Good morning, Chicago.
What do you know about the Great Chicago Fire?
Don’t be afraid to admit you know little, if that’s the case. That was me in January. I knew that a cow may have been involved in sparking the 1871 disaster, but that’s it. I’m also embarrassed to admit that just a few years ago, I was Catherine O’Leary for Halloween — my son was the cow and my husband the Chicago Fire (as in the Major League Soccer team).
Yet, I knew just where to turn to give myself a crash course in what might be the most monumental event in Chicago history — the Tribune archives.
And, lucky for me, I had someone to dig with — Tribune photo editor and @VintageTribune Instagram account manager Marianne Mather.
We found digitized editions of the Tribune printed after the fire with striking accounts of the destruction, loss of life and the drive to rebuild the city under the “CHICAGO SHALL RISE AGAIN” rallying cry.
Mather and I have partnered on a variety of projects steeped in the past, but never before were we faced with the challenge of bringing to life a story that had no photos of the event as it happened.
We needed help. The Chicago History Museum, the Newberry, Illinois State Archives, the archives department at the clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County and other local institutions offered to open their records to us and our Tribune colleagues.
As a result, we found “burnt records” of deeds lost to the fire and “baked volumes,” waiting inside a Springfield vault for technology to unveil what’s on their pages. We identified six structures that survived the flames and still stand today. We followed the new trend of mass timber construction and wondered if Chicago might, once again, embrace wood-based building design. We found a woman who, thanks to DNA testing, now knows her connection to the O’Leary family history.
Under the guidance of editor Jocelyn Allison, we’re honored to mark the fire’s 150th anniversary with a special section of stories that not only reflect on the past but also find inspiration through “The Great Rebuilding.”
— Kori Rumore, visual reporter
Visit chicagotribune.com/greatfire for more and watch for the Tribune’s special section, “The Great Rebuilding: Chicago 150 Years After the Fire,” to be published Sunday, Oct. 3.
Commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire with this personalized keepsake book
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In October 1871, the Great Chicago Fire wiped out a third of the bustling young city in two days of raging flames, destroying nearly every building in its downtown. Then, in a part of the story that never made it into song, Chicago immediately began rebuilding, laying the foundation for the great world city it would become.
The apocryphal tale of a family cow kicking over a lantern in the barn on DeKoven Street has made the O’Leary name synonymous with Chicago’s destruction. But in the anniversary year of the family’s biggest tragedy, descendants say they’re embracing their Irish heritage and want to finally put the old rumor to rest.
The Great Chicago Fire destroyed 17,450 buildings. Here are six that survived and still stand today.
What qualifies a building as having “survived” the Great Chicago Fire? Depends on your criteria. Though several had major interior damage from the fire, these six structures remain standing 150 years later.
It was a common situation in the months and years following the initial chaos and death caused by the fire. Official property deeds stored in the Cook County Courthouse were destroyed when the building went up in flames in October 1871, as were many private records kept at home.
As Chicago rebuilt, the city and state found ways to reestablish the missing documents. One hundred and fifty years later, the lessons learned from their destruction and recreation could prove crucial as property records are lost to deteriorating microfilm, floods or cyberattacks.
Some of the oldest Chicago records sit inside a special climate-controlled vault at the Illinois State Archives, largely indecipherable after being damaged in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It could take infrared technology to read their contents and determine their legal, genealogical and historic implications.
The emergence of taller wood-based buildings demonstrates how far building techniques have changed in the 150 years since the Great Chicago Fire.
It’s yet to be seen when the first mass timber building will rise in Chicago, where fear of fire remains strong — despite the city’s reputation for architectural ingenuity.
On Oct. 8, 1871, even as the Great Chicago Fire roared 250 miles south, the arguably greater Peshtigo Fire — still considered the deadliest fire in United States history — leveled more than 1 million acres, flattened 16 neighboring towns and killed between 1,200 and 1,500 people. It’s still largely unknown and unremembered.
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Op-Ed: Family lore, and lessons, live on 150 years after Great Chicago Fire
Our family stories about the Great Chicago Fire are like many of Chicago’s stories about itself. They lean heavily on romanticized fragments of memory. What can Chicago become in the next 50 years? To find out, we need to make Chicago a place that welcomes everyone, writes Liam Ford.