Frank
Sinatra sang My Kind of Town in the 1964 Rat Pack film (Robin and the 7 Hoods),
he was joined by the crowds on the street as he walked out of the court house a
free man. Mobster Robbo (played by Sinatra) had been framed and he was a grateful
man that day and he was cheered on by onlokers. The song was nominated for an
Academy award, but it lost out that year to another joyous tune, Chim-Chim-Chere-ee
from the 1964 musical Mary Poppins.
Yet,
Sinatra’s song became a beloved one, particularly to proud Chicagoans, and most
of us know it. “And each time I roam, Chicago is calling me home.”
The
American Library Association is headquartered in Chicago and it makes perfect sense
that every four or five years the association schedules its annual conference
there.
And
that’s perfectly fine with me.
Despite
its reputation for violence, corruption, traffic, heat and humidity, I love
traveling to Chicago when ALA is scheduled in June. The light stays long into
the evening after the conference events have ended, the streets are highly
walkable, the restaurants are all delicious, and Chicago is just my “kind of
town.”
My
last trip to Chicago in June, I treated myself to a 1-1/2 hour river cruise at
sunset given by the Chicago Architectural Foundation. The city is particularly stunning
from the water and the history of hundreds of elegant skyscrapers comes alive
with the sun to the west and the darkening sky to the east. It’s simply
breathtaking.
My
favorite non-fiction book happens to be set in Chicago. The Devil in the White
City by Erik Larson parallels the construction and events of the Columbian
Exposition (or 1893 World’s Fair) with the true story of one of Chicago’s
serial murderers. (There are many other true serial murders set in Chicago,
including Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy and the 1940s Lipstick Killer, William
Heirens.) My next trip to Chicago will definitely include a 3-1/2 mile CAF bus
tour of the landscape of both the World’s Fair and the footsteps of evil Dr.
D.H.H. Holmes.
But
enough about Chicago and its crime. Let’s move on to one of its tragedies – the
Great Fire of 1871. If you visit Chicago today, you can wander many of the same
streets and imagine yourself on the banks of either of the forks of the Chicago
River where the fire both started and stopped. It began in Patrick and
Catherine O’Leary’s barn on DeKoven Street, jumped the South Branch of the
Chicago River to the east, traveled north and then jumped the main Chicago
River and burned most of Chicago along the banks of Lake Michigan. Due to rain
and diligence of firefighters, the fires stopped just east of the North Branch
two days later, saving the west of more destruction.
By
October 10, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire caused 300 people to die, thousands of
buildings to burn to the ground, and millions of dollars in damages. Over one
hundred thousand more residents were left homeless. The devastation ran four
miles in length along the lake and a mile west to east where it simply stopped
on the banks of Lake Michigan on the east and was helped by rain on the western
edge of the North branch for over 3 square miles.
In
1870, Chicago was the second largest city in the United States. It had become
one of the nation’s transportation and a manufacturing and warehouse centers
(both Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck catalog retailers made Chicago their
home). Chicago was growing at a fantastic rate and by 1860, it had gained in
political influence, surpassing St. Louis and Cincinnati, the other two
Midwestern cities of note. In 1860 the Republican National Convention was held
in Chicago and the participants elected Illinois native Abraham Lincoln.
Immigrant
populations and wealthy manufacturers and capitalists flocked to Chicago after
it was incorporated as a city in 1837. By 1871, Chicago was a bustling city of 324,000.
Gracing and expanding on the banks of Lake Michigan it grew much like Boston
did – to the west of the marshy wetlands of the waterfront. The land often
flooded and for this reason there were miles of wooden sidewalks and
boardwalks. In fact, Chicago was built almost entirely of wood. Some ornamental
decorations in its magnificent buildings were crafted from wood and made to
look like stone or granite.
Although
it had a very modern fire department, there were preconditions and fatal
mistakes that Sunday night of October 8 that caused the fire to spread with
abandon. The city was hot, crowded, dry and windy. Some didn’t take the fire
seriously; there had been a fire the night before that destroyed four city
blocks. When the fire was spotted from the taller buildings in the city center,
it appeared to be smoldering flames from the previous fire. The correct
locations were not given more than once and fire alarms weren’t pulled.
The
myth of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow – the one that knocked over the lantern and started
the Great Fire of Chicago – is well known. However, Catherine O’Leary, an Irish
immigrant, denied the story – in fact, the O’Leary’s were already in bed when
the flames started in their barn that evening. They needed to be up well before
dawn to milk their cows. This 19th
century urban legend that blamed the working class has been debunked over and
over in literature in the 20th and 21st centuries.
One
of my favorite books about the Chicago fire is Jim Murphy’s The Great Fire
(Newbery and Horn Book award winner).
It’s a young adult book that is illustrated with original photographs
and Murphy’s own maps of the fire as it progressed. Murphy’s book contains many
of the same photographs and similar maps in The Great Chicago Fire in
Eyewitness Accounts edited by David Lowe, 1979.
There
are several other great children’s books: What Was the Great Chicago Fire by
Janet Pascal and I Survived The Great Chicago
Fire, 1871 by Lauren Tarshis. Both contain stories of eyewitnesses to
the fire.
By
1890 there were over 1 million people living in Chicago. A building boom like
no other had rebuilt the city. Chicago hosted the Columbian Exposition only two
decades after the fire’s devastation. After the Great Fire, Chicago rose from
the ashes and was America’s Second City (second to New York in population) for
over a century until Los Angeles gained the title.
In the words of Sinatra – Chicago is “my kind
of town.” It’s a beautiful city worthy of its praise. Visit Chicago for
yourself either in the travel guides available or the stories of the Great
Fire.
