1:18 pm UTC May. 19, 2021
Accompanied by a dramatic, front-page photo of firefighters in silhouette battling an epic conflagration, the May 18, 1971, edition of the Wilmington Morning Star the former name of the StarNews reported that in the early morning hours of May 17, The pillars of Hemenway Hall were burning like Roman candles.
Imagine two thick, two-story high wooden pillars fully ablaze, and it s easy to see why locals reported seeing the sky aglow many blocks from where Hemenway Hall was located near the corner of Fifth Avenue and Chestnut Street, where Bicentennial Park is today.
Copy of the StarNews, then the Wilmington Morning Star, from May 18, 1971, with coverage of the fire that destroyed Hemenway Hall at North Fifth Avenue and Chestnut Street.[PHOTO COURTESY OF JANE HOLLEMBEAK]