Episode 1 of 3

Fire Occurrence

Name: Fire Occurrence
Start: 1836-12-15
Location: Blodget's Hotel building

When: 1836-12-15
Where: Blodget's Hotel building
Part of: United States Patent Office fire in Washington, D.C.

The fire broke out at 3 a.m. on December 15, 1836, in Blodget's Hotel building in Washington, D.C.

The fire occurred in Blodget's Hotel building, Washington, on December 15, 1836. An initial investigation considered the possibility of arson due to suspected corruption in the Post Office, which shared the same building, but it was later ruled out.

Sources

1836 U.S. Patent Office fire Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-21

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.