300 Block South Palafox
Late at night on July 5, 1880, while most of Pensacola’s citizens were sleeping, flames erupted from Cheap John’s Clothing Store. The blaze destroyed most of the buildings on this block across from Plaza Ferdinand. Five months later an even more devastating fire consumed Pensacola. This time burning over 100 buildings, including Pensacola’s two newspaper offices, every drug store, stationery store, even the telegraph offices. As the year 1880 came to a close antebellum Pensacola laid in ruins.
Around 60 percent of the buildings you see today were erected in the three decades after those fires. Wishing to deter future conflagrations, city officials adopted building codes requiring fire proof materials for all new construction. Using the building technology of the 19th century, a multi-story brick structure necessitated thick load bearing walls on the ground level. Massive walls left only small openings at the street level for windows and doors. However, fortunate for Pensacola there was a cutting edge alternative to masonry, cast iron.
Strong and slim, first floor cast iron columns could sustain heavy second-story loads while consuming less street level floor area. And cast iron was a fire proof material. Iron manufacturers sprung up across the country. They produced beautiful mail order catalogs showcasing iron building parts and patterns. After receiving an order, foundry workers placed the property owner’s pre-fabricated building components on rail cars for delivery to distant locales.
The buildings on this block, the first to be constructed after the 1880 fires, are hybrids with brick side and rear walls and cast iron fronts. The ornate architectural details may appear to be wood or stone but are in fact cast iron. By the turn of the century, architects and engineers were adding alloys to cast iron to create steel. Steel's plasticity and durability quickly outpaced cast iron's early uses and the once state of the art material became obsolete. However, when painted, cast iron is quite durable and weather resistant. This is why Pensacola’s nineteenth-century cast iron buildings remain relatively unscathed by the volatile Gulf Coast climate.
