Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1897 — Why Starr’s Warehouse Tumbled. [ARTICLE]

Why Starr’s Warehouse Tumbled.

The debris has been cleaned out of the basement of C. C. Starr’s collapsed brick warehouse and the cause of the cave-in can be pretty correctly surmised. It was caused by the “creeling” inward of the basement wall, on the west side. These basement walls were of river rock, not very large nor very well tied together. The back part of the wall would naturally be composed largely of “spawls” and small rocks* The wet weather prevented the mortar from setting, and the weight of the heavy brick walls caused this back part of the foundation wall to settle a little, this forced the wall inward, and down the building went.