Where the Cocoanut Grove Stood

Piedmont Street in Bay Village is quiet now, lined with brick and a hotel garage. On the night of November 28, 1942, it was the site of the Cocoanut Grove, a crowded nightclub decorated with artificial palm trees and fabric hangings. A fire began in the basement lounge and swept through the club in minutes. The main entrance was a single revolving door, which jammed as people pressed against it. The death toll is usually given as 492. The cause has never been settled; the official finding was "unknown." What followed changed the country. Massachusetts and other states banned flammable decorations, required exit doors to swing outward and stay unlocked, and demanded lit exit signs. Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital treating the burned developed new methods of fluid resuscitation and burn care. A small plaque set in the brick sidewalk near the corner of Cocoanut Grove Lane, placed in 1993 and moved a few feet in 2016, marks the spot.