Last month, Reader Peter S. wrote in and gave us the scoop on the “Great Banana Explosion.” That name alone got our attention, so we began doing some research.
In 1946, Assembly Street looked a little different. Stretching about 10 blocks , Assembly Street’s curb market was Columbia’s agriculture hub for produce for over 80 years. On Thurs., Nov. 14, 1946, The State Newspaper reported there was a 100-ft wide explosion.
Assembly Street’s curb market in 1934 | Photo by Russell Maxey provided by Richland Library’s Digital Archives
To transport the bananas to the market, the fruit would usually ship green at 54º and ripen using ethylene gas in a banana-ripening chamber before being sold for consumption. Late, Fire Chief A. McC. Marsh reported the explosion occurred on the 900 block of Assembly Street — likely due to the strike of a match — when lighting a cigarette that was in close contact with the combustible gas.
The explosion killed five, injured eight , and caused between $10,000-$15,000 in property damages (about $187,000 today’s dollars).
Assembly Street’s curb market was eventually moved to Bluff Road in the early 1950s and was coined the “The Million Dollar Market” before it was taken over by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture.
The market currently sits as the SC State Farmers Market at 3483 Charleston Hwy. in West Columbia. For information on events or to see which produce is in season, visit the SC State Farmers Market’s Facebook page.
Have other pieces of history you want us to cover? Let us know here.