The Burning of Chelsea

The Burning of Chelsea by Walter Merriam Pratt

Chelsea, Massachusetts, is a city with a history stretching back to 1624, when Samuel Maverick became its first settler. Among its many historical distinctions, it hosted the first ferry in the country, the first fortified house in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the first naval battle in American history, fought in Chelsea Creek in 1775. By the early twentieth century, the once-aristocratic suburb of Boston had transformed into a densely packed industrial and commercial city of roughly forty thousand inhabitants, covering barely two square miles, making it one of the most densely populated cities in the United States. On the morning of Sunday, April 12, 1908, a fire broke out in the western part of the city near a blacking company building, most likely ignited by a burning pile of rags on a nearby dump. A forty-mile-per-hour gale rapidly spread the flames to a rag shop two blocks away, and from there to a tar paper factory, a gasoline shed, and surrounding wooden structures. The fire expanded in a fan-like pattern, overwhelming firefighters despite the prompt arrival of engines from Boston, Malden, Lynn, Everett, Revere, Cambridge, Medford, Melrose, and Winthrop. The blaze consumed everything in its path with terrifying speed. Brick and stone buildings that residents had assumed would serve as firebreaks offered little resistance. Entire blocks vanished in minutes. The fire swept through tenement districts, business centers, and residential neighborhoods alike, racing up the slopes of Mount Bellingham and down toward the waterfront, where oil tanks exploded and burning barges spread the conflagration to East Boston. In total, the fire burned across approximately 492 acres, a mile and a half long and three-quarters of a mile wide, making it the third largest urban fire in American history at that time, behind only San Francisco and Chicago. The human toll was immense. Seventeen thousand four hundred and fifty people were made homeless. At least eighteen bodies were recovered, with estimates suggesting an equal number were entirely consumed. Over three hundred injured were treated at local hospitals. The scenes of flight were chaotic and harrowing: families abandoned furniture in the streets, animals perished by the thousands, elderly residents had to be carried to safety, and many people suffered temporary mental collapse under the strain. Three fire engines were destroyed, caught in the path of the advancing flames. The Frost Hospital, City Hall, the Public Library with over eighty thousand volumes, thirteen churches, eight schools, the Armory, the post office, the Young Men's Christian Association building, and more than twenty-three oil tanks were among the major structures lost. Firefighters performed with extraordinary courage, remaining at their posts until their clothing ignited and their faces were burned. The Malden fire department was credited with saving the northern section of the city by holding the line at the Standard Oil Station. The velocity of the wind only began to decrease as the fire reached the oil works, and it was not until one in the morning that authorities declared the danger of further spreading had passed. The military response was swift. United States Marines from the Navy Yard arrived that afternoon and cleared Chelsea Square. By midnight, twelve hundred State troops were on duty, martial law had been declared, and a complete cordon was thrown around the city, turning back an estimated one hundred thousand onlookers at the perimeters. Relief operations mobilized on a massive scale. A citizens' committee was formed the same evening, with William E. McClintock as chairman. Headquarters were established at the High School. Supplies, food, clothing, and volunteers poured in from across Massachusetts. Lee, Higginson and Company served as treasurers for a relief fund that ultimately exceeded three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, drawn entirely from within the state, as outside contributions were not solicited. An average of twelve thousand people per day were fed at relief stations for weeks. President Theodore Roosevelt telegraphed an offer of federal assistance. Messages of sympathy arrived from senators, foreign governments, and General Booth of the Salvation Army. The insurance loss was calculated at approximately eight million eight hundred thousand dollars, with total property losses estimated near twenty million dollars. The taxable value of destroyed property alone was placed at over twelve million dollars. In the aftermath, civic leaders moved quickly to address rebuilding. A legislative bill was introduced to appoint a five-member commission with full governing powers over the city for a fixed term, bypassing normal political processes to ensure continuity and restore investor confidence. The bill passed with near-unanimous support from Chelsea's citizens and civic organizations. Plans were laid to widen streets, erect fireproof buildings, relocate schools and public institutions more conveniently, and develop the waterfront with a mile of new wharf property. The fire, catastrophic as it was, was viewed by many residents not as an ending but as an enforced renewal, an opportunity to rebuild Chelsea as a better-ordered, more modern, and more prosperous city than it had been before.

By Walter Merriam Pratt · First published 1908 · Genre: Historical Fiction, American History, War Fiction · 12 chapters · 22,458 words

First lines

Before relating the story of THE BURNING OF CHELSEA it seems that a slight sketch of the history of the city may be appropriate. Thousands of people read, with mingled interest and horror, newspaper accounts of the burning of Chelsea, who had previously only heard of the city in a casual way, perhaps in connection with the unfair and time-worn expression, "Dead as Chelsea. " Few people who have not made a study of the matter realize how much Chelsea stands for in history. To quote from a speech made by the late historian, Judge Mellen Chamberlain, L. L. D., at the laying of the corner-stone of the Prattville Schoolhouse, the city is associated with more really "first things" than any other city of this State or continent.

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historical fiction · American Revolution · colonial America · eighteenth century · New England · Massachusetts · Boston area · war · patriotism · British troops · military conflict · local history

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