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As the Great Rebuilding progressed, several businesses sold or handed out
booklets like this, which combined a brief standard history of the fire with an
up-to-date business directory. These helped promote business as they boasted of
Chicago's recovery from the ordeal. The story of the New Tremont House is a
mainstay in fire anecdotes. Gambling that it would survive the fire, John B.
Drake, a partner in the Tremont House, made a down payment on the Michigan
Avenue Hotel at Michigan and Congress as the city was burning. His hunch proved
to be correct. When Drake went to close the deal, he supposedly met resistance
from the former owner, who had expected the building to succumb to the flames
and felt regret at the "fire-sale" price. As the story goes, Drake then hired a
few hefty associates to "convince" the man to hold up his end of the bargain.
No matter what the precise details, Drake did take over the hotel, which became
a landmark indicating the southernmost extent of the fire, not to mention "the
only first-class hotel in the South Division" following the destruction of the
business district. Soon Drake became the proprietor of the luxurious Grand
Pacific Hotel. As for the old Tremont House, its story substantiates Chicago's
reputation as phoenix city. Successive buildings were lost in the fires of 1839,
1849, and 1871, but it reopened for business yet again in 1873.
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Instant History 