An initial investigation considered the possibility of arson due to suspected corruption in the Post Office, which shared the same building, but it was later ruled out.

The fire is considered to be a unique point in the historical events of the Patent Office that caused policy changes.

In 1810, Congress authorized the purchase of the unfinished Blodgett's Hotel from its builder to house the Post and Patent offices.

Although equipped with a forcing pump and with riveted leather hose 1,000 feet (300 m) long (all purchased 16 years earlier by Act of Congress), there were no firefighters available.

[5] John Ruggles, chairman of the Senate investigating committee, reported that the lost items included 168 folio volumes of records, 26 large portfolios of some nine thousand drawings, related descriptive patent documents, and miscellaneous paperwork.

[4] Ruggles said that the documents and models destroyed by the fire represented the history of American invention for fifty years.

[7] The entire library of books were lost except one that an employee just happened to have secretly taken home to read, which was Volume 6 of Repertory of Arts & Manufactures (1794).

The Post Office Department at the time was already under investigation for allegedly awarding dishonest mail contracts.

The requirement ended in 1870 when the Office began printing complete copies of patents as issued.

The March 3, 1837 Act made provisions to restore the models and drawings lost in the 1836 fire.