Picture the night the Great Chicago Fire began right here. On the night of October 8, 1871, a fire broke out in or near the barn of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary at 137 DeKoven Street, on this block. Legend long blamed Mrs. O'Leary's cow for kicking over a lantern, a story invented by a newspaperman who later admitted he made it up, and which scapegoated an Irish immigrant family for a generation.
The true spark is unknown. A dry summer, wooden buildings, wooden sidewalks, and a hard wind turned a barn fire into an inferno that burned for two days, killed about 300 people, and destroyed roughly a third of the city. On this very ground the city later built the Chicago Fire Academy, where firefighters now train.
Look for the bronze flame sculpture marking the spot, a memorial standing where the catastrophe and the great rebuilding both began.