“Last Sunday [June 25] morning, shortly after two o’clock, fire was discovered in the rear of the Pearsall clothing store which had gained such headway as to preclude the possibility of saving one of the finest buildings in town, the Opera House Block. The fire department responded promptly to the alarm, both chemical and fire engine; there was little use for the chemical and the fire engine was soon working to full capacity, but the rapidly spreading flames gave warning that help must be quick had quickly to save us from another fire which threatened to repeat the disastrous fires of 1864 and 1871. Ithaca and Interlaken responded promptly and soon experienced firemen had several powerful streams of water playing on the seething mass of flame, confining it to that portion of Main street extending from the J. D. Wiggins store to the Baptist church sheds on Union street.

  The Opera House Block on the ground floor was occupied by the Pierce-Hazard Pharmacy, First National Bank, A.L. Bowes & Co, dry goods and the large clothing store of H. B. Pearsall; on the second floor by the Red Cross, Rest Room, Free Library, E. P. Bouton’s office and Mrs. Quinn; on the third floor was Opera Hall, one of the finest public halls in this part of the country. On Union street, the first two stores owned by Edward Murphy were occupied by W. B. Hebbard as an up-town office and flour and feed store, the second story of this building by Porter A. Johnson as a barber shop; the third store by Henry Bortz as a residence and harness shop; the fourth building was the Home Bakery, almost totally destroyed, while the Ithaca firemen stopped the fire from further progress by streams of water on the Mockford building.

  Opera House Block was built immediately after the fire of 1871, by C. P. Gregg, J. L. Stone and D. S. Biggs, the property at present being owned by the First National Bank and A. S. and H. A. Mosher.”

“Trumansburg Suffers Another Disastrous Fire: Barely Escaping a Repetition of the Great Fires of 1864-71,” Free Press and Sentinel (Trumansburg, NY), July 1, 1922, 1.