History
History
of the Festival (cont'd)
By 1932, the sleepy town of Sucarnoochee had grown into one of the most important molasses-producing centers in America. The many small sugar factories of the last century had combined into two large factories, and the many buildings that had dotted the landscape of the town center had been demolished, making way for a broad Main Street with shops, saloons, and two motion-picture theatres.
The
"improved" Main Street, circa 1922, about ten years before the
disaster. The Macgillicuddy plant is just outside the frame at the upper
right edge of the photograph.
While an architectural and aesthetic success, the redesign of Main Street was actually disaster waiting to happen. The wide avenue, sloping gently down to Pine Street by the river and bounded by rows of shops on both sides, formed a sort of natual sluice--and perched at the top of the street was the Macgillicuddy Sugar and Molasses Co., with its giant 2,000,000 gallon molasses vat, the largest in the United States at the time.