Riverside Park Explosion: July 29, 1903

On July 29, 1903, an explosion rocked a neighborhood in northwest Tewksbury known as Wigginville, today a part of Lowell, on the banks of the Concord River. Alongside the close-packed residential neighborhood, two buildings stood between Billerica Street and the river in which the United States Cartridge Company, the American Powder Company, and Dupont stored dynamite and gunpowder. When the storage facilities had originally been built, the area had been uninhabited; but since then, a community of working class families had developed around it.

On that Wednesday morning, some canisters in one of the buildings began to leak nitroglycerin, and workers attempted to clean it up. The cleaning solution they used caused a chemical reaction with the nitroglycerin which resulted in an explosion, and subsequently ignited the gunpowder stored in the other building.

The resulting devastation completely leveled 13 nearby homes and damaged 67 other houses in the neighborhood. 22 people were killed, including employees at the storage facilities. The incident became known as the Riverside Park Explosion or alternatively the United States Cartridge Company Explosion. An investigation found the town of Tewksbury and the companies equally at fault for not ensuring the explosive material was stored elsewhere after the neighborhood became populated, and the United States Cartridge Company and the American Powder company settled 170 claims of damages.

The Tewksbury Public Library’s Local History Collection includes a copy of the 1903 report on the Explosion as well a selection of photographs taken of the area after the devastation. You can view scans of these materials below:

Read coverage of the explosion in The Lowell Sun:

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Riverside Park Explosion: July 29, 1903