where history comes alive
The air in Boston’s North End on January 15, 1919, was crisp, carrying the scent of coal smoke and the salty tang of the nearby harbor. It was a typical winter afternoon, with children playing and workers heading home, unaware that their lives were about to be irrevocably altered by a wave of sweet, sticky … Read more
The air in Boston’s North End on January 15, 1919, was thick with the usual winter chill, but beneath the surface of normalcy, a disaster was brewing. It wasn’t the rumble of impending war, nor the whisper of a new plague, but something far more insidious and sticky: a colossal tank of molasses, poised to … Read more
In the heart of Boston, on a sweltering January day in 1919, a disaster of unimaginable viscosity unfolded. It wasn’t a fire, nor a bomb, but something far stranger and more insidious: a tsunami of molasses. It was a crisp winter afternoon, January 15, 1919, and Boston was abuzz. The Great War had recently ended, … Read more
The year is 1919. Boston, a city steeped in history and the aroma of industry, was about to be forever marked by a disaster as bizarre as it was brutal. It wasn’t fire or flood in the traditional sense, but a tidal wave of a different kind – a monstrous surge of molasses that swept … Read more
The winter of 1919 in Boston was already a harsh mistress, with the nation still reeling from the Great War and grappling with the impending Prohibition. Yet, on January 15th, a day of unseasonable warmth, Boston was to face a disaster of truly sticky, and horrifying, proportions. A colossal tank, holding over 2.3 million gallons … Read more
The air in Boston on January 15, 1919, was unseasonably warm for a January day. Citizens bustled through the North End, a vibrant immigrant neighborhood, unaware that a slow-moving catastrophe was about to engulf them. The cause? Not a bomb, not a fire, but something far more bizarre and deadly: a colossal wave of molasses. … Read more
The air in Boston’s North End on January 15, 1919, was unusually warm for a mid-January day. Temperatures had climbed rapidly, reaching a balmy 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This unseasonable warmth, however, was about to unleash a disaster of sticky, suffocating proportions. For years, the Purity Distilling Company had operated a massive storage tank, towering 50 … Read more