Broad Street Riot

1837 brawl between Irish Americans and firefighters in Boston, Massachusetts

The Broad Street Riot was a massive brawl that occurred in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 11, 1837, between Irish Americans and Yankee firefighters. An estimated 800 people were involved in the actual fighting, with at least 10,000 spectators egging them on. Nearby homes were sacked and vandalized, and the occupants beaten. Many on both sides were seriously injured, but no immediate deaths resulted from the violence. After raging for hours, the riot was quelled when Mayor Samuel Eliot called in the state militia. In the wake of the riot, Boston's police and fire departments were established.

Boston was a major center for immigration in the 19th century due to its large seaport. Nativist and anti Catholic sentiment was strong, especially among working class men whose jobs and wages were threatened by an influx of poor Irish immigrants. On Broad Street, it was common for groups of nativist Yankees to vandalize Irish homes and attack lone Irishmen. In 1832, Mayor Charles Wells received a petition "praying that some measures may be taken to suppress the dangerous riots, routs, and tumultuous assemblies in and about Broad Street." At the time of this particular riot, nearly all of Boston's firefighters were volunteers. The city had a policy of paying whichever company was first to arrive on the scene. As a result, the volunteer fire companies were intensely competitive, as well as notoriously undisciplined, and often fought with each other. In 1834 the entire company attached to Engine 13 was dismissed for disorderly conduct. The volunteers were nearly all working class "Yankees", meaning American born Protestants.

At about 3 p. m. As Mayor Eliot's grandson later noted in his account of the incident, the pub must have been operating illegally as it was a Sunday, and, in Massachusetts, blue laws were then in effect. According to others, the crowd had begun to disperse, and the matter might have ended there had the foreman not "lost his head completely". In any case, Miller ordered his men to sound the emergency alarm. First they rolled their wagon into the street, ringing the fire alarm bell; then Miller sent men to ring the church bells, summoning all the fire engines in Boston. According to the Boston Transcript, Miller then ran to another firehouse, shouting, "The Irish have risen upon us, and are going to kill us!" Protestant workmen came running to the aid of the firefighters, while underfoot, injured and unconscious men lay sprawled on the pavement.

The riot was used as the basis of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones song "Riot on Broad Street". The narrative from the song differs from the facts as presented by numerous historians. According to most sources, the riot commenced between an engine company returning from a fire, and an Irish funeral procession. In the song, however, the firefighters are described as being on their way to an ongoing fire at a brownstone. The song further describes the frustration of the firefighters halted by a funeral procession moving "way too slow". The song concludes with a lyric that the "brownstone lay in ashes".