THE HURRICANE OF ’38 swept through town 86 years go this week, uprooting hundreds of trees and plunging most the town into darkness from sundown on Sept. 21 until the following day. The infamous storm hit Wakefield at full force with 90-100 mph gales starting at about 5 p.m. Many homes were damaged and entire streets were blocked by falling trees. A chimney on the Methodist Church collapsed through the roof and crushed an interior balcony. Part of a roof and chimneys were blown off a building at 171 Albion St., causing tenants to run for their lives. Plate glass windows of Main Street stores were shattered and slate shingles blowing off the old Town Hall smashed windows on the Taylor building. Spray from whitecaps on Lake Quannapowitt was estimated to have reached heights of 100 feet. Of the 30-40 boats moored off the Common, only about six were still afloat the next morning. Yale Avenue and Richardson Avenue were among the hardest hit streets, with 17 large trees coming down on on Yale Avenue and six on Richardson Avenue. Weather forecasting was primitive by today’s standards, and “the worst hurricane ever experienced by New England” struck Wakefield almost without warning. There was no mention of an impending hurricane in the previous day’s Daily Item.
