Shoes

On the morning of September 11, Molly Houghton was in her office at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (Deloitte) in the World Financial Center, across the street from the World Trade Center. Concerned that what was happening outside was dangerous, Houghton and others decided to evacuate their eighth and ninth floor offices via the stairs. They reached street level quickly and were outside when Flight 175 struck the South Tower. As they made their way north and west of the area, Houghton stumbled over a pair of running shoes left in the middle of the street. 

In an instinctual act, Houghton picked up the shoes and carried them with her for a few blocks. As others began their evacuations out of lower Manhattan, Houghton joined a colleague headed uptown. Realizing she had a long way to walk, she removed her sandals and put on the running shoes she had found. Although the shoes were several sizes smaller than her feet, improbably, they proved a perfect fit!

As Houghton and her colleagues continued their evacuation uptown, they stopped to make a phone call. Much like the good fortune of finding the running shoes, Houghton found “two bright quarters” side by side on the ground, enabling her to make a phone call home to assure her family of her safety. She tucked the remaining quarter in her pocket for safekeeping.

Houghton made her way as far as Yonkers before getting a ride and finally arriving at her home in northeast Westchester County later that day. She placed the New Balance sneakers she had worn in her closet. For 16 years, she would look at them daily and credit them with her survival. Houghton donated the shoes to the Museum with the hope that they might someday be reunited with their original owner. She also donated her "lucky" quarter.