America at the Fair

by Chaim M. Rosenberg

  The Great Chicago Fire started on Sunday, October 8, 1871. The blaze consumed the wooden buildings on the West Side, jumped the river, and destroyed much of the central business area. Over 17,000 buildings, including many factories, were in ruins. Three hundred people died, 90,000 were homeless, and many thousands lost their place of work. The fire consumed the homes of millionaires and the poor. Crosby’s Opera House, Hooley’s Theater, the exclusive Chicago Club, and many hotels and banks burned to the ground. Over $200 million worth of property—one-third of Chicago’s wealth—was destroyed in the Great Fire. Such was the dynamism of the city that rebuilding began almost immediately. Aid came from the state of Illinois and the federal government. Ordinary citizens across the land contributed funds for clothing, shelter, and food. Workers were given the tools and materials to rebuild their homes. New factories were built with brick, stone, and steel instead of wood. Chicago recovered rapidly and by 1875, hardly a trace of the fire was left. The new McCormick, Deering, and Pullman works, the meat-cutting plants, and the grain elevators were erected using modern, labor-saving machinery.

  But all was not well in the rebuilt metropolis. The workers were increasingly restive in their demands for a shorter work week, higher wages, and improved working conditions. The new machines replaced craftsmanship and deeply wounded the workers’ pride. The gap between the ruling elite and the immigrant workforce was widening. The Great Workers Upheaval began in January 1886, when the unions struck the McCormick Reaper Works and the Pullman Car Company. Tension came to a boil on May 4, when the unions called a mass meeting to protest the death of four strikers the previous day outside the McCormick factory. The protest meeting, attended by 1,500 people, was held at the Haymarket. By 10:00 p.m. most of the strikers had already left, but those who stayed were alarmed by a show of force by the police. Someone threw a bomb, instantly killing a policeman. Shots were fired, leaving a further six officers dead and sixty others injured. The number of civilian dead and wounded was never accurately recorded as friends carried many away. Eight of the leaders—branded as anarchists and socialists—were tried and convicted. On November 11, 1887 four were hanged and one other committed suicide in prison. The remaining three strike leaders were given life sentences and sent to the Joliet Prison. In 1893, during the World’s Fair, John Peter Altgeld, Illinois’s first foreign-born governor and sympathetic to the plight of the working people, commuted these life sentences. The Haymarket Tragedy is still remembered as the stimulus for a better organized and more assertive American labor movement (Green 2006).

  “The Largest Agricultural Implement Plant in the World” was built by William Deering, born in 1826 in South Paris, Maine. Deering moved to Illinois around 1850 and in 1902 combined with McCormick and four other Midwest harvester companies to form the giant International Harvester Corporation.

  Chicago at the Dawn of its World Fair

  In 1890, Chicago slaughtered 5,733,082 hogs and 2,219,312 head of cattle. Two hundred million bushels of grain, over four million barrels of flour, and two billion feet of lumber were handled in Chicago. With the World’s Columbian Exposition on the horizon, Chicago’s future seemed bright indeed (Artistic Guide to Chicago 1892). At the close of 1892 the population of the city exceeded one-and-a-half million people. Chicago was the second city of the United States and the sixth largest in the world. It had outdistanced Boston and Philadelphia and aspired to be counted with London, Paris, and New York. The city led the world in the business of livestock and lumber and was second in America in financial services only to New York. Chicago became the leading marketplace of the West, supplying furniture, textiles, shoes, freight cars, and all manner of goods.

  The rail network was second to none. The extensive streetcar system was still largely horse-drawn. The Chicago City Railroad Company offered service from the city center to the southern suburbs. The West Chicago City Railroad went west and the North Chicago Street Railroad went north. Chicago had 400 miles of track for its streetcars, using over 2,000 trolleys along with hundreds of conductors, drivers, snow removers, blacksmiths, and veterinarians as well as thousands of horses. Chicago had recently introduced electric streetcars using overhead wires, which could run at speeds of up to 20 m.p.h and would soon replace the horses and their attendants. Chicago, like San Francisco, had a cable car system, which started in 1882 and ran trolleys to the south, west, and north, connecting with the horse streetcar systems. The in-ground cables were pulled by powerful Corliss steam engines.

