The Courthouse before the Fire

The Courthouse before the Fire

The Courthouse before the Fire
(A.T. Andreas, History of Chicago) Pre-Fire Landmarks

The Courthouse was originally built in the 1850s by John M. Van Osdel, who was born in Baltimore in 1811 and who moved to Chicago in 1836 at the behest of the enterprising William Ogden, elected the city's first mayor the following year. Along with William W. Boyington, who arrived in 1853, Van Osdel was the leading pre-fire architect of both commercial enterprises and private homes. Never an aesthetic triumph, this building grew clumsily along with Chicago, so that by 1871 it had added both additional upper stories and east and west wings, not to mention a cupola with a fire-watchman's walk, a brand-new clock, and a 10,849-pound bronze bell that for over five hours would ring out the alarm until it fell through the collapsing building.
Samuel S. Greeley, who lived just north of the river not far from the lakefront and watched the progress of the fire from his roof, later recalled: "The scene was now indescribably grand and awful. In the half hour that I had passed upon my roof, the fire had leaped forward with frightful speed, and was beginning to break out in detached spots in advance of the terrible mass. The wind had risen, and was now blowing almost a gale; the masses of floating fire from roofs and warehouses were more numerous, and more fiery, and the roar of flames and of falling walls was more appalling. Suddenly there came a crash like a broadside of artillery, and a vast jet of smoke and sparks shot to heaven. It almost seemed to me, at nearly a mile away, that I felt the earth tremble. It was the fall of the roof and part of the walls of the new Courthouse and City Hall, the largest building, except the grain warehouses, in the city."


	The Courthouse before the Fire (A.T. Andreas, History of Chicago)	Pre-Fire Landmarks
	The Courthouse was originally built in the 1850s by John M. Van Osdel, who was born in Baltimore in 1811 and who moved to Chicago in 1836 at the behest of the enterprising William Ogden, elected the city's first mayor the following year. Along with William W. Boyington, who arrived in 1853, Van Osdel was the leading pre-fire architect of both commercial enterprises and private homes. Never an aesthetic triumph, this building grew clumsily along with Chicago, so that by 1871 it had added both additional upper stories and east and west wings, not to mention a cupola with a fire-watchman's walk, a brand-new clock, and a 10,849-pound bronze bell that for over five hours would ring out the alarm until it fell through the collapsing building. Samuel S. Greeley, who lived just north of the river not far from the lakefront and watched the progress of the fire from his roof, later recalled: "The scene was now indescribably grand and awful. In the half hour that I had passed upon my roof, the fire had leaped forward with frightful speed, and was beginning to break out in detached spots in advance of the terrible mass. The wind had risen, and was now blowing almost a gale; the masses of floating fire from roofs and warehouses were more numerous, and more fiery, and the roar of flames and of falling walls was more appalling. Suddenly there came a crash like a broadside of artillery, and a vast jet of smoke and sparks shot to heaven. It almost seemed to me, at nearly a mile away, that I felt the earth tremble. It was the fall of the roof and part of the walls of the new Courthouse and City Hall, the largest building, except the grain warehouses, in the city."