At the Brooklyn Historical Society, my group learned about the Brooklyn Theater Fire that happened on December 6, 1876 where 278 people burned to death and 722 survived. Of the 278 people who perished, 103 were buried together on this site with funds donated by wealthy people and the city of Brooklyn for those fire victims whose families could not afford to bury them. Some of those families also received other monetary help, especially when the victim was the sole provider for the household. This serves as a permanent “living” monument to those fire victims, I call it a “living” monument because of the beautiful flowers that surround it. The monument itself was erected by the City of Brooklyn, before it became a borough of New York City.
