One of the first buildings to go up in flames as the fire moved north. Fire alarms began sounding in the afternoon, while people were still at church services. Excerpt from “Incidents of the Burning of Holland City,” published in the Hartford-Dayspring News in 1871:

An excerpt from “Incidents of the Burning of Holland City,” published in the Hartford-Dayspring News in 1871: “Most of the bells of the city, which had sounded the cry for help since sundown, had now stopped. Their plaintive call and the inhabitants of the doomed city shrieked for succor and protection, as the flames from the burning church and dwellings in the south part of the city lit up the heavens and forests for miles away. Soon the Second Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church was on fire, now the City Hotel and the finest stores on Main Street. Here the fire became terrific and women, men, and children fled the city in panic-stricken horror. The heavy bell in the Third Church kept up its piteous warning cry until the wild flames had climbed the spire and burned in twain the rope high in the belfry. For miles around, the heavens were a glare with the light of the burning city, and vessels tossed on Lake Michigan on that eventful night were lighted towards the port of Holland, full fifty watery miles away.”

Historic picture of the Third Reformed Church of Holland, MI