Fighting Fire: The Establishment of Boston's Modern Fire Department

This 1838 map of Boston shows the layout of Boston during the Broad Street Riots. The riots began on Broad Street (present day Atlantic Avenue near South Station) and spread through the area. Rioting was particularly heavy on Purchase Street.

The riots began when a fire company returning from a Roxbury fire met an Irish funeral procession on Broad Street and began to scuffle. After the riots, Mayor Samuel A. Eliot headed a joint committee that prepared this report on the riots.

Mayor Samuel Atkins Eliot assembled the militia to calm the riots and placed a guard at every church in the city, in order to prevent individuals from raising false alarms.

This letter from a Boston shopkeeper documented the damages incurred to his store and merchandise during the riots and asked the City Council for compensation.

In this letter, a petitioner describes her experience of being caught in the riots with her young child.

This anonymous letter-writer complained that Chief Fire Engineer William Barnicoat mistreated Irish rioters and asked "Did you expect to stop the riot by driving the Irish back and then allowing the yankies to follow them?"