Wards of Chicago in 1900 Part 1

How many people have seen one-tenth of the 2,000 miles of streets in Chicago?
How many people seen the Waubansee stone or know what it is?
How many people who boast of citizenship in the most cosmopolitan city in the world have ever visited one-half of the twenty-four distinct foreign quarters within the city limits?
How many people know that the Green Tavern, built in 1833, is still standing?
How many people know that the churches of Chicago would fill both sides of an avenue six miles long?
How many people know that Father Marquette, who died in 1675, was the first resident of the Eighth Ward?

Few citizens of any great city know much about it. They go to Europe to see what they might find within an hour’s ride of their own houses. They grow enthusiastic over the picturesque Ghetto of Amsterdam, but are entirely ignorant of the greater Ghetto in the Seventh Ward of Chicago. Few Americans who have made the “grand tour” have seen as much of foreign life as may be found in Chicago. Within the city limits one may find the atmosphere and see the local customs of Palestine, Greece,. Servia, Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Russia, Italy, Arabia, and a dozen other equally interesting countries. The American abroad lives chiefly in hotels, which are essentially the same the world over. He gets practically no idea of the life of the people, which is the essence of the country and which the Chicagoan may study without leaving home.

Most people are even more ignorant of the fact that Chicago has a history. They look upon the city as a mushroom sprung up over night. On the contrary, it has a history stretching back for more than 200 years. For instance, the Drainage Canal, the last and greatest achievement of Chicago, was first suggested by Joliet, who foresaw what the country is just beginning to realize—that here was the proper location for a waterway connecting the great lakes and the gulf. Within sixty years of the first landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock the present site of Chicago had already been recognized and pointed out as the future gateway to the great West.

Since Chicago became a city and began its growth men have been too busy making history to set up monuments to mark its progress. But the town is full of historic sites and localities. Business-men pass them every day on the streets and are ignorant even of their existence. But every Chicagoan should feel it a duty as well as pleasure to become acquainted with at least a few of the more important. Such an acquaintance will lend a new interest to a walk about town or to a ride on the wheel. It will help him to realize that he is “a citizen of no mean city” from whatever standpoint it may be regarded.

The places of historic and of present interest are scattered all over Chicago. Because they are unmarked they are most often overlooked and neglected. An intelligent man, for instance, might pass up and down Lincoln Park boulevard for a lifetime without having his attention called to the historic Waubansee stone, which was carved by a soldier in Fort Dearborn prior to 1832, and which now stands in plain sight in the private yard at No. 100 between Erie and Huron streets. While this stone was still lying in the plaza of old Fort Dearborn it was used as a platform by Daniel Webster, when, in 1837, he was lifted up to the top of it to deliver a speech in which he phophesied the future greatness of the frontier village.

Because old Fort Dearborn was located in what is now the First Ward, and because it contains the business center of the city, there are more points of the historical and present interest within its limits than in any other ward. The value of the property in the First Ward makes it easily the richest ward in the city and one of the richest in the world. At the same time its resident population is largely made up of the poorer classes. The men who own the property live outside the down-town district, while a large part of the vote which controls the politics of the ward comes from the lodging-houses and dives of South Clark street.

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THE FIRST WARD
The First Ward is emphatically the ward of contrasts. It contains the most magnificent buildings and some of the filthiest hovels in the city. It is the temporary home of the foreign Prince who visits Chicago and of the wandering hobo who comes to town to spend the winter in a five-cent lodging and barrel house. The Y. M. C. A. and many of the other great religious and charitable organizations have their headquarters in the First Ward. It is also the location of the Harrison Street Police Station, where it is said more arrests are made than in any other police police district in the world. It contains the great banks and other financial institutions of La Salle street, and the crap games, policy shops, and panel games of lower State street and the whole levee district. It contains fewer homes and more saloons than any other ward in the city.

