Nine Photos That Show the Destruction of the Great Boston Molasses Flood
See the aftermath through the eyes of photographer Leslie Jones.
![](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/01/great-boston-molasses-flood-5.jpg)
Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
Workers stand in front of a large section of the exploded tank.
![](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/01/great-boston-molasses-flood-10.jpg)
Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
A house was swept under the elevated railroad tracks and destroyed.
![](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/01/great-boston-molasses-flood-7.jpg)
Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
Piles of wreckage at a lumber yard lay stuck in the goo.
![](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/01/great-boston-molasses-flood-1.jpg)
Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
Boston’s elevated train tracks buckled under the pressure.
![](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/01/great-boston-molasses-flood-2.jpg)
Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
A worker uses an acetylene torch to cut the tank in order to remove it from the muck.
![](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/01/great-boston-molasses-flood-3.jpg)
Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
Firehouse No. 31 was knocked off of its foundation and almost pushed into the nearby harbor.
![](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/01/great-boston-molasses-flood-6.jpg)
Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
The flood demolished huge sections of Commercial Street and Atlantic Avenue.
![](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/01/great-boston-molasses-flood-9.png)
Photo via Anthony Mitchell Sammarco/Wikimedia Commons
An ambulance arrives at the scene.
![](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/01/great-boston-molasses-flood-4.jpg)
Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
Firemen work to extract a section of the tank.
Learn more about the Great Boston Molasses Flood, 100 years later.