Fire burns historic downtown Fort Smith structure, extent of damage unknown

Historic Adelaide Hall in downtown Fort Smith, home to the Bricktown Brewery restaurant, was damaged by a fire that began early Wednesday (Nov. 6) morning. The extent of the damage is not known but a fire department official said the roof appears to be a total loss.

Built by William Meade Fishback in 1871, the building at 318 Garrison Ave. is the second oldest building on Garrison Avenue. Developer Richard Griffin restored the building in 1994, and its first tenant was the Varsity Grill restaurant. In the summer of 2014, Oklahoma City-based Bricktown invested more than $750,000 in renovations to remodel for its restaurant brand.

Fort Smith Fire Department Battalion Chief Corey Vaughn said the roof of the historic structure is likely a total loss.

Rick Griffin, manager of Griffin Properties of Fort Smith and son of Richard Griffin, said the fire also entered spaces between the first and second floors. He said as of late Wednesday morning he is not sure if the building can be saved. Griffin Properties owns the building.

“We don’t know that today. We have to get in there and see what we have left,” Griffin said when asked about the building’s damage. “We intend to do something back at that location but we have no idea what that is going to be today. Whether that means tearing everything down and starting over, or if we can salvage some of what we have there and use it, because we like the historical flavor of downtown.”

Griffin said he hopes to have a structural engineer begin looking at the building on Thursday to determine if any of it can be salvaged, adding that “the thick walls can sustain quite a bit” of damage.

Amanda Hager, executive director of Main Street Fort Smith, said if the building is a total loss it will be “a bad, bad deal” for the downtown.

“Downtown Fort Smith has one of the largest historic commercial districts in the state. And that was really one of our flagship historic buildings, and also one of our flagship businesses in downtown Fort Smith,” said Hager, who also expressed concern about what happens to the restaurant employees.

Historian Ben Boulden said Fishback was a Fort Smith businessman and attorney, Arkansas’ 17th governor, and a friend of Abraham Lincoln’s during his time in Springfield, Ill.

Boulden provided the following excerpts from his writings about Fishback and the historic building.

“Adelaide Miller Fishback was his wife; she died in 1882 in her 30s. The “W.M. Fishback” name at the top of Adelaide Hall on Garrison Avenue relates to the former governor, and the building has a long history. Circa 1871, Fishback built the hall on the avenue, then shortly afterward named it for his wife. During the 1870s, it was the site of all sorts of events and arguably the social center of the city.

“Political rallies, weddings and celebrations of all kinds found shelter there. It became a hotel in the early 1880s, and also burned circa 1885. Based on an 1870s-era photograph, Adelaide Hall originally had three floors and no windows on its east side. After the fire, Fishback may have removed the third floor. The rounded arches at the top of the second-floor windows appear to have been shortened to become decorative features above the roofline and the spaces now containing the “W.M. Fishback” letters. Presumably the second-floor interior ceiling also was lowered when these early renovations occurred.”