[The Corner of Perkins and Pearl Streets, Looking to Broad Street]

The Great Boston Fire began on the evening of November 9, 1872, in the city's business district and burned through the following afternoon. As photographer James Wallace Black remarked shortly thereafter, "[F]or the past week I have had hardly time to take a breath, such has been the call for photographs of the burnt district." Indeed, Black was out photographing even though the fire gravely threatened his own livelihood, stopping literally across the street from his studio on Washington Street.

These haunting ruins stood on the east side of Pearl Street at the south corner of Pearl Place looking towards Broad Street. The view was taken soon after the fire, before officials denied spectators access to the burned areas. The assembly of men amidst the rubble wearing overcoats and ties, some even sporting top hats, appear as though they have just arrived to work, only to discover that the various "& Co.'s," whose nameplates are still visible on the corner bricks, are no more.