Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505220080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Claytor Memorial Clinic, at Gainsboro Road and Patton Avenue, caught fire about 9 p.m. and burned for more than an hour.
No one was injured.
The fire began in the front of the historic building, moved into the attic and spread quickly to the entire structure.
On April 22, Gainsboro's First Baptist Church was gutted by a fire set by two boys playing with gasoline and a cigarette.
The results of Saturday's clinic fire were almost as damaging, leaving the outer walls intact but charring everything inside.
Roanoke fire crews set up two ladder trucks - one on Gainsboro and another on Patton - and eventually battled the leaping flames with four hoses.
Flames spread across the roof of the front section, sending up black smoke that blotted out the starry sky and attracted people from around the city.
Lynn G. Arrington came up from Melrose Avenue, where he was closing the YMCA after a party.
He talked about taking his five children to the clinic in a time of segregation, when that was the only place they could go.
"There were people in there all day long getting treated," he said. "My kids' whole medical histories are in there. My wife's and mine, too."
Dr. Walter Claytor, who retired and closed the clinic a year ago, hoped firefighters could keep the fire from the back of the building - the clinic where he worked with his father, Dr. John B. Claytor Sr., and his brothers since its opening in 1949.
But just as the front section of the roof's overhang collapsed onto the sidewalk, a patch of fire appeared at the back of the building - just above the silver letters "CLAYTOR."
Walter Claytor stood silently and watched his family heritage burn. Medical records of every family they treated - from teeth pulled to babies birthed - were in that clinic.
"My father would turn over in his grave if he saw this," he said grimly.
This is not the first time the Claytor family has been struck by fire. The 22-room homeplace they built in the 1920s was burned, then torn down. The family's Claywood Service Station also burned. Claytor has said he believes those fire were set.
Claytor helped to build the clinic and spent his breaks from dental school unloading bricks from a railway car and taking them to the site.
The clinic building housed Claytor's dental office; offices for his father; his brothers, Dr. Frank W. Claytor and Dr. John B. Claytor; a medical laboratory; an X-ray department and a physiotherapy room.
Right after Claytor retired, someone shattered the clinic's windows and broke into the building.
Others who watched the blaze feared that it was part of a pattern. Henry Craighead, a retired Norfolk Southern Corp. manager, made numerous visits to the clinic and remembers Gainsboro as a vital, thriving area.
"Now, you got the Lawson building [on Gilmer Avenue], and the library [on Patton] still standing," he said. "It won't be long before those buildings go, too."
Deputy Chief Winston Simmons said the clinic fire is suspicious. Walter Claytor said he is sure it was arson.
"There was nothing in there but equipment and files - no electricity turned on," he said. Claytor said he felt greater efforts should have been made to save the clinic before the fire spread. He said it seemed that the same insufficient water pressure problem that stymied attempts to battle the church fire affected firefighters' efforts at the clinic.
But Simmons said water pressure was not a problem.
Walter Claytor's niece, Sandra Claytor, stood nearby shaking her head. She recalled working in the family clinic when she was in high school, keeping records for her father and uncles.
"This clinic was my grandfather's dream," she said in a quiet, shaky voice. "All of our family history is in that building. Now we have nothing to look at."
by CNB