Courthouse Fire – Solemn Anniversary
Bradford Landmark Society – by Sally Ryan Costik At precisely 2:51 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 12, 1940, every electric clock in the McKean County Courthouse stopped, victims to a silently advancing fire in the basement of the building. It would be nearly an hour before Smethport Police Chief James McCabe, on a routine patrol down West Main Street, discovered the flames. By then it was too late….