Embedded Files
According to the Historic Boston Globe on March 25th, 1920, a fire occurred at what was previously the 1912 property of Miss. Minnie Kee. Now occupied partially by Joseph Beal and Company, 453-457 Atlantic Ave, corner of Oliver St. was owned by the Massachusetts General Hospital.
The second floor fire was especially noxious due to the combination of materials which were burned, including but not limited to acids, glue, paper, paint for children’s toys, boiling ink, and rubber. Because the building housed the Crocker-Penn wool warehouse, the fire was very smoky.
Damage to the building and firms most affected is estimated to have been $150,000 conservatively, and as high as $200,000. Of those firms housed within the building, the most damage was to: Joseph Beal & Co. machinery, Patent Cereal Company Bay State Bindery, the National Company, machinery dealers, and F. E. Bacon Company, printers.
1895 Sanborn Insurance Map
Sanborn Insurance Map Key
Keys are used by cartographers to describe what types of materials are involved in the construction of various parcels, such as this one, pictured at left. The pink shade indicates that, in 1895, this block of buildings was constructed from brick with frame cornice. So while the wooden frame and building contents were consumed by fire, the brick prevented this block from being completely destroyed.
Atlantic Ave Buildings between Oliver St. and Cotton Place ~ 1931
An exterior view, provided by Historic New England, of the J.O'Harra, Junk Dealer, E. Hobart, Carpenter, the Globe Theater and the Columbia Theater commercial buildings. There is a group of men standing outside the Columbia Theater and a man in a horse and carriage waits on the sidewalk. The photo shows brick buildings with wood panelling on the exterior. Streets are wide, and allow one to imagine them full with fire companies in the event of an emergency. . ,
Corner of Atlantic Avenue & Pearl Street ~ October 31st, 1920
This five story brick office and storehouse building was owned by Mass General Hospital and housed various important firms.
June 31, 1937
8:30 PM
A fire began on the fourth floor of this five-story brick office and storehouse building, and was fed by papers, furniture, and wood shavings (“excelsior”) used to stuff office furniture. The fire spread from the fourth to second, third, and fifth floors.
32 engine companies responded to the scene, with firefighters using their hoses to spray the flame from the rooftop of buildings across Atlantic and Pearl street. Burning paper and leather caused smoke from the fire to be so thick that it took 90 minutes for firefighters to be able to properly enter the building. While inside the building, fire chief Daniel Crowley fell twenty feet and had to be transported to the city hospital. Three other firefighters had to be treated for minor injuries at the site and thousands of pedestrians gathered to observe. Firefighters regarded the building as a “jinx” due to a previous fire on Christmas Eve, 1914, which caused firefighters to be overcome with smoke inhalation.
The fire was made worse by the materials present in the building- paper, leather, and machinery district, as well as by its location on the waterfront, where cold and wind chill pose a greater threat to containing fires. The fire caused $30,000 in damage and threatened several other important buildings in the district.
The building housed the firms: W.T. Shackley and Son Company, leather belting manufacturers; The Proctor Paper Company, the Harry Kramer concern, with lighting fixtures and heavy hardware, and The Joseph Parry Company, dealers in mill machinists’ supplies. Those most affected were the W.T. Shackley Co. and Proctor Paper Co.
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