A Significant 1893 Photo of Lake Shore Drive in Chicago which was Misdated on the Internet.

Lake Shore Drive, looking north from the top of the Chicago Water Tower at Chicago Avenue, as seen in 1893. In the right foreground is the north end of Pine Street, now Michigan Avenue, with the Edith Rockefeller McCormick home, then occupied by General Joseph Torrence, in the middle distance across from the inlet of Lake Michigan at Oak Street. In the background, the tower of the Potter Palmer castle rises above the street in an underdeveloped area. The landfill is already creating a lakefront vista along Lake Shore Drive.

Again... the Internet propagates false information as every website with this photo has the wrong date of 1870, making it a year before the Great Chicago Fire.

The building with the arrow (at 200% zoom) appears to be the McCormick Rockefeller Mansion at 1000 N. Lake Shore Drive, which was completed in 1883. It also seems the mansion added the chimney on the south side later. 

The image was from the Chicago History Museum's Collection and dated 1870. With some painstaking research, I found this photo's date to be 1889.

Research by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.