|
Bellows Free Academy in Fairfax was destroyed by fire on this day
in 1941. Today’s BFA stands on the same site.
The
loss of the original school was a sad day for Fairfax citizens,
who regarded BFA as the crowning jewel of their community. The distinctive,
four-story, brick building was completely gutted. A likely cause
of the fire was a concentration of coal gas in the ventilation system.
Makeshift
classrooms were hastily organized, using private homes and the town’s
churches. By 1942, construction of a new school building was finished,
and the new building contained many of the old bricks salvaged from
the orginal BFA.
Photo
courtesy Fairfax, Vermont by the Fairfax Bicentennial Committee.
|
The gutted remainder of Bellows Free Academy after
the 1941 fire.
|