On the far side of Bay View Avenue and Battle Avenue's interesection, is a tall obelisk commemorating the Brooklyn Theatre Fire of 1876. This large monument was erected by the City of Brooklyn to memorialize the 278 people who lost their lives during the fire on December 5, 1976 Buried here are 103 of the victims.
Theater was a main source of entertainment for 19th-century America. One of the more prominent theaters, the Brookly, located at Johnson and Washington streets, held more than a thousand patrons on a Tuesday evening to watch Kate Claxton (also interned in Green-Wood) appear in "Two Orphans."
As the play was ending, someone told Claxton that a kerosene lamp had ignited a small fire amid backstage. Since the actors were unsure what to do, Claxton whispered, "Go on, they will put it out, if we say anything there will be a panic, go on." The fire could not be extinguished, and it started to burn out of control. As the audience learned of the fire, Claxton reassured the crowd, "We are between you and the flames. Nonetheless patrons fled in panic, clogging the few narrow exits. Within half an hour the roof had collapsed and 278 lives were lost.
Claxton was found the next morning, dazed and burned, wandering near Manhattan City Hall. She claimed to not remember crossing the river, and this was years before the Brooklyn Bridge was completed. She was therafter known as "Kate Claxton of the Big Brooklyn Fire."
The City of Brooklyn arranged for a mass grave in Green-Wood for those families who couldn't afford a burial and for the unidentified bocies. Cemetery workers dug a 7-foot-deep crescent shaped common grave and 103 donated coffins were arranged with heads facing the center.
Green-Wood Cemetery National Register #97000228
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