
Cleveland’s Saddest Fourth – The 1908 S. S. Kresge Fireworks Explosion
If you drive by 2025 Ontario Street today you might easily miss it. But on July 3, 1908, that address became history—terrible history. You’d never guess, to look at its modern glass-and-trim front, that it was once the scene of a fiery, exploding holocaust that brought death to seven, injury to dozens, and a day of terror, tears, heroism, and shame to the city of Cleveland. For this is the site of the S. S. Kresge fireworks explosion and fire …