The aged envelope bore a large heading above a drawing of the Palmer Hotel in Chicago. The pronouncement would mean nothing without knowing the hotel’s history. “Only Fire-Proof House in the United States,” it blared.
The hotel had good reason to reassure guests that they would be safe. Its predecessor was one of the city’s grand buildings to go up in flames in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The advertising envelope was on display in a protective Ziplock bag in a case at the auction house – a replica of a dark spot in Chicago’s history.
The original Palmer Hotel was built by retailer-turned-real-estate-mogul Potter Palmer as a wedding gift to his wife Bertha only a month before the fire that robbed the couple of their opulent hotel, their 30+ other buildings and their wealth.
The Chicago fire began on a Sunday night in a barn behind the O’Leary home in Chicago. The legend is that it was started after the O’Leary cow knocked over a lantern. Catherine Leary denied it, and the cause was never actually determined.
Chicago in the late 19th century was a boom town, a transportation and commercial hub, with most of its buildings, homes and even the sidewalks made of wood. Combine that with loose fire codes, ill-equipped firefighters and sparse rainfall, and the city was ripe for an unstoppable blaze.
For two days, the fire light up the city, the fire department couldn’t keep up, and people literally ran for their lives. Some sought refuge in Lake Michigan to get away from the flames and heat.
“The great, dazzling, mounting light, the crash and roar of the conflagration, and the desperate flight of the crowd combined to make a scene of which no intelligent idea can be conveyed in words,’ a young journalist, J.E. Chamberlain, wrote,” according to a more recent Chicago Tribune story about the fire.
When it finally ended on Oct. 10, the fire had killed 300 people, left 100,000 homeless, and consumed more than 17,000 buildings and structures. Damage was estimated at $200 million.
The fire “reduced to poverty thousands who, the day before, were in a state of opulence,” the Tribune wrote in an article the day after the fire burned out.
“The roar of this fire was appalling. … Just before daylight there was one continuous sheet of flame … making a semicircle the inner line of which was about seven miles long. All east of this was a perfect ocean of blaze,” according to the article.
Along with the Palmer Hotel, the fire brought down Marshall Field’s grand store with it marble façade (dubbed Marble Palace) and the three-year-old Chicago Tribune newspaper building that had touted itself as fireproof.
Before the Palmer Hotel was consumed, its architect covered the blueprints with sand and moist clay in the basement to protect them. The fire did not deter Palmer; he soon went about acquiring a loan to build a new hotel across the street from the old, opening for business in 1873. That hotel seems to be the one on the envelope at auction. It was made of iron and brick, and offered electric lights and telephones. Several U.S. presidents were guests there.
The city also quickly rebuilt itself, this time using steel and masonry for its buildings. By 1880s it was said to be the country’s fastest growing city and by 1890s its population had almost tripled.
