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Old Posted May 6, 2020, 2:42 PM
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Jringe01 Jringe01 is offline
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Dartmouth (?) fire, 1973-1976

When I was very young, we moved to Dartmouth because my dad worked in the Coast Guard. We lived in the Parker St Apartments, the beige one (though in those days it was white or light grey)

I have been trying for some time to fill in certain gaps in my memory from that time. One incident stands out but Mom doesn't remember it. One of her friends lived in an apartment building that caught fire sometime between '73 and '76.
While I get the feeling I knew her friend, I remember realizing I had never seen that part of the city before. It was a beige/light brown structure, maybe taller than 3 floors but no more than 5 or 6.

I distinctly remember getting to this building by going up a hill, the street was a bit curved to the right going up. It wasn't all the way up the hill though because I remember looking up and wondering where the road went. when we came back down, I can see houses/buildings in the distance/at the bottom. The land on side of the road either had a slight elevation on one or both sides, both sides had trees.

I get the sense that this was south of Portland. I have tried looking on Google Maps but after 44 years...I also tried doing Google searches and have come up short.

Do any of you have any ideas or perhaps know someone who could help me find where this building was?
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Old Posted May 7, 2020, 12:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jringe01 View Post
Do any of you have any ideas or perhaps know someone who could help me find where this building was?
Thanks for the historical mystery. I lived in Dartmouth for most of that time, graduating from Dartmouth High in 1973 but moving away in late '75. I must confess your description isn't ringing any bells for me. Do you recall if there was loss of life in that fire?

There were some big fires in Dartmouth during that period, including the spectacular Uneeda Discount Store blaze on Ochterloney Street in the winter of -- I think -- 1975. There may have been residential units in that building but it otherwise doesn't seem to match your description. Another catastrophic fire in those years was the old Dartmouth Memorial Rink on Wyse Road in May of 1974 but surely unrelated to your incident.

Other than that I can't think of any significant fires that might be relevant to your search but others with better memories may be more successful. There are some great detectives here. If there was such a blaze I wouldn't be at all surprised if OldDartmouthMark came up with the photos
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Old Posted May 7, 2020, 2:37 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Haha... ns_kid knows me too well, but for this one I'll probably need some more info. No guarantees, but I am intrigued.

I too grew up in the downtown area of Dartmouth, living there up until 1996. I would have been a kid in the 1973-76 era, so my memories from that time wouldn't have the benefit of an adult perspective, but I also recall both fires that ns_kid refers to.

The Uneeda Discount fire was a particularly raucious one, for a small building presumably loaded with a lot of flammable products (like polyester?) it burned hot and fast.

I was at the Bill Lynch fair on Nantucket when the Dartmouth Memorial rink went up. IIRC, it was loaded with furniture for an arena-type sale. It went up pretty severely as well.

I don't recall any apartment building fires right off the top of my head. My parents had a 'police call' radio around that time (before scramblers) and tended to listen to the calls to see what was going on in the area (yeah, there was less entertainment in those days...), so if it was a major one, I'm thinking that I might recall it just a little.

If you could dig a little deeper and provide more specific info it would help. I did a quick check of the Halifax Municipal Archives site and didn't come up with anything. If it was a moderate to major fire I'm sure it would have had a news story written about it. At this point I haven't looked into whether it's possible to access the Chronicle Herald's news story archives, but that could be a possibility.
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