Fire does substantial damage to historic Center Street house

A fire on July 4th did substantial damage to the house at 923 Center Street. According to Ryan Neisen, Hannibal’s fire chief, the cause of the fire has been ruled accidental, due to fireworks. Photo contributed by Meryle Martin Dexheimer.

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

A two-story frame house, located at 923 Center St., was serving as home to Ryan Patrick Freeman, in addition to four boarders and a bevy of pets, when a fire broke out at 2 p.m. Friday, July 4, 2025.

“One of my friends was out back shooting off fireworks,” Freeman said, which was legal according to a revised ordinance approved by the Hannibal City Council on Tuesday, July 1.

“One of the bottle rockets went wrong,” Freeman said. “Sparks caught the wrong panel on the side of the house.”

The exterior of the house had cedar shingles, which had long been a feature of the historic dwelling.

“I had those shingles redone when I bought the house five years ago,” Freeman said. “It had been redone and sanded and painted. (A bottle rocket) just had to have hit a one-in-a-million spot.”

On Monday, Ryan Neisen, Hannibal fire chief, confirmed the cause of the fire was accidental. The fire marshal and the Hannibal Police Department investigated the scene, he said, and ruled the cause to be accidental in nature due to fireworks.

When firefighters arrived on the scene, Neisen said, there were smoke and flames coming from the rear of the building, near the roof.

Eight firefighters were on duty at the time of the alarm, and 17 off duty firefighters were called in to assist.

After the initial attack on the fire, Chief Neisen said that the concentration became to protect the house just to the east. “The houses there on Center Street are close together at times. One main priority is to contain the fire to one structure, instead of having it spread to multiple structures.

“It took us a little bit to get the fire out,” Neisen said. “We were able to extinguish the fire, and the home next door had little or no damage.”

Two aerial trucks were at the scene, as well as Engine 2 and Engine 3.

One of the home’s occupants was taken to Hannibal Regional Hospital by Marion County Ambulance for treatment,” Neisen said.

While not identifying the occupant, Freeman said that the boarder was treated and released. “She was released the same day and is OK,” he said.

Call of ‘fire’

Freeman was inside watching a movie when “somebody yelled ‘fire.’ I ran out with my puppy. I called 911 and got the fire department to come - within five to 10 minutes, closer to five,” he said. They established a parameter.”

He stood across the street with his boarders who were home at the time, and their pets, watching as the firefighters went to work.

“At one point it looked like they had it contained, but all at once the attic went up,” Freeman said.

At that time, “I walked down to Java Jive,” he said, where there was air conditioning. “I couldn’t watch it burn.”

The house was more than a just a house to Freeman.

Speaking of Hannibal in general, and this house in particular, he said, “This is my home, my ‘found' family is here, my friends are here. This is where I live, I like it.”

Road to Hannibal

As a child - in 2000 - he moved with his family from Portland, Ore., to Albuquerque, N.M.

He went to La Cueva High School, where actor Neil Patrick Harris had earlier attended, and coincidentally, they had the same drama teacher. “I also had the same English teacher as (actor) Freddy Prince Jr.”

Freeman graduated from high school in 2006.

He started his collegiate career at Central Christian College of the Bible at Moberly, Mo., before transferring to Hannibal-LaGrange University.

“When I went to college, I started getting into writing. My roommate was always hunched over his computer, and I asked him what he was doing. “I’m writing historical fiction,’” the roommate said.

Intrigued, Freeman started writing as well, his genre of choice being fantasy.

He graduated from HLG-U in 2010, with a bachelor’s degree in communication science.

He and his then-wife, Stephanie, moved back to New Mexico for awhile, before deciding to move back to Hannibal. They purchased a small house on Pleasant Street, near the Beth Haven complex.

Then, “we moved back to New Mexico, right before the pandemic. But every now and again, I’d go on Zillow and daydream.”

The cost of living was escalating in Albuquerque, swelled by Californians and Texans moving to the state.

Earning his living in marketing, he realized he could live anywhere, by working remotely.

“I saw this house (at 923 Center St.,) on Zillow. I looked at the pictures.

“One snowy February weekend,” he said, he came to Hannibal to see the house in person. “I felt like it was my home, where I needed to live.

“Anyways, we moved in.” At first, “(his wife’s) sisters were living with us, we were already renting out rooms. Cleaning, finding knick knacks, fixing up the house, things like that.”

When his marriage ended, he started reaching out, looking for boarders to occupy the house, with shared living space and private bedrooms.

“I found people that needed a place to live who were good people.” At the time of the fire, “Including myself,” he said,  “there were five people living in the house.”

“Everybody worked together and (we had a ) wonderful group of people. We took care of each other’s pets and helped with the dishes. We had something.”

And during this time, he immersed himself into the community. “I helped found the Hannibal Writers Guild. I was was a part of the St. Louis Writers Guild, and was on the board for the Missouri Writers Guild.

