“At noon today foremen were still fighting the last smolderings of a fire that started 42 hours earlier and left the building that houses the Sport Shop at 209 E. State St. a gutted hulk of four brick walls….

It was the costliest fire here in at least five years. The College Spa fire, across the street, was on September 10, 1956….

All over the downtown, which still smelled of smoke this morning, there were words of praise for Fire Chief Charles Weaver and the 200 firemen who worked in 22 degree temperature on unbelievably icy surfaces to hold the fire to one building.”

Donald Greet, “Firemen Still Battling Last Smoldering Flames As City Praises Work of Chief Weaver, 200 Men,” Ithaca Journal, February 26, 1962, 2.