Site of America's deadliest nightclub fire
Piedmont Street in Boston's Bay Village marks the site of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, where a fire on November 28, 1942, killed 492 people, the deadliest nightclub fire in American history. A busboy's match ignited an artificial palm tree in the basement Melody Lounge, and locked and jammed exits trapped the crowd inside.
A busboy's match set off America's deadliest nightclub fire
Cocoanut Grove is now an empty patch of sidewalk, marked by a plaque near Piedmont Street. On this ground stood one of Boston's most popular nightspots, a club with a reputation as a gangland hangout. On the night after Thanksgiving in 1942, it became the site of the deadliest nightclub fire in American history.
The fire started around 10:15 p.m. In the basement Melody Lounge, when a sixteen-year-old busboy named Stanley Tomaszewski lit a match to find a light socket, trying to replace a bulb in an artificial palm tree. The tree caught fire, and flames raced up fake palm fronds and across the ceiling in seconds.
The club was built for 600 people. That night it held more than a thousand. Many exits had been locked or bricked over to stop people sneaking in without paying. The main way out was a revolving door, and it jammed solid as the crowd pushed to escape. Within minutes, 492 people were dead. Among them was Buck Jones, a famous singing-cowboy movie star.
Barney Welansky, the club's owner, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to up to fifteen years. He was pardoned in 1946 when he was dying of cancer. He told reporters he wished he had died with his customers. He died nine weeks later.
A football team's lucky loss turned out to be a myth
Officials never settled the question completely. Most accounts blame Stanley Tomaszewski's match, but some researchers note the city never announced a single official cause. A rumor spread for years that a mystery gas had caused the blaze. Investigators later debunked it.
A different story spread fast around Boston that week. People said the Boston College football team had planned to celebrate at Cocoanut Grove that night, and skipped it only because they lost their game. The story goes that the loss saved their lives. Records instead place the team's party at the Hotel Statler, not at the club.
Boston commits funds toward a new memorial nearby
Mayor Michelle Wu committed $300,000 toward the project. Its dedication is planned for the spring of 2027.
Every November 28, people still gather on this sidewalk to remember the dead.
A survivor forged the plaque that marks this ground
The disaster forced sweeping changes to fire codes nationwide. Exit doors had to swing outward, fitted with panic bars, and placed beside any revolving door. Sprinklers became mandatory in clubs and restaurants. Burn treatment itself advanced because of lessons learned that night.
Survivor Anthony Marra, who was a boy inside the club, grew up to become a metalsmith. In 1993, on the fire's fiftieth anniversary, he crafted the sidewalk plaque himself. A newer steel plaque went up in 2018. A larger memorial, shaped like the club's old entrance and inscribed with all 490 names, is planned nearby in Statler Park.
A steel plaque on the sidewalk is the only marker where the Cocoanut Grove once stood.
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