Few events can be said to have changed the face of Boston forever. Eventually destroying 775 buildings and causing millions of dollars in damage to the commercial section that we now know as Boston's business district, the Great Boston Fire of 1872 was a spectacular conflagration that destroyed "old Boston" and allowed a phoenix to arise from the ashes. This exciting new pictorial history brings to life the drama that began one Saturday evening in 1872 when a fire started in an empty hoop-skirt factory on the corner of Summer and Kingston Streets. At the time, Boston was in the throes of a epizootic disease that caused all horses in the area to be ill. This caused a virtual shutdown of transportation and city services and delayed the fire department's response to calls for help. By the time the breathless firemen arrived, the fire had already consumed the granite five-story factory and burst through the mansard roof, which acted as a flue and spread the fire. Within an hour, much of Summer Street was engulfed in flames and firemen from near and far were being summoned to combat the spread of the deadly blaze. By midnight, the fire had spread through Summer Street to Arch Street and was attacking Winthrop Square. Old Trinity Church, at the corner of Summer and Hawley Streets, had given itself up to the flames.

Few events can be said to have changed the face of Boston forever. Eventually destroying 775 buildings and causing millions of dollars in damage to the commercial section that we now know as Boston's business district, the Great Boston Fire of 1872 was a spectacular conflagration that destroyed "old Boston" and allowed a phoenix to arise from the ashes. This exciting new pictorial history brings to life the drama that began one Saturday evening in 1872 when a fire started in an empty hoop-skirt factory on the corner of Summer and Kingston Streets. At the time, Boston was in the throes of a epizootic disease that caused all horses in the area to be ill. This caused a virtual shutdown of transportation and city services and delayed the fire department's response to calls for help. By the time the breathless firemen arrived, the fire had already consumed the granite five-story factory and burst through the mansard roof, which acted as a flue and spread the fire. Within an hour, much of Summer Street was engulfed in flames and firemen from near and far were being summoned to combat the spread of the deadly blaze. By midnight, the fire had spread through Summer Street to Arch Street and was attacking Winthrop Square. Old Trinity Church, at the corner of Summer and Hawley Streets, had given itself up to the flames.

For two days in November, 1872, a massive fire swept through Boston, leaving the downtown in ruins and the population traumatized. Coming barely a year after the infamous Chicago fire, Boston’s inferno turned out to be one of the most expensive fires per acre in US history. Yet today few are aware of how close Boston came to destruction. Boston author Stephanie Schorow masterfully recounts the fire’s history from the foolish decisions that precipitated it to the heroics of firefighters who fought it. Lavishly illustrated with period artwork and photographs and published just before the fire’s 150th anniversary, The Great Boston Fire captures the drama of a life-and-death battle in the heart of the city.

The 1872 Great Boston Fire was barely contained after two days of spreading rapidly across the city, becoming one of the most expensive fire disasters in America. Stephanie Schorow, a seasoned Boston veteran, masterfully recounts the stories and heroics surrounding the fire, those which have all been slowly forgotten by the public. Collaborating with the Boston Fire Historical Society and featuring artwork from the time period, a dramatic narrative retold for a modern audience.

A lively history of Boston’s emergence as a world-class city—home to the likes of Frederick Douglass and Alexander Graham Bell—by a beloved Bostonian historian “It’s been quite a while since I’ve read anything—fiction or nonfiction—so enthralling.”—Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island Once upon a time, “Boston Town” was an insulated New England township. But the community was destined for greatness. Between 1850 and 1900, Boston underwent a stunning metamorphosis to emerge as one of the world’s great metropolises—one that achieved national and international prominence in politics, medicine, education, science, social activism, literature, commerce, and transportation. Long before the frustrations of our modern era, in which the notion of accomplishing great things often appears overwhelming or even impossible, Boston distinguished itself in the last half of the nineteenth century by proving it could tackle and overcome the most arduous of challenges and obstacles with repeated—and often resounding—success, becoming a city of vision and daring. In A City So Grand, Stephen Puleo chronicles this remarkable period in Boston’s history, in his trademark page-turning style. Our journey begins with the ferocity of the abolitionist movement of the 1850s and ends with the glorious opening of America’s first subway station, in 1897. In between we witness the thirty-five-year engineering and city-planning feat of the Back Bay project, Boston’s explosion in size through immigration and annexation, the devastating Great Fire of 1872 and subsequent rebuilding of downtown, and Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone utterance in 1876 from his lab at Exeter Place. These lively stories and many more paint an extraordinary portrait of a half century of progress, leadership, and influence that turned a New England town into a world-class city, giving us the Boston we know today.