1917
Explosion Rocks Downtown Fremont
In 1873 the Occidental Hotel was
erected at 6th and Broad by the Fremont Building
Association and at a cost of $20,000.
E. L. Enos purchased it in 1881 and the
name of the three story hotel changed to Enost Hotel.
In 1915 a community meeting was called
to discuss the need for a larger hotel. So
in 1917 the Hotel Pathfinder was built on that location
and called the hotel that "Fremont built:."
It had 115 rooms and guest capacity of
360. Each room had hot and cold water and
circulating ice water, private toilets and a phone.
Salesmen came by train and carted their wares to the hotel
for showing area merchants.
Zasu Pitts, Barney Oldfield, Billy Sunday and Helen Keller
were a few of the distinguished guests.
In 1954 a gas explosion caused damage to the drug store and
basement and again on January 10, 1976 another gas leak caused the total loss of the building. Twenty people lost their lives in the blast.
Transcribed
from photograph contributed by: Foxie Hagerty