Field, Leiter & Company Department Store Fire of November 14, 1877.

Field, Leiter & Company (Marshall Field and Levi Leiter) moved their store from 112, 114 and 116 Lake Street to the just built "Palmer's Place," on State and Washington Streets holding the grand opening on Monday, October 12, 1868. The Great Chicago Fire leveled the new store on October 8, 1871.

For the second time in its history, the great department store of Field, Leiter & Company burned to the ground on November 14, 1877.

Field, Leiter & Company's new store opened on October 12, 1868 on State & Washington Streets. This store burned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Note the "Vault Lights" on the sidewalks around the building.

Chicago Daily Tribune, November 15, 1877 - Morning Edition

In a pouring rain with every fire engine in the city at work, “It seemed as if the entire city had come downtown to witness the terrible scene.” The first alarm is turned in at 8:04 p.m. after someone sees a fire in the fifth story of the building at the corner of State and Washington Streets. Flames are found in a four-foot space at the top of the building that surrounds the central skylight between the north and south elevator shafts. It does not take long for the fire to spread to the grease on the elevator wheels and pulleys and from there into the elevator shafts themselves, moving downward, floor by floor. Sixteen minutes after the alarm is turned in, a 2-11 alarm is sounded, but the streams of water from the fire hoses cannot reach the top floor of the building.  Firefighters are forced to run hoses directly into the interior of the great store, which at its center has an atrium, 40 feet by 90 feet, that extends all the way to the roof.  Hoses are dragged up to the third and fourth floors and from those points of attack “the brave firemen played upon the heat and fury of the fire until either stricken down by falling plaster and rafters, suffocated by the smoke, or driven from their positions by the heat.”  It isn’t until 3:00 a.m. on the 15th that the fire is finally brought under control. Two firefighters die in the effort to extinguish the blaze.

Chicago Daily Tribune, November 15, 1877 - Evening Edition

“The destruction of such an amount of property could not but be regarded as a dire calamity at such a time as this, and so, as the news flew around, people left their firesides, their theatres, their billiard-tables, and everything, to get to the scene of action.”

Men are put to work by November 18th, bracing the fourth floor, which looked “as though it might come down at any time in a huge avalanche, and bury anybody who might be so unfortunate as to be within reach of even its shadow.” 

Field, Leiter & Company store that burned in 1877.

The insurance companies enlist over 200 men in salvage work, and on the sidewalks of State and Washington Streets there began a massive “fortification, made of cords upon cords of cotton, flannel, silk, white goods, mattresses, dress goods, parasols, kid gloves, and umbrellas.” In places, the pile reaches six feet high and over 15 feet wide. 

Interstate Industrial Exposition Building on Michigan Avenue at Adams Street looking east.

The huge mass of goods is carted two blocks to the northern part of the Interstate Industrial Exposition Building on Michigan Avenue at Adams Street, located at what is now the site of the present Art Institute of Chicago. The insurance adjusters estimate that from $175,000 to $200,000 ($4,765,000 today) worth of goods were saved.

Field, Leiter & Company store that opened in 1879.

In 1879 Field and Leiter opened their fourth store in the same location, and in 1881 Marshall Field bought out Levi Leiter and renamed the firm Marshall Field and Company.

Read the brief business background of Marshall Field with an 1839 Illustration of the future site of the Marshall Field & Company Store.

MARSHALL FIELD AND COMPANY ARTICLES

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

A Google Maps mystery. What does the location "1980 Stat Boundary" in Chicago and other larger U.S. cities mean?

While searching Chicago Google Maps, I found an L-shaped street labelled "1980 Stat Boundary" running north from the 2800 block of West Fulton Street and then turning west until it meets Francisco Avenue.

It turns out that "1980 Stat Boundary" is nothing more than an alley. The photo below shows the portion which goes north from the 2800 block of Fulton.

Please... use the link at the bottom of this article (yellow section) to comment if you know the meaning of "1980 Stat Boundary."

