KINGMAN – A historic Kingman landmark has been dismantled due to safety concerns, but not all of it has gone to waste.
The Hubbs House water tower, which was also once a windmill, at Hubbs Park at Fourth and Golconda streets was torn down this week. The tower had been gradually leaning more and more over the last few years. It was fenced off in 2024 to prevent curious parkgoers from getting too close. The city deemed it was time for the tower to come down.
“There were concerns it would crash down and hurt somebody,” said Josh Noble, Director of the Kingman Office of Tourism.
The City of Kingman Parks Department oversaw the tower’s dismantling by Old Trails Demolition which began early Tuesday morning and finished Wednesday morning with only the upper water tower remaining at the park.
The City of Kingman Public Works Department reached out to Noble about getting pictures and measurements for historical documentation. The structure measured slightly over 20 feet.
“We also negotiated for them to save the water tank itself if possible, which looks like it is in okay condition,” he said. “But the tower itself was not salvageable.”
The Hubbs House was built in 1893. Noble estimates the original windmill at the property was built sometime in the 1890s and burned down in the great Kingman fire of 1898.
A news article from the May 21, 1898 Mohave County Miner described the fire attacking the wooden windmill as a “monster pinwheel while the flames were devouring it.”
The house also sustained some damage.
“They probably replaced the windmill right away, this time adding the water tank,” Noble said. “The original windmill did not have a water tank.”
After years of being abandoned, the Hubbs House is now home to the Western Arizona Council of Governments Headstart.
The shell of the water tank sits in the grass near the schoolhouse.
“As far as I can tell, this was the oldest water tank still existing in Kingman, that’s why we wanted to salvage it,” Noble said. “We’ll be working with the parks department on a plan to keep it on site and accessible to the public”
Harvey Hubbs and his family are an important part of Kingman’s history. Hubbs had a business known as Hubbs House on Front Street (Now Andy Devine Avenue) which burned down in the Kingman Fire of 1898. Today, the home is owned by the City of Kingman and used by WACOG. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places, number 78001149.
Aaron Ricca
Kingman In Flames
26 Buildings Burned
Our Finest Block, A Heap of Ruins
Reprinted from the Mohave County Miner, May 21, 1898 (front page)
For the second time in ten years Kingman was baptized in fire. The wind was blowing a gale from the south – just such a day as that which saw the greater part of Kingman devoured by the fiery elements ten years ago. The first alarm Sunday evening called the railroad men to extinguish a fire at the water tank. After this task was completed fire was discovered issuing from the Dennis Lumber Company yards, but the application of a few buckets of water quenched the flames. Hardly had the people returned from the lumber yards when again the dread cry of “fire” was heard. This time great black clouds of smoke were seen issuing from the warehouse of the White Hills Mining Company on the south side of Front street. It seemed but an instant until the flames burst forth, its long licking tongue stretching out across the street in a seeming endeavor to reach the buildings on the other side. The whirling gusts of wind drove the flames against the warehouse of Gaddis & Perry and that building was soon a fiery furnace. The heat and flames from the two buildings spread across the street and the frame buildings on the north side were soon blazing furiously. One by one the other buildings in the block caught and it looked as though the whole town was doomed. After the warehouse of the Kingman Mercantile Company had gone down in flames the wind veered around to the southeast and every effort was made to save the Lake building. Thirty men worked from cellar to roof to beat off the flames and they succeeded at last after the windows and frames in the rear of the second story had been burned out. On Gaddis & Perry’s store an effort was made to stop the spread of the flames and half the men of the town worked like beavers in the bucket brigade. Saving the Lake and Gaddis & Perry buildings saved the town east of Fourth street. Had they burned few houses would have been left. A remarkable freak of the fire was the escape of the little houses of Thomas McMahon and the Burke estate on Beale street. They were in the direct track of the fire, but escaped with a slight scorching. The big wooden windmill in the rear of the Hubbs House looked like a monster pinwheel while the flames were devouring it.
