| Summary: | This image is a photograph used in the book Auburn, a Pictorial History of the Loveliest Village by Mickey Logue and Jack Simms, 3rd edition, 2013, depicting the history of the city and the University. From page 120-121: Cows grazed in front of Comer Hall, probably in 1924. The inside of the building was only two years old that year, having been replaced after a fire gutted Comer in 1920. Nobody knew for sure what started the fire that early Sunday morning in October. Nearly sixty years later graduate Lyle Brown theorized that a still being used to make distilled water in an overnight lab experiment had been the cause. "In those days," he said, "it wasn't uncommon for the town water to be cut off. When that happened, of course, the still kept running and got so hot that it melted down and set the building afire." Volunteers promptly laid a hose from town, but Phil Hardie, Cliff Hare's son-in-law, recalled that the water hose wasn't long enough to reach the fire. The rebuilt Comer looks much the same today, but the cow pasture lies mostly beneath an asphalt parking lot. Photo source: Auburn University Archives.
|
|---|