  Chicago and its suburbs were also served by several steam-powered railroad companies, including the Chicago & North-Western; Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul; Chicago Rock Island & Pacific; and the Michigan Central. The sheer volume of street traffic—streetcars, horse-drawn wagons, and commuters—caused gridlock and necessitated Chicago’s famous elevated trains. Part of the elevated system is still known as “The Loop,” radiating out to the suburbs. One line—The South Side L—connected the center of the city to the Fair at Jackson Park, a journey of a mere 12 minutes. Many, however, preferred the more leisurely trip on the lake traveling in one of the steamers of the World’s Fair Steamship Company.

  After the Galena & Chicago line, more than 20 other railroad systems serving Chicago were built. The freight trains converged on Chicago carrying grain, livestock, lumber, coal, and iron ore. Chicago used these railroads to send out its manufactured goods. There were the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Lake Shore & Michigan Central; Chicago & North-Western; Chicago & Alton; and the Wisconsin Central lines. Each of the independent long-distance railroads had its own Chicago terminal. The Chicago termini of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Chicago & Alton were at opposite corners of Polk Street and Third Avenue, while the Baltimore & Ohio ended at Fifth Avenue and Harrison Street. A person arriving at one terminal could connect to another line by hiring a horse-drawn carriage, hackney coach, or cab, which were waiting outside each terminal. The many railroads coming into the center of Chicago intersected with the roads, and serious accidents were frequent.

  This scene of a busy Randolph Street in 1893 shows the tall buildings, pedestrians, streetcars, horse carriages, and carts that characterized downtown Chicago at the time of the World’s Fair.

  By 1892, suburban towns spread up to 50 miles from downtown Chicago. Argyle Park, Austin, Blue Island, Cheltenham Beach, Evanston (the home of Northwestern University), Geneva, Wilmette, Winnetka, and Delavan Lake were served by steam railroads, ferries, and steamers. Auburn Park, nine miles from the city center, was home to many of Chicago’s wealthiest citizens, while the workers’ town of Pullman was the center for railroad car manufacture. Then as now, Chicago gloried in its closeness to Lake Michigan. The city’s early growth depended on its river, harbor, and access to the Great Lakes. At the harbor a mile-long breakwater, running parallel to the coast, was built. Chicago was served by nine steamboat lines traveling to and from the lakeside suburbs and towns. The steamers of the Lake Michigan & Lake Superior Transportation Company traveled to Buffalo and Milwaukee. Gradually, the slow sailing vessels and steamships lost their commercial importance to the railroads.

  Running from Lincoln Park in the north, Lake Shore Drive followed the curve of Lake Michigan to the business district. Tall and graceful elm trees and the grandest mansions lined this magnificent boulevard. Between the lake and Lake Shore Drive were promenades and beaches where people could gaze upon the shimmering waters and the flotillas of pleasure craft. Town planners made sure that Chicago had its grand boulevards. Michigan Avenue and Oakwood Boulevard were each 100 feet wide. Drexel, Garfield, and Western Boulevards were 200 feet wide, while Douglas, Central, and Humboldt Boulevards were each 250 feet in width. State Street was Chicago’s main shopping street, built to resemble Regent Street in London. Madison Street was Chicago’s great east to west thoroughfare. The manufacturing district was located south of Lake Street and east of Halsted Street. Immigrants, factories, and stockyards filled this area of the city. Chicago also had its wholesale district a
nd commission houses dealing in wool, hides, leather, and other raw materials.

  Chicago’s bold buildings were designed by architects of imagination. Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, William Le Baron Jenney, William Boyington, and Salon S. Bemen were all easterners by birth. Midwesterners like Frank Lloyd Wright were eager to participate in the great Chicago building boom and to leave their imprint in the pages of history. The Chicago Board of Trade was erected in 1848 to regulate the flow of grains, seeds, and hay from the farms to the markets. In 1866, the transatlantic telegraph cable was inaugurated to quickly relay trade communications between Chicago and foreign markets. The Board of Trade’s building at the corner of La Salle and Washington Streets burned in the fire of 1871. In 1885, a new building with electric light was completed at La Salle Street and Jackson Boulevard. In 1893, the galleries at the Board of Trade were opened to the public in honor of the World’s Columbian Exposition. The Dearborn Street Railroad Station, the Jewelers’ Building on Wabash Street, the Manhattan Building on South Dearborn, and the mammoth Auditorium with entrances on Michigan Avenue were but a few of the illustrious buildings in Chicago before the World’s Fair.

