The hottest day in Melrose

July 4th, 1911 was the hottest day in the history of the Boston area, reaching 104 degrees. Most communities reported the quietest Fourth of July celebrations in memory. Melrose, in contrast, had a party that lasted almost 24 hours and involved over 10,000 people.

By the late 19th century, the modern celebration of the Fourth of July had taken shape, and featured ostentatious displays of patriotism, much eating and drinking, and backyard incendiaries. It had become such a day of excess that in 1911 Massachusetts even adopted the slogan “A Safe and Sane Fourth” to encourage responsible behavior.

In Melrose, backers of a new Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Building had used Fourth fervor to mount a referendum on July 1st to fund a new “arena.” The city’s lone movie theater, located in City Hall, staged a day of patriotic films and music to encourage “yes” votes. The referendum passed easily, clearing the way for the construction of Memorial Hall.

The Fourth festivities began on the night of the third, with the playing of a two-hour concert of patriotic songs by a military band at the Common, followed by the traditional midnight lighting of the community bonfire. The fire station across the street meant that there were hoses at the ready to douse any errant embers. The Melrose Free Press reported that afterwards “everyone went home, but not to sleep. It was too hot.”

The next morning the parade began on West Wyoming at 9:45, featuring hundreds of marchers, from the solemn (the remaining Civil War veterans) to the silly (a “horribles” parade featuring cowboys, a hobo band, fake policemen, and “Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Cohen as real Hebrews.”) The march traveled from Wyoming to Main to Lynde to Malvern to Lebanon to Green to Franklin to Vinton to West Foster, a long slog in stifling heat. Thousands of people lined the route.

At 1 PM there was a children’s concert at City Hall, and each child received an American flag. At 3 PM, in the worst heat of the day, the Melrose High School baseball team, featuring their star pitcher, Ralph Cram, played a game at Pine Banks against Waltham. They lost the game, but each player received a baseball-shaped watch fob.

In the evening there was another band concert and dancing at Ell Pond, ending with a grand fireworks display.

The Melrose Free Press concluded the next week that the festivities “can surely be considered an illustration of a Safe and Sane Fourth,” and “that there were no fires, no casualties, and no persons arrested for intoxication reflects to the glory of Melrose.” Most miraculously, although there were reports of people from other communities being rushed to Melrose Hospital for heat-related illnesses, it seems not a single Melrosian got sick from the heat on that day.