Dover's Black Day began with record-breaking rainfall on March 1 and 2, 1896, which ravaged downtown Dover. Torrents of rushing water and ice floes swept away the Central Avenue bridge, and several stores and offices in the Bracewell Building were destroyed. Merchants in the southern portion of the building included Fred Foss's stationery store, Roberts Bros. Boots and Shoes, the Misses Flynn millinery shop, Drew and Boomer photography studio, and the law offices of William Roberts, with combined losses totaling over $23,000. Building owner Col. John Bracewell estimated at least $20,000 more in structural damage. The bridge began to sink at 4 PM on March 2 as immense ice cakes from upstream repeatedly struck its piers, and at 4:55 two spans thirty feet wide went down. Less than five minutes earlier, the bridge had been filled with people who were removed by the City Marshall just in time. The Bracewell Block caved in at exactly 8 PM with crashing glass, snapping timber, and a cloud of plaster and lime, while debris flowed swiftly over the dam. Electric poles then fell into the streets with live wires sparking, and much merchandise and equipment from Dover businesses was found in Portsmouth the next day, from lead pencils to fine bonnets to brogans.