Historic Wilburton store burns

<br>WILBURTON, Okla. (AP) _ A store built in 1905 that once housed a coal company and the Latimer County Courthouse has burned to the ground. <br><br>``It's a landmark building that's not going

Monday, September 2nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WILBURTON, Okla. (AP) _ A store built in 1905 that once housed a coal company and the Latimer County Courthouse has burned to the ground.

``It's a landmark building that's not going to be there anymore,'' said Wilburton Fire Chief Floyd Allen.

Firefighters from six communities tried to save Annie's Little Store early Saturday, but the fire blew through the two-story brick building's roof and destroyed it.

``The public themselves were pulling hoses and helping out tremendously, but it was such an old building there wasn't any stopping the fire,'' Allen said. ``We hate to lose something like that.''

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

The building, constructed by Great Western Coal and Coke Co., was the last original company store building in the eastern Oklahoma coal territory, according to Clyde Wooldridge's ``Wilburton: I.T.-OK.''

Latimer County bought the building in 1915 and converted it into a courthouse. In 1939, the county sold the building to private enterprise. It has housed several businesses since then.