The dense smoke filled the street and houses so soon after the first outbreak and the fire reached such rapid headway that few escaped with more than the clothes they wore. Only two or three trunks were saved from the Hubbs House and other buildings. In fact people were so paralyzed by the suddenness of the fiery vision that they realized when too late they had saved nothing. In the saloon of Mulligan & Hubbs a three hundred dollar cash register and one hundred dollars in cash was left in the flames. The magnificent ore cabinet of E. F. Thompson was also destroyed. From every part of town people were rushing around in wild excitement with their valuables and household effects, knowing not where they would be safe. Pieces of boards that had burned to a coal were sent hurtling through the air, setting fire to everything inflammable where it fell. Crozier & Mackenzie’s barn, on Third street, was set on fire by one of these brands and consumed. The school house, jail, and residences of J. R. Russell and John Barry were set fire too but the watchers with water quenched the incipient blazes.The walls of all the brick structures fell in as soon as they began to cool off leaving the buildings a total wreck. As night came on the wind storm showed no abatement and burning brands were scattered over the town. Sheriff Potts organized a patrol of twenty men and the business men engaged as many more to guard property and watch the fire. At midnight a heavy shower of rain fell precluding any possibility of the further spread of fire. The grey dawn of Monday revealed the blackened ruins of the best block in the town. Everything had been swept bare. Large cottonwood and umbrella trees were burned to the ground. Several carloads of coal, food and grain that had been stored in the warehouses were still in flames. Phelan’s cold storage had been filled with choicest of beef and mutton and this had been baked to a rich brown. The Indians pulled out several quarters of the beef and with a carload of baked potatoes from Gaddis & Perry’s warehouse had a great feast.
The losses are very heavy, aggregating over 92,000$ while the insurance is about one third of that amount. The heaviest losers are Mulligan & Hubbs, whose loss foots up 17,500$ on their three story brick building and the two small adobe buildings on Third street. They carried insurance to the amount of 8,000$. The other losses are as follows: Gaddis & Perry, warehouse and damage to stock 5,500$, fully covered by insurance; Kingman Mercantile Company, warehouse and contents, 3,500$, no insurance; G. W. Beecher, adobe building on Front street 2,500$, no insurance; Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, damage to furniture and lodge paraphernalia, 150$; The W.H. Taggart Mercantile Company, cold storage plant and contents, 1,500$, no insurance; E. F. Thompson, stock and fixtures, 2,500$, mineral cabinet 2,500; no insurance. Hubbs House, building, furniture, etc., 7,500$; insurance, 3,700$ T. L. Ayres, two story brick building, 11,000$; insurance 7,500$; H. J. Delamer and the Temple Bar Consolidated Mining Company, 500$ on furniture Resides the company’s loss Mr. Delamer and the other members of the office force lost personal effects of considerable value. Rosborough & Laswell, loss on stock, 800$. Crosier & Mackenzie, adobe building on Main street and stable and corral on Third street, loss 5,000$ insurance 1,500$. J. C. Phelan, stock of meats, etc., 800$; no insurance. W. H. Lake, damage to brick building and loss small frame building need as a restaurant, 1,200$; no insurance. P. H. Thompkins, small frame building and stock of goods, 600$; no insurance. Dave Kelleher, barber shop, 200$; no insurance. Chas. Bowers, big frame building on Front street used as a restaurant, loss 2,500$; insurance 1,000$. S. P. Thompson, building, livery barn and office, 2,000$; insurance 800$. Mrs. J. K. Mackenzie, Kingman House, furniture, bedding, etc., 3,500$; insurance, 1,500$ H. Hubbs, refrigerators and refrigerator material 500$ Josie Harcourt, three small buildings, furniture, etc., 2,500$. Manuel Martinez, house on Beale street, furniture, barn and outbuildings, 1,200$ no insurance. —– Noli, house on Beale street, 600$. G. A. Bonelli, building and contents on Fourth street, 1,800$; insurance 1,000$. Mrs. M. B. Eggers, stock millinery goods, 750$; insurance, 300$. The White Hills Mining Company, warehouse and contents, 6,000$: fully covered by insurance. Individual losses will foot up fully five thousand dollars more.The foundations of the big brick buildings have crumbled so badly that they will have to be removed. The walls have all fallen, with the exception of the west wall of the Hubbs House. Fencing and corrals were swept clean. The ruins of the warehouses are still smoldering and it will be several days before they cool off.
Already preparations to rebuild are being made on the old sites. As soon as insurances have been paid it is probable that several brick buildings will go up. E. F. Thompson, Laswell & Rosborough and George Bonelli have erected temporary business houses on Fourth street. Frank Austin is building a big restaurant on the Bower’s lot and J. C. Phelan will soon open a market next door to the MINER office. Every man in town who can handle a jack plane is employed and buildings are springing up all around, but it will be many years before we recover from the disastrous conflagration.
