ANOTHER SUMMER HOTEL BURNED.
The Franconia inn, one of the oldest and bestknown of the White mountain hotels, was burned at Franconia, N. H., on November 26. The loss is estimated at $20,000, and is fully covered by insurance. The building was unoccupied, and the cause of the fire is not known. The Franconia inn, a five-story, wooden building, with rooms for 300 guests, was the first hotel to be erected in the village. The hotel burned to the ground within an hour. Nothing was saved from the building. Valuable pictures and furnishings were destroyed. The absence of wind saved the surrounding cottages. No one had been in the building for over a week, so far as is known. It is believed the fire was either set or started from spontaneous combustion. There is no water supply in Franconia in the winter time, nor has the place any fire department, and the half-dozen residents of the place could do nothing towards saving the hotel. The inn was situated on the southeasterly slope of Sugar hill, at an elevation of 1,500 feet. The New York World remarks editorially that the burning of this hotel “adds another to the long list of seaside and mountain hotel fires which have given the season an unenviable distinction. The destruction of the Long Beach hotel, the Castleton, the Cliff house and the practical wiping out of Old Orchard Beach establish new records of fire casualties of this class.”