  The Auditorium was Chicago’s grandest hotel and home to its largest theater, with seating for 4,000 people. The orchestra pit held 100 musicians and the vast stage accommodated choirs of up to 500 voices or a full-sized opera company. The Chicago Orchestra (now the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) gave its inaugural concert at the Auditorium theater on October 16, 1891. It was but one of twenty theaters and music halls open in Chicago at the time of the Fair. The entertainment ranged from the high-brow to the distinctly low-brow. The Chicago Opera House, on the corner of Washington and Clark Streets, with 2,100 seats, featured light opera and comedies. The Grand Opera House, on Clark Street opposite the courthouse, with 1,700 seats, was a vaudeville theater. Horace McVicker staged Shakespearean plays at his theater on Madison Street. Close by were the Central Music Hall (2,000 seats), the Criterion Theatre (1,800 seats), Haymarket Theatre (2,400 seats), and Hooley’s Theatre (1,000 seats). The prices ranged from a low of 15¢ at the comedy houses to $15 for a box seat at the opera houses.

  Chicago was well prepared to welcome the visitors to the Fair. Among the most luxurious hotels was the Auditorium with 400 guest rooms and an elegant dining room on the top floor overlooking the city. The Grand Pacific Hotel, with 500 rooms, was near the city center and close by the Marshall Field department store. The six-story Wellington Hotel was famous for its cuisine, while the Richelieu on Michigan Boulevard was patronized by people of wealth. The huge Palmer House accommodated 2,000 guests. The Chicago Hotel at the corner of Dearborn and Adams Streets, 16 stories high, was one of the city’s tallest buildings. Warren F. Leland, owner of a chain of hotels in the Midwest, opened his Leland Hotel at the corner of Michigan Boulevard and Jackson Street, in time for the Fair. Rooms in the first-class hotels went for $3 and up per person per day, while boarding houses charged $5 to $10 per week for room with board. Hundreds of other hotels, boarding houses, and inns in Chicago were ready for the business of the Fair.

  Ramey’s Medicator for the cure of catarrh, colds, asthma, bronchitis, headache, the grippe, and coughs, was made at 850 Dearborn Street, Chicago. It also sweetened the breath and restored taste and smell.

  Chicago was home to many private clubs. The most exclusive was the Chicago Club on Monroe Street, restricted to 600 members. The Union Club aimed to promote good citizenship, patriotism, and honest government. The Illinois Club attracted up-and-coming men of business, while the Calumet Club was devoted to the preservation of the history of Chicago and Illinois. The city had exclusive sports clubs such as the La Salle, which boasted a gymnasium, billiards room, bowling alley, and a restaurant. The Press Club of Chicago at 131 Clark Street dated to 1881. The University Club on Dearborn Street accepted graduates from various universities and offered rooms for hire in the comfort of a private club. Chicago had literary and musical clubs, as well as casinos and racetracks.

  The Cook County Hospital began in 1835 as the poor house, offering care to the indigent. Chicago’s Michael Reese Hospital was established in 1881 with funds bequeathed by an immigrant from Bavaria who made his fortune in silver mining and real estate. From its start, the Michael Reese served the poor without regard to race, nationality, or creed. In 1882 Julia Porter established the Maurice Porter Memorial Hospital for children, named for her son who had died at age 13. Catholic, Wesleyan, Presbyterian, and other faiths operated hospitals in Chicago. The German community sponsored the German Hospital. Chicago had hospitals for women, a temperance hospital, and a Homeopathic hospital. Chicago had a home for the incurables, the industrial school for girls, orphanages, the German old people’s home, the home for the deaf and dumb, the home for the friendless, and the newsboys’ and bootblacks’ home to help the boys advance “to better things than selling papers and blacking shoes.”

