chicago

A man pours cold water on a still-hot safe after the fire.

A man stands on the remains of the Van Buren Street Bridge.

The ruins of the Chicago Historical Society building. 1871

1871 Ruins of Chicago. Unity Church

North side residence. Ruins of the Great Chicago Fire. 1871

View of Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871.

Water Tower at Michigan and Pine after the Great Chicago Fire, 1871.

Tribune Building. Corner of Dearborn and Madison after the Great Chicago Fire, 1871.

Corner of State and Madison after the Great Chicago Fire, 1871.

The north side of Randolph Street featured two very noteworthy buildings at either end of the block between LaSalle Street on the west and Clark Street on the east. Pictured here at the west end is a five-story store-and-office building. Between them one sees what the fastidious Frederick...

This stretch of LaSalle Street, with Washington Street on the left, offers more evidence of the striking contrasts in land use (and non-use) right next to the Court House at this time. In the foreground, an alley separates a modest undertaking establishment and an undeveloped lot. The large...

Visible in this photograph is the iron fence that surrounded the park-like setting of the Court House, and one can also make out masts on boats plying the South Branch of the Chicago River. On the southwest corner of Washington and LaSalle stood, according to Frederick Francis Cook, the former...

At the outher end of the block from Mechanics' Hall, at the southeast corner of Washington and LaSalle streets, is the First Baptist Church. In Constructing Chicago, Daniel Bluestone notes that in the 1840s a number of Chicago churches—the First Presbyterian, the First Baptist, and the First...

The variety of land use along Washington Street is striking. Next to Mechanics' Hall, where the members of the First Methodist Church worshipped while their building across Clark Street was being constructed, are an empty lot and what appears to be a modest house.

Even in the heart of the city, the streets are unpaved and the sidewalks are raised wooden boards. Under construction on the southeast corner of Clark and Washington is the First Methodist Episcopal Church building, which opened for worship on December 5, 1858. The First Methodist Church used...

Visible on the right is the intersection of Clark and Washington streets. As journalist Frederick Francis Cook pointed out in the memoir that is in the Library for this section, the Larmon Block on the northeast corner of this intersection housed Bryant and Stratton Business College on its top...

The view is directly toward Lake Michigan, seen at the top of the image. The church steeple is that of the Second Presbyterian Church, at the northeast corner of Wabash and Washington, known less formally as the "spotted church" and the "Church of the Holy Zebra" because of the patterns in its...

In the foreground is the intersection of Clark and Randolph streets, along which are a series of two- and three-story commercial buildings, with the lake in the distance. On the northeast corner of Clark and Randolph is the Evans Block, which at this time held the offices of the Chicago Tribune...

Opposite the Court House on Randolph Street is the Sherman House hotel, one of the most impressive buildings erected in the city of Chicago's early years. The original three-story Sherman House, built in 1836-37, was called the City Hotel. In 1844 Francis C. Sherman, who served two terms as...

The view here, looking northwest over the intersection of LaSalle and Randolph streets, shows substantial commercial buildings and flimsy frame structures - some crowded two to a city lot - in close proximity to each other near the local center of government. On the northwest corner of Randolph...