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The new Gymnasium and Natatorium at Douglas Park, Chicago. (1896)

Along with bicycling, many other forms of “active recreation” were on the rise in late 19th century Chicago. Douglas Park was the smaller of the three great parks, Garfield Park, and Humboldt Park, of the West Park District and governed by West Park Commission.

“New Gymnasium and Natatorium at Douglas Park,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 1896.

At the time, Germans accounted for the city’s largest ethnic population, and many were enthusiastic members of clubs that encouraged physical and moral fitness called Turnverein. In 1895, the Turnverein Vorwaerts, a Turners club located at West 12th Street (now Roosevelt Road) and South Western Avenue, petitioned the West Park Commissioners for an “outdoor gymnasium and public swimming bath” in Douglas Park.

Agreeing to the request, the commissioners soon hired Bohemian immigrant architect Frank Randak (1861-1926) to design the facility. He produced a brick natatorium with turrets, pitched roofs, and open courtyards that had separate outdoor pools for men and women. Randak’s complex included a quarter-mile-long running track with gymnastics apparatus—parallel and horizontal bars, trapezes, swings, vaulting horses, and ladders in the center of the oval.

With separate pools for men and women, the 1896 Douglas Park natatorium was the first swimming facility in a Chicago park. Douglas Park Men's pool. (1900)

This photo of the women’s pool dates from 1914.

In celebration of the natatorium’s opening, the West Park Commission held an extensive dedication ceremony. The event included a parade from Union Park to Douglas Park in which members of numerous Turners clubs marched alongside Polish and Bohemian athletic club members and representatives of trade unions. Towards the rear of the procession, members of the Chicago Bicycle Club rode past cheering crowds.

The impact of changing recreational trends accelerated over the course of the 20th century.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Sheridan Road (now Lake Shore Drive), north of Belmont Avenue, includes an early Chicago lakefront bicycle path.

This stretch of Sheridan Road (now Lake Shore Drive), north of Belmont Avenue, includes an early Chicago lakefront bicycle path. The path is the small roadway next to Lake Michigan, then to the west is a pedestrian path and further to the west, and the largest of the 3 roadways is for vehicles; horses, wagons, and motorcar traffic. (c.1900)

The Red Hot Ranch at 3114 West Devon Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.

In 1952, Isabel & Al Deutch opened the Red Hot Ranch (1952-1985) on Devon Avenue between Albany Avenue and Troy Street in Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood of the West Ridge community. 

Little did they know they were creating a hot dog legend that would be remembered for over 70 years.

"The Red Hot Ranch" watercolor by William Rubin. 1974
This one-of-a-kind painting was Rubin's creation for my sister.

Isabel hired many neighborhood kids. She was like a second mom to all. Mailmen started and ended their routes there, grabbing a cup of coffee in the morning and a hot dog, burger, or other items for lunch. Those were the days of Vienna hot dogs in a natural casing, which I didn't like for some reason. Isabel would peal the casing off of the hot dog, then serve it to me.

Al was a chemical engineer who gladly worked the stand during the late shift, often going past midnight and wrapping those Vienna hot dogs and fries together. It was the hangout best remembered for its vitality as a happening little shack and the center of the neighborhood activity for many years.

The Ranch's seating consisted of no-back stools around three of the walls in the front, perhaps 20-24 spots. Special customers, three at a time, could sit out of the way in the back corner of the kitchen. Isabel, a kind soul, would give kids from Green School (K-6) a cup of soup on freezing days. The non-carbonated NEDLOG (Golden spelled backward) Grape and Orange brand drinks were special to the Ranch.

The Ranch is gone now but will always be a part of Chicago's north side and suburban cultures. 

Vienna Beef inducted the Red Hot Ranch on September 24, 2010.

Prints up to 60" x 40" on 2 paper choices, acrylic and now, metal (very cool), plus other Ranch items.

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Copyright © 2019 by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. All rights reserved.