St. John's, Canada · 1892Great Fire of St. John'sDowntown and the cathedral gone in one evening, from a pipe. How did it beat every stone wall?On 8 July 1892 a dropped pipe in a stable started a fire that took the cathedral and the Water Street and Duckworth Street businesses.
Photo: Currier & Ives, from Harper's Weekly, August 8, 1874, pages 636 and 637; Image provided by Library of Congress · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Burned and Rebuilt? · Chicago, United States
Chicago Fire of 1874
The open question
Burned, cleared and rebuilt bigger. What did the old town look like, and why are there so few pictures of it?
On the record
Reports of the extent of the damage vary somewhat, but sources generally agree that the fire burned 47 acres (19 ha) just south of the Loop, destroyed 812 structures and killed 20 people. The section burned in the 1874 fire was south of the Chicago core that was rebuilt after the 1871 fire.
- Year
- 1874
- Kind
- burned-rebuilt
Sources
More from Burned and Rebuilt?
St. John's, Canada · 1892Great Fire of St. John'sDowntown and the cathedral gone in one evening, from a pipe. How did it beat every stone wall?On 8 July 1892 a dropped pipe in a stable started a fire that took the cathedral and the Water Street and Duckworth Street businesses.
Saint John, Canada · 1877Great Fire of Saint JohnA third of the people homeless in a day. How did the city come back in brick so fast?On 20 June 1877 fire destroyed more than 1,600 structures, two-fifths of the city, and left about 13,000 people homeless.
Toronto, Canada · 1904Great Toronto FireA hundred downtown buildings, one death. What was in those buildings?On 19 April 1904 over 100 buildings in downtown Toronto burned; one person died.
Vancouver, Canada · 1886Great Vancouver FireA city named in April, burned in June, rebuilt within the year. Why so soon after the new name?On 13 June 1886 fire destroyed most of the city, just two months after it was incorporated.