Residents of Abilene are in shock this morning. Their historic Kirby House Restaurant, built in 1885 caught fire last night. Nobody was inside when the fire started.

Terry Tietjens of Abilene was at the scene of the fire. Tietjens is the man who turned the Kirby House into a restaurant. He purchased the home in 1986 and at the time it had been turned into an apartment building. After Tietjens bought it he spent a year restoring it and turning it into a restaurant. Tietjens went on to say,”We opened it as a restaurant in 1987 on October 17th. What a nice restaurant it was. It’s a big piece of our history going up in flame tonight.”

Emotions ran deep with Tietjens. He made a comparison that showed how much the house meant to him,”It’s like loosing one of your children, or loosing an important person in your life.”

He said that the renovation cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and really was a nice restaurant for the community. He later sold the restaurant and moved on to other projects. Tietjens is currently a big part of “Old Abilene” in downtown Abilene.

The Kirby House was built in 1885.