Rebuilding the Second City

            Tragic events such as fires, natural disasters, and wars impact the way society functions; this can affect the gridlines of a city, the government, and society. Fires, in particular, have done their part in reshaping America, and one of the most infamous fires was the great Chicago fire of 1871 that changed Chicago into the modern city that it is today. Major tragedies such as the Chicago fire end up in textbooks and history books, but do these writers tell the full story? As the story goes, on October 8, 1871 at approximately 9 at night Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern in the barn and sparked a fire that spread quickly and destroyed 17,420 buildings and over 2,100 acres.1 Being completely destroyed, Chicago quickly rebuilt itself into one of the most popular and economically important cities in the United States. Most textbooks portray the basic story of the cow kicking over the lantern, which burned Chicago down completely, and later was rebuilt. What condition was the city in for it to burn that quickly, and who actually rebuilt the city, whose money contributed to the reconstruction and new gridlines of the city, the citizens of Chicago, the government, or third party contributors?.
             First, it is important to understand the original outline of the city to get a better understanding of how the fire spread so quickly. The fire did in fact start on October 8, in 1871, but it is important to know the conditions of Chicago that made it so easily fire prone. The summer of 1871 had been remarkably dry that year and most of the cities 60,000 stables, barns, houses, stores, and other warehouses were made out of wood.2 This made the great city of Chicago susceptible to tremendous damage from a fire. As author Robert Cromie states in his book The Great Chicago Fire; .
             The buildings were like an enormous artificial forest, drying out in a sun-heated oven. Not only were most of the buildings made of wood, but even those with more of substantial stuff almost without exception had wooden floors, window and door frames, and roofs.