Archival Photo

A2011-001.1597 : First Great Chelsea fire : Chelsea, MA

Sunday, April 12, 1908

A2011-001

AP/87138

The Great Chelsea fire of 1908, also known as the First great Chelsea fire, was a conflagration that occurred on 12 April 1908, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Nineteen people were killed, fifteen thousand people were left homeless, and 350 acres were burned in the fire. The fire started two hundred yards away from where the Great Chelsea fire of 1973 started. This photograph is looking east from Broadway, showing about a half of the middle of the destroyed section. The photo shows ST Rose Church in the top left corner, Bellingham Hill to the right of ST Rose and Washington Ave along the right side of the photo.