Cocoanut Grove Fire Plaque
A boy with a match, a door that jammed, and a plaque that had to move.
Listen to this place’s story in Peplos.
How the story begins
A sixteen-year-old busboy carried the blame for this fire for the rest of his life, and the official report never said he started it. His name was Stanley Tomaszewski. On the night of the twenty-eighth of November, 1942, he was told to fix a light bulb on an artificial palm tree in the Melody Lounge of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub. A couple had taken it out for privacy. It was dark, so he lit a match to find the socket, and stepped on the match.
The rest is in the app. Peplos plays the full story when you reach the place. You can also listen ahead of time.
Visiting
Corner of Piedmont Street and Cocoanut Grove Lane, Bay Village. Outdoors, seen from the public sidewalk at any hour. A larger memorial is being built nearby in Statler Park, 243 Stuart Street; its committee now expects to dedicate it in spring 2027.
Sources
- Kevin Cullen, Boston Globe, Cocoanut Grove plaque shoved down the street (2016)
- Boston Globe, 75th anniversary event (2017)
- Boston Fire Historical Society, The Cocoanut Grove Fire
- Wikipedia, Cocoanut Grove fire (Reilly report quotation, 10-day inspection)
- Boston Globe, 1970 article (newspapers.com)
- Cocoanut Grove Memorial Committee
- New England Historical Society, The Kid Wrongly Blamed
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