The old Copp's shoe store rose out of the Great Fire of 1898 to anchor the corner of Columbia and McKenzie Streets for almost a century.
Now, another great fire has consumed the landmark building that housed one of the oldest shoe stores in the country before owner Terry Brine retired the business a year ago.
"We've lost a building with a tremendous story, and the store itself closed before, but it is a reminder of the history of this city," said local historian Archie Miller. "It was one of those wonderful stores that looked very much the way a store would have looked ages ago."
Popular Shoes opened at the 638 Columbia St. location in 1912. In 1925, Percy Copp, Brine's maternal grandfather, purchased the store and renamed it Copp's Shoes. Later his son Ralph Brine (who retired in 1975), and then Ralph's son Terry would oversee the shop.
Through the years, the interior of Copp's went relatively unchanged. The store was adorned with counters topped by shelves filled with walls of shoes. Sliding ladders allowed generations of employees to climb up and retrieve shoes stacked up to the top of the 18-foot ceilings.
Once Brine retired, a bridal store took over the landmark location.
Other local businesses in the area have reportedly been impacted by the blaze include a Vietnamese restaurant, law offices, retail outlets, a church and antique stores.
Keziah Cho, from Five Stones Church, said they were told they couldn't get into their Columbia Street church to assess the damage until Saturday.
The fire reportedly broke out in the E.L. Lewis Block, which housed the old Copp's shoe store. Many of the buildings in the area were built after the Great Fire of 1898 destroyed the city's downtown, Miller said.
"Everything you are seeing on that side of the street was (built) directly after the great fire," he said. "In the 1898 fire, everything downtown burned down - roughly from Fourth Street to the foot of 10th Street then up the hill roughly to Royal Avenue."
There have been significant fires in the area since the Great Fire, including one at a building that was alongside the current Trapp + Holbrook development on Columbia Street, Miller said.
"We've got lots and lots of fires on that end of town and all over the place," he said.
- with files from Theresa McManus
