Daily Blog: When Paris Burned

In 1998, Kevin Heubusch published his book, "The New Rating Guide to Life in America’s Small Cities." The book was no doubt well received by the citizens of Paris, Texas (population 25,898) when they learned Heubusch had declared their Paris “The Best Small Town in Texas.”

Perhaps there were some who reflected on how far they had come since the fire of 1916 which destroyed almost half the town. A crisis of such proportion could have been the beginning of the end for the town which then was a five-figure city of about 12,000.

But the next years were filled with stories about emerging from the ashes with a determination to rebuild and be better than before.

When Marty Lange describes the “sheer number of stately, historic (architectural) icons” of today’s Paris it conjures a dramatic contrast to the picture of post-fire days in 1916.

Many of those “icons” will be marking their centennial anniversary over the next few years with echoes of a community that survived the flames, doubled its size and celebrates its unquenchable spirit.

For more about the Paris, Texas of today see “Paris, Anyone?” by Marty Lange, Texas Highways, July 2009, p. 15.