Fire and disasters
The fire that gave Riverton its fire company
Historical society, fire-company and period newspaper accounts compared
On January 11, 1890, a fire at the old Shinn and Roberts store destroyed a cluster of buildings at Riverton’s Main Street “Point.” The failure of the village’s available hose helped turn a bucket-brigade response into an organized fire company.
The store at the Point
The Historical Society of Riverton’s property history places the town’s first general store at the point of Main and Howard Streets, across from the railroad station. It opened in 1851 and later became Joseph M. Roberts’ store. The society dates the January 1890 fire to a stable adjoining the old store and says the store, William Wolfschmidt’s barber shop and Rebecca Faunce’s home were destroyed. A bucket brigade concentrated on saving a neighboring home.
The village had recently installed water mains and hydrants, but the available fire hose could not reach the blaze, according to the society’s reconstruction. The fire exposed an equipment problem as well as the vulnerability of closely spaced frame buildings.
A fire company takes shape
The Riverton Fire Company’s published history says residents organized the company in March 1890 and incorporated it on May 5. A 1909 New Era retrospective also links its organization to the Roberts fire and gives the same incorporation date. Residents bought a hose shed, cart and additional hose. This was an institutional response to the fire, though the retrieved histories do not establish that a single person founded the company.
Roberts kept selling from a temporary structure. The historical society says a larger brick store replaced the lost building by late 1890. That replacement served several businesses and community groups before its demolition in 1938. The site later became a service station and was rebuilt again in 2002; the structure at 515 Main Street today is not the 1851 store or its 1890 replacement.
A short town walk
Stand on the public sidewalk near the point of Main and Howard to compare the old street layout with the society’s maps and photographs. The current parcel is a business property, not a preserved fire ruin. The 1921 Woolston/Penn Motors fire is a second Riverton stop showing how fire risk persisted even after the volunteer company formed.
Sources and research limits
- Historical Society of Riverton, “Changes at The Point” — property chronology, damage, rebuilding and later uses; includes a reproduction of a January 13, 1890 Philadelphia Inquirer clipping.
- Riverton Fire Company history, 1994 July Fourth program — organization and incorporation dates.
- The New Era, Christmas 1909, fire-company retrospective — contemporary-era institutional memory.
The full 1890 newspaper page and original company minutes were not inspected. The map uses the current 515 Main Street address as a reference for a vanished store, not as a claim that the modern building survived the fire.