East Lawrence building hit by Thursday fire may date back to 1800s

Firefighters check out a report of visible smoke at Murphy Furniture Service, 409 E. Seventh St., on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015.

Mike Murphy’s business — in a more than 100-year-old building — has been on the corner of East Seventh and New Jersey streets since 1976.

In his nearly 40 years there Murphy said he’s been pretty lucky, but Thursday morning he found himself surrounded by charred furniture, broken glass and smoke damage.

“Really it’s been pretty trouble free, maybe a few cases of vandalism, but not much,” he said.

At 7:36 a.m. Thursday a fire was reported at Murphy Furniture Service, 409 E. Seventh St., after heavy smoke was seen in the area, said Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Division Chief Eve Tolefree. The fire was extinguished quickly and no injuries were reported.

Tolefree estimated the cost of the damage was around $35,000 and the department’s investigation concluded the fire’s cause was accidental and could be attributed to spontaneous combustion due to the improper disposal of staining chemicals.

Murphy said for the most part the damage to his furniture restoration and re-upholstery business was caused by smoke, with a little fire damage in one corner of the old building. Most everything should be repairable, he said.

“We can put it back together,” Murphy said. “Most of all my customers’ stuff is salvageable. There are some tools and equipment that have seen better days.”

Murphy said he isn’t exactly sure how old the building is, but estimated it was built sometime around 1900.

Monica Davis, a volunteer with the Watkins Museum of History, 1047 Massachusetts St., said it’s difficult to say precisely when the building was constructed, but mentions of the address date further back than Murphy’s estimate.

In fact, the building’s East Seventh Street address appears on a Douglas County Atlas dated 1873, Davis said. That atlas is a part of the Kansas Historical Resources Inventory Reconnaissance Form filled out in 1995 as a part of a survey of East Lawrence.

During the survey Murphy’s building was deemed ineligible for the state or national registries of historic places, Davis said.

The eligibility process to place a building on either registry is fairly complex, Davis said.

“The integrity of the structure is evaluated, sometimes if there were historical events that occurred or individuals of historical importance occupied the structure it can qualify,” she said.

Regardless of how long Murphy’s building has been on its East Lawrence corner, Murphy said he plans to soldier on and make sure it’s there for a while longer. He hopes to open his doors again soon.

“I’d like to say I’ll open next week, but that’s not realistic,” he said.