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All the United States New York State New York City Brooklyn Brooklyn Theatre Fire Memorial

Brooklyn Theatre Fire Memorial

A mass grave for victims of one of the city’s worst fires.

Brooklyn, New York

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Heather Hausman
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The Brooklyn Theatre Fire obelisk.   SteveStrummer/CC0
Dedication on The Brooklyn Theatre Fire obelisk.   Chris Hamby/CC BY-SA 2.0
A stereoscopic view of the devastation following the Brooklyn Theatre fire.   Waller & Schrader, Photographers/Public Domain
Funeral procession for the victims of the Brooklyn Theatre fire.   Frank Leslie's Illustrierte Zeitung/Public Domain
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  wherearewedude / Atlas Obscura User
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About

On December 5, 1876, a toppled lantern on the stage of the Brooklyn Theatre would cause a horrific fire that would leave 278 dead. The building was thought to be up to safety standards, though all of the victims were trapped in a single staircase, most dying from smoke inhalation as they clambered to flee the balcony.

103 victims were either unidentifiable or belonged to families who could not afford a proper burial. This would usually mean burial in a pauper's field, but because the tragedy had received so much sympathy and press, a grand monument was dedicated to their sad deaths. They were buried in a circular mass grave in Green-Wood Cemetery, marked in the center with a granite obelisk.

Coincidentally, one of the fire’s survivor’s, Kate Claxton, was buried in another area of the cemetery in 1924. She had played the lead in The Two Orphans, the play that was being performed that fateful night in 1876. She only managed to escape by remembering that there was an underground tunnel that lead from a dressing room to the box office.

Related Tags

Catacombs And Crypts Monuments Cemeteries Graveyards Gravestones Death Graves

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Added By

HJHausman

Edited By

Molly McBride Jacobson, ickaimp, wherearewedude

  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • ickaimp
  • wherearewedude

Published

March 5, 2012

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Brooklyn Theatre Fire Memorial
500 25th Street
Brooklyn, New York, 11232
United States
40.658078, -73.994849
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