The Great Molasses Flood Mystery in Boston's North End

Do you have a sweet tooth, a craving for sweeteners such as molasses? In January of 1919, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, you would have had more than your fill - how about two and one half million gallons of molasses flooding the streets and houses of the historic North End? The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 is a little known event tied to several of this country's dominant social concerns of the early twentieth century.

The Molasses Flood Details

One block over and three blocks down from the historic, Old North Church is 529 Commercial Street, bordering the inner harbor where shortly before noon on January 15, 1919 a huge storage tank burst. The tank owned by Purity Distilling Company was 50 feet high, 90 feet around and held that most common sweetener of those days, heated molasses. The rupture unleashed a wave as high as 15 feet, traveling 35 miles per hour with pressure of over two tons that caused widespread devastation. Flying debris broke the girders of elevated train tracks, a train was knocked off the tracks, a truck was hurled in to the harbor, houses and businesses were crushed and most tragically 21 people were killed and about 150 were injured. Neighborhoods from several surrounding blocks were 3 feet deep in standing molasses. The combined work hours by government workers, volunteers and residents took the equivalent of 10 years to clean up the mess. To this day some say on a hot humid summer day you can still smell the molasses in the North End section of Boston.

Why did the molasses truck rupture?

The definite cause of the tank rupture remains a mystery. Local legends supposedly based upon insider knowledge of neighbors and workers tell of various plots while the official record is clear on liability, yet exact cause has never been established. There was a civil hearing that stands as the longest in Boston history at over three years and involved an incredible 920 witness testimonies, 3,000 interviews, and 6 years to complete the report!

The owners settled claims after a court finding of poor construction and negligent maintenance of the tank. The molasses was routinely moved by rail car to the company plant in Cambridge where it was distilled and used in the manufacture of munitions in World War I. At the time, Italian anarchists with ties to leader Luigi Galleani lived in and around Boston and in fact, one anarchist was convicted and deported for bombing a Boston police station near the sight of the molasses tank.

Common theories about the Great Molasses Flood of 1919

The molasses company owner claimed Italian anarchists exploded the tank. A number of states recently ratified prohibition and it was clearly going to become law in Massachusetts in the coming months. Some theorists contend the molasses company overfilled and stressed the tank in hopes of increasing alcohol production to gain profit.

Another theory was the possibility the Prohibitionists ruptured the tank to stop the profiteering in alcohol. Others contend explosive gases built up and exploded within the tank because the outside air temperature was 2 degrees F a few days before the spill and had risen to 40 degrees the day of tragedy,. This Boston tragedy has much intrigue with bombs, Italian anarchists, shoddy workmanship, bizarre legal proceedings, greedy businessmen, Prohibitionists and erratic temperature variations. The true cause still is and probably always will be an unsolved mystery.

Resource:

John Mason, "Eric Postpischil's Molasses Disaster Pages, Yankee Magazine Article," Eric Postpischil's Domain, 14 June 2009