Although neither the first temporary nor first permanent residence on the present site of Chicago was built in what is now the First Ward the fact that Fort Dearborn was located at the foot of the present River street gave it from the first a commanding position as the center of the business life of the town. The tablet which marks the site of the fort is familiar to everybody who has crossed the Rush street bridge. Not far away, as shown on the map, is the site of the old fort cemetery. Here was buried the first white person to die in Chicago of whose death a record exists. Mrs. Charles Jouett, wife of the first Indian Agent, was buried in its first grave in 1805. The exact spot, long since forgotten, was in old Dearborn Park, where the new Public Library Building stands. The ashes of this pioneer house-wife have since been scattered by the diggers who made the foundation excavation for the library.

OLD RIVER MOUTH.
At the foot of what is now Madison street was the old mouth of the Chicago River. In the old days the stream after passing by the fort turned abruptly to the south, its egress to the east being blocked by a sandbar, which was cut through in the ’30s, thus allowing vessels of goodly draft to enter the harbor. Opening into the river at what is now the head of State street a bayou stretched away to the southwest at the present corner of Clark and Randolph streets.

Where the big business=house now stands at the southeast corner of Lake and Market streets, the first tavern Chicago ever saw was opened by Mark Beaubien in 1826. It was a log cabin, but in a few years it was supplemented by a two-story frame building, and then Chicago had a hotel. It was the center of the social and political life of the village. It was named for the most prominent citizen of the vilage, Billy Caldwell, who was half Irish and half Pottawatomie and known as “The Sauganash.” In the Sauganash Hotel the first religious services held in the village took place in 1833—not taking into account the religious services held by Father Marquette in 1673. The first theatrical performance was given there in 1837, and when the old hotel fell into decay on its site was erected the wigwam in which the convention was eld that nominated Abraham Libcoln for President in 1860.

With the increase of Chicago’s commerce South Water street became the first business thoroughfare. Theb first frame building was built at the corner of South Water and La Salle in 1832. This marked an epoch in Chicago’s commercial progress that was hardly equaled when twenty years later a store building with an iron front was erected in the same street. The first newspaper office, the first bank, and the first book store were located in South Water street, which is now devoted exclusively to fruit and produce establishments, and the busiest market f the sort in the world.

The progress of the city may be noted by studying the map of the First Ward. It was southward, and with the coming of the ’50s Lake street became the principal business street, with the Dearborn street intersection as the center of activities, as Dearborn street had the only bridge across the main river. The Rialto auction-house at 8 and 10 Dearborn street was the rendezvous of the town wits and political gossipers.

In 1837 the first theatrical venture was transferred from the Sauganash to the Rialto, and on the opening night Joseph Jefferson, as a boy, appeared on the bill. The first Tremont House, erected 1n 1833, on the northwest corner of Lake and Dearborn, diagonally opposite its present location, was built of logs, but it helped the growing importance of Lake street. The Mansion House in Lake street, two doors east of Dearborn, was the place in which the first public entertainment, in a dramatic reading, was given in Chicago. The first of the long and distinguished line of Chicago divorce trials took place in the parlor of the old Mansion House when it was used as a court-room in 1834.

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The first Rice’s Theatre

RICE’S THEATER.
Chicago’s first regular theater building was erected in Lake street to house Rice’s Theater. It was a famous playhouse in its day. Edwin Forrest, Junius Brutus Booth, T. D. Rice, Barney Williams, James H. McVicker, and other great actors of the day appeared in it. The first opera ever produced in Chicago was being performed in Rice’s Theater in 1850 when it was destroyed by fire.

One block farther west, on the southeast corner of Clark and Lake, was erected the Saloon Building which was famous for years. It contained a hall which was exultingly described as “the finest hall west of Buffalo.” This hall was so fine it was called a “salon,” which was Anglicized into “saloon.” The first public concert Chicago ever heard was produced in the Salon. The first panorama was shown there and Stephen A. Douglas made his first speech to a Chicago audience in it. It was the cradle of the Swedenborgian and Unitarian Churches of Chicago, and the mass-meeting to obtain a city charter was held there, and when the first telegraph message was sent to Chicago it was received in the Salon.

