The Great Molasses Flood

On January 15, 1919, the streets of Boston's North End neighborhood were drowning—not in water, but in molasses.

The Tank

The Purity Distilling Company had built a massive storage tank near the Boston Harbor waterfront. It stood 50 feet tall and 90 feet in diameter, holding 2.3 million gallons of molasses used to make rum and industrial alcohol.

The tank had been poorly constructed. It leaked so badly that locals would collect the molasses dripping from its seams. Company officials

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At approximately 12:30 PM, the tank suddenly burst. The bolts holding it together shot out like bullets, followed by a 25-foot wave of molasses moving at 35 miles per hour.

The wave destroyed everything in its path. It demolished buildings. It crushed horses and wagons. It knocked an elevated railway off its supports.

21 people died. 150 were injured. Rescuers struggled to reach victims

The Aftermath

The cleanup took weeks. Workers used salt water, sand, and eventually just gave up on complete removal. For decades afterward, residents claimed you could still smell molasses on hot summer days.

The lawsuit that followed, one of the first class-action suits in Massachusetts history, dragged on for six years. Purity Distilling eventually paid about $600,000 in damages (roughly $10 million today).

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