Vendome Fire Memorial, (sculpture).

Vendome Fire Memorial, (sculpture).

Clausen, Ted, sculptor.

White, Peter, sculptor.

Vendome Fire Memorial, (sculpture).

1997. Dedicated June 17, 1998.

Sculpture: bronze; Base: black granite

Overall: approx. H. 4 ft. x D. 1 ft.

(On front of black granite base:) When that bell rings we are all the same. We are a team. We have one job to do./FF Thomas W. Beckwith Engine Co. 32 March 22, 1937 - June 17, 1972/2:35 pm there is smoke in the cafe of the Hotel Vendome, Commonwealth Avenue & Dartmouth St. Workmen pull box 1571/2:40 pm Firefighters arrive, finding smoke & flames coming from the third & fourth floors./FF Joseph F. Bouche, Jr. Engine Co. 22 January 10, 1944 - June 17, 1972/2:44 pm District Four reports box 1571 a working fire. At 2:46 pm a second alarm is struck/Our teamwork is everything; our life depends on every other firefighter. You never forget this./Lt. Thomas J. Carroll Engine Co. 22 May 18, 1920 - June 17, 1972/3:02 pm a third alarm is struck/FF Charles E. Dolan Ladder Co. 13 September 6, 1924 - June 17, 1972/We don't talk about the tragic fires. It would be too much. We go home to our families.

3:06 pm A fourth alarm is struck/we save lives & property. We are not heroes. We do what we love. We do our jobs./Lt. John E. Hanbury Jr. Ladder Co. 13 May 20, 1926 - June 17, 1972/Our families know that each day could be our last. It's just part of the work./5:20 pm the fire is contained. Companies start to make up, preparing to leave the building/FF John E. Jameson Engine Co. 22 March 20, 1920 - June 17, 1972/The worst death, but you learn to let it go. You wouldn't be able to do your job./FF Richard B. Magee Engine Co. 33 Sept 17, 1932 - June 17, 1972/5:28 pm without warning four floors of the Vendome collapse, burying 25 firefighters/2:00 am Firefighters search the rubble until all are accounted for. 9 firefighters are dead, 16 are injured/There is the unknown in every fire.

You do your job, follow the plan; still something can go wrong./FF Paul J. Murphy Engine Co. 32 March 5, 1936 - June 17, 1972/Investigations reveal that the Vendome did not collapse because of the fire, but from structural weakness/FF Joseph P. Sanwik Ladder Co. 13, August 8, 1924 - June 17, 1972/Sometimes you have to say there's nothing more we could have done./Losing a firefighter brings back every other loss.

This memorial to the nine firefighters who died in the 1972 Hotel Vendome fire consists of a low, curved black granite wall inscribed with text that details the sequence of events leading up to the fatal moments of the fire. Quotations from firefighters and the names and dates of the nine firefighters who died in the fire are also inscribed on the black granite wall. At one end of the wall, a bronze sculpture of a firefighter's jacket and helmet lies along the top of the wall. The memorial is installed on a flat oval-shaped plaza paved with cobblestones.

Occupation -- Service -- Fireman

Dress -- Uniform -- Fireman Uniform

Outdoor Sculpture -- Massachusetts -- Boston

Administered by City of Boston, Boston Art Commission, Office of Cultural Affairs, Boston City Hall, Room 716, Boston, Massachusetts 02201

Located Commonwealth Avenue Mall, Dartmouth Street & Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts

During a fire on June 17, 1972, the rear floors of Boston's Hotel Vendome collapsed, burying twenty-five firefighters, nine of whom were killed. The memorial is installed across the street from where the Hotel Vendome once stood. The memorial was funded by the Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund. IAS files contain an article from the Boston Glove, June 19, 1997, pg. E1-6.

The inscription on a nearby plaque reads: The design, fabrication and installation of the Vendome Firefighters Memorial was made possible/though the efforts of the Vendome Memorial Committee and the Boston Fire Department with funding/support from hundreds of individual contributors and the Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund, a public charitable fund administered by the Trust Office of the City of Boston. Artists Theodore Clausen and Peter White designed this memorial to be a commemorative and reflective space which honors/the lives and deeds of the nine Boston Firefighters whose lives were lost battling the Vendome Hotel/Fire on June 17, 1972 and firefighters everywhere who risk their lives in service to the public. This memorial is maintained by the Vendome Firefighters Memorial Committee and/the Boston Parks and Recreation Department/1997

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Massachusetts survey, 1998.

Boston Globe, June 19, 1997, pg. E6.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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