Chicago is one of the most renowned cities in the world for its remarkable growth over the years. The path to success has not always been a smooth one however, and the city has witnessed its fair share of catastrophic damage and recovery over the years.
Proving themselves tough in the face of disaster, Chicago showed the resolve to fight back after the Great Fire of 1871. But the huge influx of support Chicago received and the energy with which Chicagoans rebuilt their city comes with a question around the origins of the fire.
While the world witnessed the dire consequences of the fire, nobody has ever successfully reached a conclusion as to the cause of the fire. What was the Great Fire of Chicago and how did the city recover from the tragedy?
What was Chicago like before the Great Fire of 1871?
The Chicago of the mid 19th century was a boom town, with all the positives and negatives that come with such a moniker. For decades following its organization into a town in 1833 it became the world’s fastest growing city, an unstoppable force with unprecedented levels of growth.
From a starting population of 200, Chicago had grown to 30,000 in 1850, and almost a decade later, the number had grown to almost 100,000. During this time, the facility of cheap transportation to city outskirts encouraged middle-class citizens to disperse throughout the city. On the other hand, the poor neighborhoods were aggregated in the downtown area, which was heavily congested, with dwellings made of wood. Very flammable.
Prior to the Great Chicago Fire, the city had earned a significant status in the United States, which was emerging as a powerful international economy. It was extremely well sited, with amply waterways to facilitate transportation and in a prime spot to join the industrial west and the agricultural east of the US.
People flocked to Chicago, a town where fortunes could be made but a town rendered dangerous and poorly organized by rampant, unchecked growth. With them they brought money, information, and goods, elements which played a crucial role in faster rebuilding of the city after the fire.
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Chicago housed almost as many startup businesses as there were people to think them up. In addition, the lakefront, as well as the branches of Chicago River, hosted huge volumes of commercial traffic.
Furthermore, the convergence of primary freight railroads as well as modern grain elevators to shift resources to Chicago’s growing warehouse district gave the people what they needed to live, thrive and survive in the rapidly expanding metropolis. The city of Chicago, aware of their success, also started public construction projects, such as the Court House, the limestone Gothic Water Tower at Pine Street and the Pumping Station on Chicago Avenue, all built before the fire.
A Town Built of Wood
The majority of buildings in Chicago were made of wood, and the supposedly “fire-proof” buildings made of stone and bricks still contained many flammable materials and in truth were barely better. Fires were common, but it was perhaps only a matter of time before the rampant growth led to something worse.
On the fateful evening of October 8, 1971, the Great Chicago Fire started and burned until the morning of October 10. While we are still unsure about the cause of the fire, we can certainly identify contributing factors.
As well as unsafe construction, a lack of rainfall for months had left the city tinder-dry. With wooden dwellings packed tightly together, especially in the downtown areas, the fire had favorable grounds to spread, and it did.
We even know where the fire started: the De Koven Street Barn in the city’s West Side. The barn belonged to an Irish immigrant couple, Patrick and Catherine O’Leary. While Patrick worked as a laborer, Catherine delivered milk, and no one in Chicago had ever bothered about the couple.
The fire started in their barn and quickly consumed the shed near the barn in flames before roaring into a fiery blaze that would engulf the city. Armed with this information, many have speculated as to what happened in the barn.
One of the accounts suggests that a milk thief or gambler stumbled upon a lamp while fleeing the barn. Some people also think that vandals might have caused the fire on purpose for fun.
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Among the many explanations for the cause of the Great Chicago Fire, the most interesting would be the one with Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. Apparently, Catherine O’Leary’s cow had kicked a lamp while she tried milking the cow, thereby lighting the barn on fire.
Irrespective of the cause, the damage that followed was nothing short of catastrophic for the young city. 300 people lost their lives and almost one-third of the city’s population rendered homeless. The steady southwestern wind fanned the flames, which moved from block to block. By the end an area of Chicago almost 60 blocks long was destroyed.
The Great Recovery
As the Great Chicago Fire raged on for two days, desperate calls for help invited the attention of many professionals and eminent architects. After the fire, almost one-third of the city was in ruins, and almost 17,000 structures had been destroyed.
The fire had consumed a major portion of Chicago’s business district. However, the city had some luck amidst the destruction, as the fire had spared the stockyards alongside the new packaging plants on the South Side.
In addition, many of the lumberyards, mills and wharves along the Chicago River escaped the Great Fire. One of the significant boosters for the finances of Chicago following the fire revolved around industries that dealt with agriculture.
The Great Chicago Fire changed many things about Chicago and put it on a new road toward even faster growth. One of the striking inferences from the Great Fire of 1871 is the speed at which Chicago recovered from the ruins.
New laws were put in place for construction of buildings with better assurance of fire safety. However, Chicago had to face the wrath of another fire, albeit smaller in extent, in July 1874. At the same time, the city also faced many setbacks in the first phase of rebuilding. Years after the tragedy of the Great Fire, Chicago continues to be one of the most populous, richest and most successful cities in the world.
Top Image: Chicago in flames: the Great Chicago fire consumed much of the city. Source: Currier and Ives / Public Domain.
By Bipin Dimri
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