Sticky Catastrophe

On a cold January day in 1919, Boston’s North End was torn apart by one of the strangest and most devastating disasters in American history. A massive storage tank holding over two million gallons of molasses burst without warning, sending a dark wave surging through crowded streets. In seconds, buildings splintered, horses drowned, and families were trapped in a suffocating flood that defied belief.
What followed was more than a cleanup. It became a battle for justice that revealed corporate negligence, government failures, and the struggles of immigrant communities who had long been ignored.

Engineers, survivors, and officials clashed in court as one of Massachusetts’ largest lawsuits unfolded, exposing how carelessness and greed could bring about catastrophe. Out of tragedy came new laws, stricter building codes, and a reckoning with the responsibilities of industry.

This book tells the full story of that day and its lasting impact—not only the horror of the flood itself, but the voices of those who lived through it, the long shadow it cast on Boston politics, and the way it became embedded in folklore. Both absurd and heartbreaking, the disaster endures because it reminds us how the most ordinary substances can conceal extraordinary danger—and how resilience, memory, and accountability shape the legacy of a city scarred by sweetness turned deadly.