Abstract: | Crystals of 9‐methylfluoren‐9‐ol, C14H12O, undergo a reversible phase transition at 176 (2) K. The structure of the high‐temperature α form at 200 K is compared with that of the low‐temperature β form at 100 K. Both polymorphs crystallize in space group P with Z = 4 and contain discrete hydrogen‐bonded R(8) ring tetramers arranged around crystallographic inversion centres. The most obvious changes observed on cooling the crystals to below 176 K are an abrupt increase of ca 0.5 Å in the shortest lattice translation, and a thermal transition with ΔH = 1 kJ mol?1. |