1940
On June 7, 1940 about 12:00 noon, Robert Wade, the chemist, reported fire in the second floor after some local residents began yelling and pointing to the roof. Mr. Wade attempted to put the fire out but couldn't due to the fact that it spread rapidly from the roof down a bottle shoot and into a packing area. Mr. Wade only managed to salvage his desk and a favorite keg of strawberry liquor. He lost all of his wedding presents, which he was storing in his office. It was never proven, but due to the fact that several fires had been discovered at earlier dates, and they correlated with passing locomotives, it was assumed a spark from a steam locomotive landed on the roof and ignited the fire.
Over 100 firemen fought the blaze. The Lawton hoses burst on their Model A and an American-La France pumper was brought in from Kalamazoo, along with men and other equipment. Water had to be pumped a mile and there simply wasn't enough to do the job so the creek, which ran adjacent to the winery, was dammed and pumped.
The huge casks on the main floor had to be burst so they would not explode. When that happened 100,000 gallons of wine made its way into the dammed creek, via the winery drains, and the firemen began pumping wine water on the fire. Tons of glass bottles melted and ran through drains into the cellar, but the casks in the cellar remained unharmed and were cooled for days by a constant flow of water. 250,000 gallons of wine was saved. One hundred firemen returned home after losing the battle but word has it they were a happy group of firemen after all, part of their job was to rescue the contents of the building.
Houppert immediately began a clean up operation and started rebuilding what now stands as a massive cobblestone structure. Stones were hauled from Porter township farms, which has an over abundance of that building material by virtue of being a terminal morain. Stone mason, Ed Schallhorn, and his father of Paw Paw, along with Bill Sampsell of Lawton, began the gigantic task of constructing the 24 inch thick stone walls. Some of the stones weighed 50 pounds and are placed 30 feet up in the walls. The original foundation was used and the overall building was enlarged.
By 1940 Houppert was back in business but he never fully recovered from the fire. The building wasn't totally finished until 1943.