Piedmont Park Square (Coconut Grove site) | 21 Piedmont Street | Bay Village

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briv

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New condo/townhouse project going up on the site of the infamous Coconut Grove fire. The site is currently a parking lot.

From the project's website http://www.piedmontparksquare.com/index.html:

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Piedmont Park Square is a new construction building in Bay Village that offers eight luxury condominiums in a mix of single level and row-style houses. All of the condominiums were designed with sophisticated finishes and modern, professional grade appliances to give owners the most comfortable experience possible. Premium amenities include direct elevator access, garage parking, private exterior terraces and large glass openings in living spaces. Piedmont Park Square perfectly blends city life with the calm and peaceful neighborhood of quaint Bay Village. The Lifestyle

Nowhere else in the city of Boston is a more unique and well thought out luxury residential building. Great detail was given to Piedmont Park Square's contemporary design all while upholding a sense of respectful symmetry as it perfectly fits in Bay Village. Piedmont Park Square is uniquely positioned to satisfy all lifestyle needs as either a commuter's home base or a family's dream home, where an exciting lifestyle awaits.
The Residences


  • Row house or single-level floor through layouts
  • Private outdoor spaces and roof terraces
  • All units feature garage parking with elevator access
  • Select units with private entrances from the street level
  • Sleek design for modern city living
  • High-end finishes
  • Modern home features and amenities
  • High efficiency HVAC systems
  • Bike Storage
 
A bit surprised the site is being developed as residential. Researching, there is a memorial plaque set in the sidewalk, and an abutting street was renamed Coconut Grove Lane last year.
 
I think Random was referring to the site's history.
 
Huh, I never considered anything rising on this site. Not that I think it should remain a sacred parking lot forever but it's just odd to think of shiny new luxury condos where such a gruesome event happened.

FYI the BPL has a frighteningly complete collection of photos on the event. There's no bodies in the pics but they are graphic nonetheless: https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157631071090782/

This building will rise where the one story structures in the middle of the pic once stood:

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And the site back in January:

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For those who don't know the severity of the event, it was the deadliest fire in the United States in the last 100 years.
 
For those who might not know this, whenever you walk through a revolving door in Boston as well as many other places, you'll notice that push doors are found on either side of the revolving door. This safety feature (as well as lighted exit signs over doors) is one of the many safety features introduced to buildings as a result of the huge death toll from the Coconut Grove fire.
 
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Also one of the first medical uses of penicillin resulted b/c of the fire.
 
I'm pretty sure a great deal of the Coconut Grove site actually sits underneath the parking garage.
 
I'm pretty sure a great deal of the Coconut Grove site actually sits underneath the parking garage.
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Eh, not as much as might think. Only that two-floor part in the far-left corner is buried under the garage (and maybe a couple feet of the 1-floor building). There is a road in place of where the small one-floor section was between the existing row-houses and that two-story piece. You can see the Jae's building in that photo so there is a pretty good idea of where the edges of everything are relative to today with the garage.
 
The only indication of the fire is this plaque located on the rear staircase wall of the garage. Could not find any sidewalk marker.
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The sidewalk marker has been removed temporarily(?). It was dead center inside of the fenced off area where construction is going on. I saw them removing it one morning.
 
meddlepal said:
Eh, not as much as might think. Only that two-floor part in the far-left corner is buried under the garage (and maybe a couple feet of the 1-floor building). There is a road in place of where the small one-floor section was between the existing row-houses and that two-story piece. You can see the Jae's building in that photo so there is a pretty good idea of where the edges of everything are relative to today with the garage.
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Another reference, if you look at the vintage pic I posted you can see across from Jae's is that brick house with a peaked roof which is still there and now sits at the corner of the block (see my second pic).

BeeLine said:
By the way JAE's is being demolished as we speak.

JAE's (Demolition in progress) 19Jun
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Beeline, you should share that in the project's thread: http://archboston.org/community/showthread.php?t=2055&page=4
 
My Boston magazine story from a couple days ago:

Condominiums to Rise on Site of Cocoanut Grove Fire
The nightclub burned down in 1942, claiming 492 lives. Now, eight luxury homes will be built on the site.
By John A. Keith | Boston magazine | Real Estate | June 17, 2014 2:33 pm

On November 28, 1942, a fire broke out at the Cocoanut Grove restaurant/supperclub on Piedmont Street in Bay Village, killing 492 patrons. Now, 72 years later, a new eight-unit condominium project is under construction on the site.

On Monday, Danielle Bing and Serafin Sanchez, of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty, began marketing the Piedmont Park Square condominiums. The new project will include four two-bedroom, floor-through units with 1,100-1,600 square feet priced from $1.2 million, as well as four single-unit rowhouses with 3-4 bedrooms and 2,600-3,000 square feet priced from $2,792,000, according to their website.

The Cocoanut Grove fire holds a significant place in city and national history. In its heyday, the club had more than 10,000-square feet of space, including three bars and lounges, as well as room for dining and dancing below a stage where the house band performed. It spread between three buildings a city-block wide, nestled among Broadway, Shawmut, and Piedmont Streets. Today, the roads have been reconfigured, and the Revere Hotel actually occupies much of the physical space where the club was located. These eight new homes will rise on the remaining land, which for much of the past 70 years has been a surface parking lot on Piedmont Street.

The night of the fire, Cocoanut Grove was filled to twice its capacity when the flames broke out, and hundreds of people became trapped inside due to unmarked exists, doors that opened inward instead of outward, and a club owner who wouldn’t let people leave without paying (and who was later charged and sent to jail). Within minutes, the Boston Fire Department had the fire under control, but it was too late. The death toll was first estimated at 260 victims but eventually reached 490 dead with another 166 injured. (The Boston Public Library’s Flickr feed includes over 100 photos of the fire and its aftermath.)

The fire stunned the city’s residents and shocked the rest of the nation, even as Americans were dealing with the deaths and injuries of Americans off fighting World War II. Few disasters of this magnitude had occurred before. Even today, it’s considered the fifth worst loss of life in U.S. history after September 11, Pearl Harbor, the Titanic, and the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago. Across the country, the tragedy led to changes in fire codes in cities involving lighting, exits, stairways, and signage. Methods used by doctors at MGH to treat burns and smoke inhalation became standard across the country.

These days, a simple plaque along the sidewalk honors those who died and were injured in the fire:

“Erected by Bay Village Neighborhood Association, 1993. In memory of the more than 490 people who died as a result of the Cocoanut Grove fire on November 28 1942. As a result of this terrible tragedy major changes were made in the fire codes and improvements in the treatment of burn victims, not only in Boston but across the nation. “Phoenix out of the Ashes”.

A smaller inscription in the lower left corner reads, “This plaque crafted by Anthony P. Marra, youngest survivor of the Cocoanut Grove fire.” The plaque has been removed while the construction continues.

Whether home buyers in the new Piedmont Park Square project will feel peace while living on the site of the fire is the question. Should nothing ever be built? The Cocoanut Grove disaster was three-quarters of a century ago; is it realistic to expect the site to remain empty forever? It’s certainly not unprecedented for land to be re-used in the city of Boston, or after other disasters claim lives. In Boston, the Hotel Vendome fire claimed the lives of nine firefighters in 1972; million-dollar condominiums are now on that site. In Chicago, the Iroquois Theatre eventually reopened.
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