Valley Girl Views: Fire

Sunday, February 22, 2026

The Fire At St Bonifice, 1972

On December 5th 1972, the lead story in the Williamsport Sun Gazette read:

"A spectacular early morning blaze destroyed the St Boniface church, an 1875 city landmark, at 326 Washington Boulevard. The general alarm blaze, which was discovered at 4:30am, was fought by city and volunteer firemen"

In 1853 a few German Catholics held several meetings for the purpose of discussing the possibilities of establishing a parish and of erecting a church. With this in view they conferred with the Most Reverend Neumann, Bishop of Philadelphia. His Excellency, gladly granted permission for the erection of a church. Fully confident of God's assistance the little group of Catholics courageously began the great task. On January 23, 1854, on the corner of Washington and Anthony Streets, today St. Boniface Street—a plot of land 52 x 208 feet was purchased.

The first church was built in 1854, on the corner of Washington and Anthony streets. ( The Reverend Gostenschnig of Milton came twice monthly to hold divine services there until 1857)

The second St Boniface Church building on the left, was designed by New York architect F. Himpler

A new, larger church was built in 1875. " The width of the church facing Washington Boulevard was 56 feet and the length was 145 feet. The tower, 145 feet high, was built in 1908. On June 22, 1873, the Most Reverend Bishop of Scranton, William O'Hara, blessed the cornerstone. "

On December 5th 1972, two Lycoming college co-eds had noticed the smoke through a basement window, and had called it in. It was later discovered that one of the clocks in the rear of the church had stopped at 4:07am - approximately 25 minutes before the first alarm had sounded.

Over 100 firemen battled the blaze on December 5th - companies from Williamsport, Newberry, South Williamsport, Duboistown were on the scene. All off duty firemen in Williamsport were called in. Willing Hand of Montoursville, and Old Lycoming Twp were on stand by, to cover any other fires in the area.

The fire spread from the main building to the church steeple, where the clock hands stopped at 4:25 am. At 6:45 am, the top of the tower collapsed.

"It took firemen more than two hours to bring the blaze, which brightened the early morning skies, under control. although sparks fell on a number of nearby buildings, the fire was confined to the church."

The convent across the street and several homes on Franklin street were evacuated, as a precaution.

It was 37 degrees that morning, enough above freezing to keep the sprays of water from turning to ice.

Fire Companies were on the scene until 9am.

The fire is believed to have been started by the boiler in the basement, and was first discovered by Lycoming college students.

This was a few years before the string of church arsons that had parishioners standing guard outside of churches overnight in 1977.

"It was a different odor at the church site this morning. Usually it is an odor of bread being baked by the Stroehman Brothers co. across the street from the church." -

On December 8th, the Sun Gazette reported that the four bells in the tower appeared to be intact and unharmed. The statues of St Peter and St Boniface which stood on either side of the altar, were thought to be salvageable.

"Most of the other statuary, including marble stations of the cross which hung on the walls of the sanctuary, were destroyed."

The church was insured for 1 million - the highest the insurance company would allow. The estimated cost of reconstruction was more than double that amount.

The Salem AME church in Williamsport was also destroyed by a fire, shortly after St Boniface.

A collection committee was formed by churches in the Williamsport area, and money was raised by those churches to contribute to the rebuilding of St Boniface and the AME Church.

The Williamsport firemen who had battled the blaze donated their overtime pay to the new building fund.

Demolition of the ruins of St Boniface began in May of 1973. The parish council petitioned the city to close St Boniface Street, and alley than ran through the church properties, and made plans to demolish the ruined church, old St Mary's High School, and possibly the newer convent.

The Convent, built in 1880, had housed the Sisters Of Christian Charity, a teaching order. The nuns were moved to apartment in the area - those teaching at the elementary school moved to 1427 East 3rd st, and those teaching at Bishop Newman, to 68 Brandon Place.

The parish center on Washington Blvd was the original St Mary's academy , which had opened in 1896.

The Parish purchased three homes facing Franklin st, with plans to demolish them and make room for building a new, larger, church to replace the one destroyed in the 1972 fire.

"For lifelong parishioners like Arnold Betts, who served the final Mass in the old church and the very first in the school gym, the memories remain vivid.

“I watched the steeple burn from my parent’s bedroom,” he recalled. “The parish got together and said, ‘we will rebuild,’ and this is the result of it.” - Diocese of Scranton article

The new St Boniface church was dedicated in a week long series of services beginning on August 3rd 1975.

The building had been constructed at a cost of 1.5 million dollars, and included seating for 725 persons. "From the outside, the church's two most outstanding features are its 88 foot high cross, and the sharply sloping slate roof, which soars to a height of 75 feet."

The front of the church was designed as windowless, with a double soundproofing wall - so that traffic from the "heavily traveled Washington Boulevard" would not be heard inside.

