3-034-700 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Fire at Chicago: Clark-Street North, 1871. 'The fire which destroyed, last week, the best part of one of the greatest commercial cities in the world is still the most engrossing topic of news...[We present views] of Chicago as it was before the fire...the Illustrations engraved for this Number of our Journal will be viewed with a melancholy interest, as representing what has perished...Chicago, which began its existence as a town but forty years ago, on the swampy, south-western shore of Lake Michigan, contained, till the fire, a population of 300,000 souls. It had the largest export trade in grain and other provisions, and was the most bustling place of mercantile activity in the whole continent...As in most American towns, Chicago was laid out in rectangular blocks, with streets extending nearly north and south, and east and west. The streets, built with extreme regularity, were usually about 80 ft. wide. They were paved with wooden blocks, Nicholson's patent, which has been adopted in many other American cities...The side walks of the main streets at Chicago were stone, but the largest part of the city had still only plank side walks...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.