me, it is. 

The first thing I looked at and scanned was a little 4.5 x 6.25 inch paper advertising booklet called “Square Deal.” I figured out, by the contents, that it was printed in 1911 as a restart of a paper box business that was based in a building which was destroyed in a horrendous fire in November 2010 in Newark, N.J. The booklet was distributed one year after the fire when the business moved to a new building.

My maternal grandfather is A. A.Drake. (Aurelius Alva Drake b. 1872) and he was a business partner in this manufacturing industry. 

Please read to the end of this blog to not only view the pages of the booklet, but to view the newspaper article. I had to scan it paragraph by paragraph to make it be “readable.” They are in order. As you read, my dismay will come clear to you, I'm sure. The fire was never mentioned to me by anyone before now.

You MUST view the newspaper article which is posted after the Square Deal booklet in a larger format to be able to understand and it is shocking to read. If you would like to pursue the topic I have added a few links for your convenience. Just click on an image.

Fire Link 1 Copyright 1998 - 2015 Glenn G. Geisheimer

Fire Link 2 Copyright 1998 - 2014 Glenn G. Geisheimer

Fire Link 3 Submitted by Stu Beitler