Even as swank steel and glass office buildings rose up around it, the squat, wooden James Hook & Co. lobster warehouse remained near Rowes Wharf in downtown Boston, a modest, even grubby reminder of Boston's seafaring soul.

Operated by four successive generations of Hook family members since 1925, the company kept its homespun feel even as it grew to become one of the country's largest lobster distributors. Relatives could often be found serving lobster rolls at the lunch counter, packing lobsters for shipping, or crunching numbers in the office. story continues..

More than 60,000 pounds of live lobsters - worth more than a half-million dollars - were lost in the blaze.