Chicago Fire of 1874

Reports of the extent of the damage vary somewhat, but sources generally agree that the fire burned 47 acres (19 ha)[1] just south of the Loop, destroyed 812 structures and killed 20 people.

Many insurers did halt their activities in Chicago, and only returned to issuing policies in the city after the municipal government adopted many of the suggested reforms.

This area south of the Loop was considered undesirable by many, according to the Chicago Tribune: “This part of the city consists of the worst rookeries imaginable, most of which are occupied as houses of ill-fame.”[11] The neighborhood was described as a "broad belt of wooden buildings which menaced the new structures which have sprung up in the business quarter of the South Division.

"[7] The neighborhood, on the eve of the fire, was a densely packed tinderbox that, especially under the dry and windy conditions, was highly susceptible to becoming the site of a major conflagration.

[13] The San Francisco Elevator published an article on August 8, 1874, identifying a Polish Jewish rag shop filled with flammable materials at 527 S. Clark as the source of the blaze.

"[11] Due to a strong wind blowing from the southwest, the fire did not travel far south from its origin, halting before it reached Twelfth Street in that direction.

[11] Ultimately some attempts were made under the direction of Mark Sheridan, an alderman and one of the city's police commissioners, but sufficient quantities of gunpowder were too hard to acquire on such short notice, and the few wooden frame buildings that were demolished by these efforts did very little to slow the fire's progress.

[17] The city's firefighters tried to hem the fire in on north and south, driving the flames east towards Lake Michigan in order to contain the damage they could do—in doing so, it seemed at the time that this strategy would ensure that the residences along the lake on Michigan Avenue would be lost, but ultimately the fire department was able to almost completely halt the blaze just short of that street.

[17] The fire burned itself out around midnight, claiming the Michigan Avenue Hotel as the last major building destroyed by the flames.

[18] The fire occupied approximately 47 acres (19 ha), spanning south and westward from Van Buren Street and Michigan Avenue.

The report broke down the list of the 812 damaged buildings into categories, including: And of those buildings affected, they comprised: [22] Newspaper coverage following the fire cast aspersion on the communities living in that part of the city, especially the neighborhood's Jewish residents: "They are the peddlars whose pack-ridden backs are humped and known in every land: whom children fear, and dogs bark at in the country, and who, in a trade, can out-jew all other jews.

"[23] The Chicago Times noted that the fire had burned out a notorious red light district, describing the gathering of prostitutes fleeing the advance of the flames as "Hogarth's 'Gin Lane' with a touch of ... the 'Harlot's Progress'.

"[24] Some articles cast the fire in a religious context, describing the flames as a necessary consequence of the sinful activities associated with the near South Side, and even as a desirable outcome that would purge the city's worst elements: "Jews and Gentiles, whites and blacks, the virtuous and the depraved, lived in the neighborhood, and their haunts and homes have been swept out of existence.

"[25] One writer for the Chicago Tribune commented that the fire was less likely to deal lasting harm to African-Americans living in the area, as, in his opinion, the black community in that neighborhood was more financially stable with money saved in local bank accounts, at least as compared with other residents who had either wasted money on frivolous household possessions or were widely known to be itinerant wastrels.

[7] Until those demands were met, the Underwriters recommended that all fire insurers refuse to do business with any clients in Chicago, and most companies complied with the suggestion in order to pressure the city into action.

[19][28] New buildings could no longer be erected within the newly extended fire limits, unless a permit for the construction was obtained from the Board of Public Works.

[29] Wooden buildings that existed within the corporate limits of the city of Chicago could not be enlarged, raised, or repaired, except with the written permission of the Board of Public Works.

In 1876, the Association enforced other safety measures, such as requiring metal fire escapes in residential buildings more than three stories high.