Julian Rumsey's pocket watch

This was also the case with another kind of fire souvenirs, the burned bits of pre-fire Chicago that were salvaged from the ruins. These included the ashes and charred debris of familiar landmarks, and also ordinary fire-resistant objects--crockery, tools, a set of marbles--that were often altered in extraordinary ways by the intense heat. Some, like Julian Rumsey's pocket watch, are burnt almost beyond recognition, but many possess a surprising and haunting beauty, not to mention an imaginative power that is based in their being emblems of the way the fire so profoundly transformed the entire city and the lives of the people within it. In this enterprising metropolis that had lost so much of its saleable merchandise, the rubble provided an instant inventory for one of the first post-fire businesses, the selling of fire relics. Writing on the fifty-fifth anniversary of the fire in 1926, Charles R. Lott recalled that as fifteen-year-old boy he had "plenty of buyers" for the Milwaukee papers he peddled at a premium price of fifteen cents apiece, and that "when the ruins were cool enough I went into business at Madison & Green selling relics that I picked up in the ruins...." Within a few weeks someone came up with the idea of turning the Courthouse bell into souvenirs, and by mid-December it was auctioned off and recast into tiny replicas, commemorative coins, and other objects that became popular collectibles. Perhaps the most curious of the souvenirs was a structure called the Relic House, a colorful saloon and restaurant originally constructed in 1872 out of debris which had been salvaged from the fire.

The Original Relic House

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