  The Chicago Tribune—the city’s fist newspaper—appeared on June 10, 1847 with a circulation of a few hundred copies. By 1891 the Tribune had a circulation of 90,000. The Chicago Times was founded in 1854 and was briefly owned by the reaper king Cyrus McCormick. The Chicago Herald, the Daily News, and the Globe were other morning papers, while the Post and the Journal were published in the evening. With its large immigrant population Chicago also had dailies in German, Italian, Yiddish, Greek, and other languages. In 1893, the city boasted 24 dailies and 260 weeklies, as well as many monthly papers and magazines.

  For all this, Chicago at the dawn of the Fair was an untidy, unhealthy, smelly, and dirty place. Clashes between the unionized workers and management were frequent. Many residents lived in squalor and disease. Ten thousand industrial enterprises belched out smoke and soot, with the city’s Southeast Side and the area along the branches of the Chicago River holding the heaviest industry. Its schools and sanitation services could not keep up with its explosive growth and half of its streets were unpaved. At night these streets were dark or feebly lit by gaslight. Horse-drawn trolleys and steam-powered railroads fouled the streets and the air, and made for noise, congestion, and danger (Smith 2006).

  With the Columbian Exposition approaching, the leading citizens of Chicago were eager to show the world that theirs was a city of culture and refinement as much as it was a city built on grains, livestock, lumber, and manufacturing. Some of the city’s wealthiest and most active citizens set about to establish three cultural institutions that lasted not only through the Fair but to the present.

  The first was the Art Institute of Chicago, originally housed in cramped quarters on the corner of State and Monroe Streets. Its trustees secured a prime site along Michigan Avenue at Adams Street and hired the Boston architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge to design a new building fitting the ambitions of the city. George Shepley, Charles Rutan, and Charles Coolidge were disciples of Henry Hobson Richardson and inherited his commissions after his early death in 1886. The imposing beaux arts building of the Art Institute was officially opened on December 8, 1893. The distinguished firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge also designed the Chicago Public Library in 1897.

  The Art Institute was the passion of the banker Charles L Hutchinson, who served as president of the board from 1882 until his death in 1924. Hutchinson was determined to have a world-class institution and bought a collection of 17th century Dutch paintings. He encouraged Chicago’s wealthy to donate Old Masters and contemporary works to the Art Institute. Henry Field, Massachusetts-born and the younger brother of Marshall Field, was an early trustee of the Art Institute. In 1893, his widow donated his important collection of 19th century French paintings, including works by Corot and Millet. The Field family also gave the pair of bronze lion statues that still stand in front of the Institute. William Deering, born in Maine and founder of the Deering Harvester Company, was also passionate about art. His daughter Marion married into the McCormick harvester family and his daughter Barbara married Richard Danielson. After their father’s death, the sisters dona
ted works from his collection to the Art Institute, including paintings by El Greco. Mr. & Mrs. Martin Ryerson, Mr. & Mrs. Potter Palmer, and others of the Chicago elite bequeathed more paintings to the Art Institute of Chicago, giving it one of the world’s great Impressionist collections.

  Chicago still lacked a great university. In 1856, Stephen A. Douglas gave 10 acres to establish the first University of Chicago, under Baptist sponsorship. The school did not thrive and, in 1888, it was forced to close. Prominent Baptists turned to John D. Rockefeller Sr., the owner of Standard Oil and the richest man in the world, for help to establish a quality university on a par with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Some suggested New York as a site, but Rockefeller was drawn to a proposal from Thomas H. Goodspeed who advocated for Chicago (Chernow 1998). Rockefeller met William Rainey Harper (1856–1906), a brilliant scholar of the Old Testament, who seemed the ideal choice to preside over the new university. Harper was born in New Concord, Ohio and was recognized as a child prodigy. He entered college at age 10, received his bachelor’s degree at 14, and was awarded his PhD at the tender age of 18. Harper established several Baptist colleges before moving to a prestigious professorship at Yale. Brimming with ideas and full of energy, Harper was excited by the idea of a great university in Chicago under Baptist sponsorship. In 1889, Rockefeller, himself a Baptist, agreed to contribute $600,000 on the condition that others put up an additional $400,000.