By John Zavinski

FIRE, AS IT SO OFTEN DOES,changed the face of downtownSharon 75 years ago this month

with the destruction of the ProtectedHome Circle temple along the banksof the Shenango River.

P.H.C. was founded in Sharon in1886 as a fraternal insurance society,something that was common amongsocial or ethnic groups as a means ofsupporting families through life insur-ance. P.H.C. lodges, or circles, soonsprang up nationwide. In 1930, juniorcircles were added, giving insurance

benefits to young people. They also served as a

force against juvenile delin-quency through social activ-

ities and teachingthe values of pa-triotism and reli-gion, according toa 75th-anniversaryhistory of P.H.C.

By 1905, P.H.C.had grown enoughto need its own building. A four-story,yellow-brick, romanesque structurewas erected on the east bank of theShenango with dormers and a turret.An addition was built in 1912.

On a rainy Monday evening inApril 1936, Sharon Circle No. 1 held adinner in the home office building. At1 a.m., two hours after the last personleft, a policeman noticed the fourthfloor engulfed in flames.

Sharon’s pumper was unable to putwater higher than thefirst floor. Even withhelp of firefighters andequipment from as faraway as Youngstown,the building was a totalloss. The Herald calledit the biggest fire in thecity’s history and esti-mated losses at $1 mil-lion. The fire destroyedthe Printz, Speizer,Smith, Thornton andArthur-Lewis stores anddamaged Jack’s Grille,the Nobil Shoes and

Mehl stores, Seaburn Dance Acade-my, the Lininger and Lininger law of-fices, and McDowell National Bank.

Important organization records sur-vived in a second-floor safe. Withinhours, P.H.C. Supreme President S.H. Hadley announced plans to re-build. Three months later on July 25,1936, the organization’s 50th anniver-sary celebration was held with theadded feature of a cornerstone laying.The imposing $300,000, four-story artdeco structure was built of glazedwhite brick. It was dedicated April 21,1937, exactly a year after the fire.

While the building endures, P.H.C.didn’t fare as well. In 1964 it convert-ed to a mutual life-insurance compa-ny, Protected Home Mutual LifeInsurance, or Protected Life. In Nov-ember 2003, Protected Life mergedinto National Guardian Life. The Wis-consin firm kept regional operationshere for less than two years.

Today, the building is owned andoccupied by the 156-year-old localfirm Gilbert’s Risk Solutions and a fewother tenants. Fittingly, Gilbert’s sellsinsurance. í

22 LIFE & TIMES April 2011

NOW AND THEN

John Zavinski of Hermitageis a deltiologist – a collector of postcards – and illustrateshistoric local images here withmodern views of the samescene. He is director of graph-ics and technology for The Herald newspaper and design director for Life & Times magazine. Contact him at jzavinski@sharonherald.com or724-981-6100 ext. 235.

A postcardof the original,castle-like Pro-

tected HomeCircle temple

from just a fewyears after itwas built in

1905.

Fraternal grouprose from ashes of ’36 Sharon fire

John Zavinski/Life & Times

Herald file

The Protected Home Circle building is ablazing inferno at the peak of the April 21,1936, fire. By dawn, only the walls stood.

This 1937 postcardshows the months-oldProtected Home Circlebuilding at the southeastcorner of East StateStreet and the ShenangoRiver. The replacementstorefront behind it hadn’tbeen built yet. That’s theold fire department andcity hall on ChestnutStreet at the right.

Below, the scene todayfrom atop the Winnerbuilding. The building hasbeen renamed River WalkPlace.