Donagan Lane
| Donagan Lane
Peppardville [77,40]
Basic Info:
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Description
Donagan Lane is a short stretch of road in a little-frequented, industrial area of Peppardville. It was once home to the Donagan theatre, which burned down during the Great Fire of 1912. The theatre was never rebuilt, and the site remains a wasteland - largely due to the discovery that the underlying bedrock was porous and unstable, making it hazardous to build over it.
History
Donagan Lane was renamed in honor of the renowned theatre actor, playwright, director, and Malton local Lane Donagan in 1897. Donagan had established the popular and well-known Donagan Theatre ten years earlier. In 1912, the Great Fire hit Malton; most of Peppardville was spared, but the Donagan Theatre was burned to the ground. Lane Donagan is presumed to have died in the fire, as he was last seen backstage of the theatre, though his remains have never been found. There is a fringe theory claiming that Lane Donagan himself started the fire, as his most recent play, Springtime for Kaiser, had opened to awful reviews the night before, and Donagan had in fact already set three of his most vocal critics on fire that very day.
The Malton Records Bureau in Fryerbank was also heavily damaged; among the records lost were all references to the Donagan Lane area of Peppardville before 1887. By that time, no one could remember what the street had been called originally, and so its name could not be reverted and the name "Donagan Lane" stuck.
The area attained something of a reputation for being cursed after 1912. The 1913 Malton Typhoid Epidemic had Donagan Lane as its epicenter, as did the 1914 Malton Tuberculosis Epidemic, the May 1915 Malton Leishmaniasis Epidemic, and the December 1915 Malton Genital Herpes Panic. In 1917, a built-to-scale replica of the Lusitania broke through a sinkhole at the site of the old Donagan Theatre, and all hands were lost. From 1935 to 1988, most of Donagan Lane was uninhabitable due to concurrent infestations of Eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, malaria-transmitting Anopheles mosquitoes, and boll weevils. The "Not Great But Kind of Necessary Fire" of 1988 cleaned the area out, but in 1991, twenty-five engineers belonging to the Commission to Raise the Replica Lusitania were lost in the sinkhole which had opened up in 1917. The sinkhole was filled in with debris and it was unanimously agreed to just stay the hell away from that part of town.
The sinkhole was partially excavated in early July of 2005, shortly after the beginning of the Malton Outbreak. It was reasoned that the location would make a perfect natural site for a "mass grave" in order to dispose of infected bodies; however, groundwater had shifted the bulk of the replica Lusitania over the decades, placing its hull directly against the opening. Donagan Lane was abandoned for good when the risen dead claimed Malton for their own.
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