By Harold H. Strayer and Irving L. London

This was Johnstown's main business district. Here stood its greatest stores—and its opera house. In front of the John Thomas store on Main Street — now occupied by Sears, Roebuck and Company destruction was beyond description. 120 persons spent the night in this building many pulled to safety as they floated by on roof tops.

During the time of the flood, St. John's Church was located at the corner of Jackson and Locust Street. It was a spacious structure with a large congregation and elegantly furnished. During the height of the flood the house occupied by the M. L. Woolf family collided with the church. Mrs. Woolf was baking at the time and had a hot fire in the stove. The stove overturned and the church caught fire and presented a peculiar scene. With water surging half way to the roof the fire consumed the church, the brick house of Andrew Foster and the remains of the Woolf dwelling. The flames raged until midnight. Two walls fell and later two were destroyed by dynamite. A temporary frame church was erected in the rear of the lot and the first service was held the third Sunday in June.