“Right now I’m freelancing,” he said. “I help people edit, format and publish their books. I’ve been doing that for a couple of years now. I have my own LLC and work for myself. 

“Rienspel” was his first book, published in October 2016.

Cat in hiding

As of Sunday afternoon, Freeman’s orange cat was still errant, although he is sure that she is safe. “She is just scared and hiding someplace,” he said.

He is hoping to be able to salvage some items from the house once he is allowed to go back inside.

One item in particular is a photo of the property given to him by Emily Trevathan, granddaughter of the long-time owners of the house, the Rev. Henry E. and Vassye Trevathan.

The main woodwork and hard wood floors had been restored about 20 years prior, Freeman said. The house originally had three fire places, but now had just two. 

At the time of the fire, the house had two working pocket doors. All the windows had been repaired. “We learned how to glaze windows,” he said.

“The exterior was rough when we bought it, but the bones had been refurbished.

“We repaired and fixed the upstairs bathroom and the plumbing. We were working on (the house).”

One of the bedrooms had tiles from the 1950s.

While working on the house they found bits of the original servant’s staircase.

Damage

As of Sunday afternoon, Freeman had not yet spoken to his insurance company.

“The back upstairs bedroom is a loss. The ceiling caved in, and the windows on the second floor were broken out by the fire department. The bedroom has big bay windows on the second floor, and 4 to 5 inches of insulation came down. The attic is gone completely.

“The first floor has heavy water damage, smoke, and bits of ceiling collapsed here and there,” he said.

“All that water went down to the basement, 5-6 inches. We have a sump pump, but it is still nasty.”

Moving on

“I’m staying at a friend’s farm north of town,” Freeman said. The boarders, “they have dispersed. One person is with her ex-boyfriend’s family; another is with her mom. I don’t know about the rest. “We’re all good people. We all just get along.”

Council decision

At its regularly scheduled meeting prior to the July Fourth holiday, the Hannibal City Council voted to legalize, for the first time in recent history, the use of fireworks on private property within the Hannibal city limits during designated hours on July 3, 4 and 5.

At the meeting, Fire Chief Ryan Neisen spoke out in opposition to the change in the city ordinance.

Council members Bob Koehn, Michael Fleetwood and Robbie Leeders voted in favor of allowing fireworks to be shot off within the city during prescribed hours; while council members April Azotea, Scott Haycraft and Nathan Munger voted in opposition of the measure.

Mayor Darrell McCoy cast the deciding, tie-breaking vote to allow for the use of fireworks on private property during the Fourth of July holiday.

1895 boarding house

When the house, which was then numbered 919 Center St., was built circa 1895, it was located just to the west of the Hannibal city limits. The court house had yet to be constructed, and the lot on the southwest corner of Tenth and Center was vacant. There were two houses to the south of the property, facing Broadway. In 1899 (before the courthouse was constructed) the houses were 830 Broadway, occupied by Frances and Margaret G. Kelley; and 832 Broadway.

Early residents of this house at 919/923 Center St., were the owners, Clarence A. and Mary E. Yates Kettering, who were married in July 1892. Their son, Clarence A. Kettering Jr., was born Aug. 17, 1893, in Hannibal.

By the time of the publication of the 1894 Hannibal city directory, the Ketterings were operating it as a boarding house, just as it was in 2025, at the time of the July 4 fire.

1894 boarders included:

Dr. Thomas Chowning, a physician with offices at 511 Broadway; and

Harry F. Morris, deputy state and county collector.

Lula M. Scott (colored) lived and worked as a domestic at this address.

The following year, boarders included:

Adelaide Sausser, widow of William Sausser;

Calvin H. Kasson, manager of the Wyman-Rand Carpet Company; and

Dr. Chowning, whose office had moved to 105 S. Fifth.

In 1900, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Bacon were boarding at the Ketterings’ house at 919 Center. In 1909, Mr. Bacon was the author of the “History of Hannibal,” contained within the volume, “Mirror of Hannibal.”

The Ketterings vacated the property in the spring of 1901, and advertised a sale of household furniture in the March 21, 1901 edition of the Hannibal Morning Journal.

Items offered for sale included bed room sets, dining room furniture, carpets, kitchen furniture and more.

The Ketterings relocated to Texarkana, Ark., and later to Oklahoma City, Okla.

For more than half a century, Mr. Kettering’s family operated the Kettering Hotel, located across the street from Union Depot, on the northwest corner of South Main and Collier.

The Ketterings sold their house, Lot 4, Brittingham SD, to Byron A. Loomis, in early March 1901. At the time the house address was 919 Center. (The address was changed to 923 Center, circa 1912, after the property was included in the city’s limits.) Clipping from the March 2, 1901, edition of the Hannibal Morning Journal. newspapers.com

Photo by Ryan Patrick Freeman

Photo by Ryan Patrick Freeman

Photo by Ryan Patrick Freeman

Photo by Ryan Patrick Freeman

Photo by Ryan Patrick Freeman

Photo by Ryan Patrick Freeman