Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 2
1787-04-21
Snow'd quite fast this morning, and the weather was very cold. Between 10 and 11 however we departed from Kingston, and arrived a little before two at Cushing's tavern in Hingham, where we dined, after which we proceeded forward; I stopp'd at Dr. Tufts's, where I found, my brothers and Cousin. At about Sunset I started again, and got home, just after dark. I then heard of a terrible fire, which happened in Boston last night,1 and consumed an hundred buildings among which three or four belonging to Mrs. Amory, the mother of an amiable classmate of mine, whose misfortune I peculiarly lament.
The fire was centered along Orange (now Washington) Street near Beach Street in what was then the southern part of Boston. The fire's destructiveness was eclipsed up to that time only by the great fires of 1711 and 1760 (Independent Chronicle, 26 April).