Around noon on May 3, 1901, a spark from a kitchen fire ignited piles of moss that lay drying outside of the Cleveland Fibre Company. The fire spread throughout the densely-populated area, starting at Davis and Beaver Streets and, within hours, had destroyed most of the buildings in LaVilla and Downtown. The fire was contained after about eight hours, and caused over $15 million in property damage, spanning 148 city blocks.

Around 90% of Jacksonville burned; that’s 2,300 buildings, including the original Stanton School, 23 churches, 10 hotels, including the St. James and Windsor, and almost all public buildings, including the Duval County Courthouse. Seven people died and 8,677 people were left homeless. The Great Fire of 1901 is the third largest urban fire in American history behind the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Chicago Fire of 1871. The fire started 3 blocks away from the Nurse Training School, which eventually became Brewster Hospital, where nursing students cared for the wounded. It only took the city two years to rebuild Downtown, ushering in a new era of growth and opportunity.