Fire Destroys Cottage Hill Building

February 6, 2017

Fire destroyed a vacant building in Cottage Hill Monday afternoon. The fire was reported about 12:20 p.m. in the 100 block of Highway 95A near Cottage Hill Road. The unoccupied building was heavily involved in fire when firefighters arrived on scene. There were no no injuries. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.

Comments

8 Responses to “Fire Destroys Cottage Hill Building”

  1. Marion L Runkle on June 1st, 2023 11:29 pm

    My grandparents (the Mathis’) lived next door & we would drive down from Norfolk each summer to visit family. I used to go to the post ofc to get stamps to mail post cards as a kid. My cousins & I used to play with the boy whose father ran the little store on the other side of my grandma’s house. That was in the fifties. My mother told me that when she was an Army nurse in WW II, she would take the train home on leave & her father would walk her across the hwy to catch the train to go back & he would take a hankie out & flag the train down to stop for her.
    So many good memories!!

  2. david lamb on February 7th, 2017 4:28 pm

    Cottage Hill School, now a Baptist Church, Methodist Church Baptisms on Big Rock Creek (my grandpa, Gerald Otto Commings land) growing up on Williams Ditch farm. Chavers Dairy, Rickmans Store and Joyce Rickkman, Havards store, post office, grocery/Laundropmat. Just a few of my yyouthful memopries of Cottage Hill.
    How bout some other of your memories of this sleepy whistle stop!

  3. Barbara shoemo on February 7th, 2017 3:44 pm

    This building was historical in cottage hill,fl.our little town,where everyone knew each other,we had to go there to get our mail,ms Tipton knew us by name!!I love the cottage Hill history. The laundromat at one time was a grocery store owned by Mr sanders,then Mr Jim Tipton,then a laundromat Pete Tipton. Cottage hill ,are we going to help with restoring this piece history, it can keep us on the map!☺we want our sign back too,that says COTTAGE HILL on hwy 29,please county commissioner!!? I still tell people I live in COTTAGE HILL.

  4. Sarah Ann Cook on February 7th, 2017 9:39 am

    So sad to see another part of the old Cottage Hill community gone. I grew up there and everyone knew Ms. Tipton, she was such a sweet lady. Time moves on and things do change, but it’s not always a happy thing to see part of our past life gone forever. Thank goodness for memories. Ann Richburg Cook

  5. old man on February 6th, 2017 7:46 pm

    the laundramat was in the brick building north of this at one time this was the gonzalez post office the notery was in the house south ( next door ) to the building that burned

  6. Puddin on February 6th, 2017 7:41 pm

    Glad no one was hurt. Good job to our firemen and women

  7. 429SCJ on February 6th, 2017 6:01 pm

    Miz Tipton’s United States Post Office was housed in that building, until it’s closure in the 1970s.

    I remember when I was a boy in cub scouts, riding my bike to Miz Tipton’s, to get my Pinewood Derby car weighed on Miz Tipton’s postal scale.

    I remember she would hang the mail bag on the postal rail platform, the train would p/u that bag and drop off the incoming via rail mail bag.

    That Post Office should have been preserved in the state historic register, now all is lost to histor, save our memories.

  8. mike on February 6th, 2017 5:31 pm

    I believe there used to be a notary public in biz there years ago, not sure. Was a laundromat around there too, somewhere in a building close by. Was a brick building down the road from there, defunct biz even 43 years ago, long since torn down. The house that burned had been empty for many years I think. Weeds had kinda taken it over. Good thing no other houses were close.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News