Lunch & Learn: Smithfield's Disastrous 1921 Wharf Fire

Today marks the 104th anniversary of the huge fire that radically changed the town’s economy. Citizens raced down to the docks to the loud screams of steamboat whistles and the clanging of church bells. The conflagration consumed most of the industry that had made Smithfield “The peanut capital of the world” and was only stopped by the well-timed arrival of Suffolk’s new “motor pump” fire engine.

Come to the museum to learn the dramatic story of the blaze that turned the town’s focus from peanuts to ham.