The space between the two walls was to be used for the pipes of an organ being built in Italy. (A two month long strike at the organ factory in Pandova Italy delayed installation for the $60,000 organ.)

The Sun Gazette reported that the last church fire in Greater Williamsport (prior to the St Boniface fire) had been on December 30 1939, at the Evangelical Church on Lycoming Creek.

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The Lycoming County Historical Society Fire, 1960

The Society opened their first museum in 1941, in the historic home that formerly belonged to J. Roman Way. Way's park is today, located across from the museum

William Hepburn Farm

According to Lost Williamsport, the Judge John W. Maynard residence, built in 1840, was one of the few established homesteads west of town when Peter Herdic arrived in 1854. At this time, "west fourth street was still a narrow, dusty farm road." It was first owned by William Hepburn.

In 1884 the east side yard was given to Trinity Church by Maynard, to be used as the site of a new rectory.

Sometime in the 1870s, Judge John W. Maynard purchased the property and remodeled the home in a Gothic Revival Style.

Maynard added a gothic style tower and semicircular front walk. The bay window and tower covered the original front entry.

In 1913, J. Roman Way completed extensive renovations on the former Maynard house. Way remodeled the home here into a Colonial Revival Style - "removing the two side wings with cupolas and the Gothic-style crenelated tower and trim details". He removed two stories of the three story tower, and raised the entire house three feet on a new foundation.

Way then purchased White's castle, demolished it, and turned those grounds, visible out his front window, into a garden that he donated to the city.

J. Roman Way died in 1935. Sometime after that, the property was owned by Harry A. Gibson. In 1939 Gibson sold the property to the Lycoming Historical Society, which opened as a museum in March of 1941.

Lewisburg Journal March 1941

"At their open meeting on December 8, 1960, Historical Society members had met in

the museum's carriage house to celebrate the season with musical entertainment, storytelling,

and refreshments. In her minutes, the Board's secretary noted that:

"The carriage house was decorated beautifully with old fashioned Christmas trees, beautifully wrapped

packages, dolls, doll carriages, sleds. . . They served coffee and oodles of extra rich. delicious

Christmas cookies. l think everybody had a good time."

Thirteen days later, On December 21, 1960 - a fire destroyed the building.

Lycoming Historical Museum Bad/ WILLIAMSPORT — Fire, which is believed to have originated near the furnace, yesterday ruined the old frame building of the Lycoming County Historical Society and damaged its valuable historical collections to an extent not yet estimated. Historical Collection Damaged The building, closed for the month of December, is the former mansion owned by J. Roman Way on West Fourth St., about 'a mile from the heart of the business district. It contained many irreplaceable historical objects, closely connected with the early his lory of Williamsport and Lycoming county. The fire alarm was telephone to the fire department by a pass ng motorist who saw smoke is suing from the building shortly before 11 am.

The firemen, who responded with an aerial ladder truck and half a dozen fire trucks, "ought the stubborn and elusive blaze for several hours. When it was finally controlled, the interior of the building was extensively damaged and the fate of the historical collections was deeply in doubt. The cold weather which hampered the firemen, and grew even colder after the fire, has interfered with inventory of the damaged items. The ruined building is under the supervision of police to protect the contents.

Smoke filtered through the old masonry walls of the building, especially at the west end. C. Stewart Coryell, who has served terms as president of the Historical Society, which acquired the building and began developing it into a museum in 1939, said that he was afraid many of the historical items inside the structure would be lost.

The building, 120 years old, earlier occupied by Judge John W. Maynard, was once one of Williamsport's handsomest residences. Since its acquisition by the historical society it has provided meeting rooms, and housed a growing accumulation of historical terns, ranging from Indian artifacts of the West Branch' Valley, to a collection of. antique jewelry of great intrinsic worth. Articles connected with the canal era, the lumbering days, and-pioneer life, as well as the early history o| the fire department and the schools. were housed in the various rooms. Firemen used the aerial ladder to fight the fire from the roof of the old mansion.

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After The Fire
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In early August of 1961, papers throughout the region reported that the Ways Garden Commission had made an offer to Historical Society for them to build a new building in a corner of Way's Garden.

A week later, the Express reported that the historical society had rejected all bids to raze the museum, and instead had decided to allow the badly damaged and unusable building to stand for the time being.

It wasn't until May of 1964 that the society started to restore some of the items damaged in the fire.

The proposal to build a new building in Ways Garden was scrapped in 1965, when not enough money had been raised in the capital campaign. In 1968, the Pennsylvania Historical Commission presented the society with a $200,000 grant, allowing them to build a new cement building.

The new museum, which connects to the original carriage house, was designed by Frank A. Wagner. It was completed and opened to the public on November 22 1968.