Two employees of the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad died in the Jan. 18, 1872, fire that destroyed the Cave House hotel at Howe’s Cave. A newspaper the following week suggested it may have been caused by an “incendiary”– the imprecise term meaning something—or someone—ignited combustible materials in the basement of the hotel.
At the time, the Cave House was one of the few remnants of the Howe family’s underground empire built around their patriarch’s 1842 discovery.
This Cave House was the second hotel that the Howes—Lester, Lucinda and their children Huldah, Harriet, and Halsey—opened to welcome visitors to the cave Lester made famous. The first hotel, built as early as 1843, was also destroyed by fire in 1847.
The second Cave House was a plain, three-story wooden building with about 40 rooms, unadorned with porches, columns, or other fashionable Victorian-era home décor. Built over the entrance to the cave, guests readied in the basement for their day-long underground adventure. There, they donned well-worn clothes, hats, and boots, and were provided with oil lanterns. From there, they entered the cave.
A photo, taken some time between 1865-1872, entitled “Scenes from The Albany and Susquehanna Railroad,” shows the hotel in desperate need of painting. In fact, it looks as if half of the building’s paint had been scraped to prepare it for a new coat.
At the time of the fire, the Cave House was owned by the Howes Cave Association. The Howes sold the property as early as 1869 to the association, created by Joseph H. Ramsey, the president of the Albany & Susquehanna. History records Ramsey’s purchase of the property as being of dubious ethics; Howe accepted stock in the new association valued (by Ramsey) at $12,000 after rejecting a $10,000 cash offer.
The blaze must have been a frightening affair. According to the Jan. 27, 1872, Cobleskill Index, the proprietor, a Mr. Eldredge, was awakened in his room around 1 a.m. by smoke so dense he was “obligated to escape through a window.”
There were 10 employees of the railroad staying at the hotel while they constructed a water tank at the Howes Cave Depot, just a short distance from the cave and hotel. All were in their rooms at the time the fire broke out.
After Eldredge sounded the alarm, all but two of the men made their escape through their windows, the Cobleskill Index noting “leaving behind most if not all of their clothing.”
Killed in the fire were Edward Kelly, a mason from Albany and D. W. Hare, a carpenter from Richmondville. The charred remains of the two men were found the next morning in the ruins.
According to the Index, the fire “is supposed to have originated in the oil room at the entrance to the cave, in the basement of the building, and is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary.” No other details were provided.
The Cave House was valued at $5,000, the paper reported, or about $118,000 today. There was insurance on the building for about one-half of that. Eldrege lost about $7,000 in personal property but was fully insured.
Finally, said the Index, “We learn that a new building is to be erected immediately.”
The third Cave House, built of limestone from the expanding Howes Cave Association’s adjacent quarry, still stands, despite going through numerous renovations and owners. Today, it is a museum-in-the-making, The Cave House Museum of Mining and Geology.
Special thanks to Kevin Berner, a vice-president of the museum, for finding and sharing this gem from the old news reports. Have something to contribute? Contact me here.