The march of the growing city turned again and went eastward. The public market was built in the middle of State street, between Lake and Randolph, in 1840, and then State street got a bridge.

Thenceforth State street prospered. The fine hotels of this period were to the east of it, and with the business district of the First Ward to the west, State street became the center. While the first bus line ran in Dearborn street, starting at the present Tribune corner, the first street car track was laid in State street in 1859, and the supremacy of that thoroughfare was established.

The center of business since 1832 has been in what is now the First Ward. It has a large share of the “first” things of historic interest. It contains the site of the first tavern, first hotel, first restaurant, first frame store, first newspaper, first street car, first bank, first theater, first public school, first convent, asylum, hospital, church, and cathedral. The architectural progress of the Western world may be traced in the history of this ward. It is marked by steps from the log cabin to the frame building, the brick and stone structures to the climax in the shape of the skyscraper of steel.

The history of the First Ward is scarcely less interesting than its existing greatness. A study of the accompanying map guide will demonstrate this. The places of interests have been marked so that they may be readily located.

Inter Ocean, May 6, 1900

To the Editor,—Under the caption of “Chicago at a Glance” a page of the Chicago Sunday Tribune of April 22 was devoted to the history of Chicago. There was a map of the eity with the places of historic interest numbered, and a “key” explaining the numbers and giving Information as to dates, names, and places. The whole represented a great deal of painstaking work, and if it was accurate it would be valuable for reference as well as interesting, but unfortunately it is not. There are so many errors in dates, places, ete., that as an old resident who has spent much time in gathering and compiling facts concerning the early history of our eity I feel constrained to ask you to call attention to a few of them in the colamns of your paper, which circulates so largely among the “old tmers.”

To begin with, the Waubansee stone, which stands In a private yard at No. 100 Lincoln park boulevard, has a rather interesting his-tory, but not a romantle one, by any means. It was not carved by a soldier at Port Dearborn in 1812, nor did Daniel Webster use it for a platform from which to prophesy the future greatness of the Garden City. The facts about the Waubansee stone are these:

During the civil war there was a sanitary tair beld at Fort Dearborn park, and a prairie bowlder was dragged there. Workmen chiseled the outlines of a face on one side and a hole was drilled from the top and through the mouth. This was used tor’a fountain during the fair. It stood in the center of Michigan avenue. After the fair it passed into the hands of Henry Fuller, and to attract attention to it he made up a story about Indian carving or something like that.

Among those who believed the tale was Isaac N. Arnold. Fuller owed Arnold, who was an attorney, $25 for professional services, and when Arnold asked him to pay the bill Fuller told him he could take the Waubansee stone if he would call it square. The bargain was made and the bowlder was removed to No. 100 Pine street, or Lincoln Park boulevard, where it now lies. This is the true story of the Waubansee stone.

But to come to the more important errors in the Tribune story. I will consider them by the numbers in the key. In paragraph No. 1, relating to Fort Dearborn, which was built in 1803-4, General Hull did not surrender the post as stated. He did, however, order 1t evacuated, and the following day surrendered Detroit. Referring to. paragraph No. 2, the first agency was never used as a fort by civilians, nor was it ever used as a military storehouse. It was taken down in 1857. The fort was used by civilians in time of danger from Indians.

The residence of General Jean Baptiste Beaubien, the first permanent white settler on the South Sade, was on the northeast corner of South Water street and Michigan avenue, instead of at the foot of Randolph street, as stated in paragraph No. 3.

The first courthouse was erected in 1836, instead of 1840, as paragraph No. 5 says, and the bayou of the Chicago river referred to in No. 7 was never navigable except for a small boy on a plank

Paragraph No. 8 refers to the first ferry crossing the river at Rush street. This is not true. The firet ferry crossed at the fork of the north and south branch, and the site ef the first frame building referred to in paragraph No. 9 was at the southeast corner of Dearborn and South Water street. The first bridge was midway between Lake and Randolph streets, and not at. Randolph street, as paragraph No. 11 states.

The Metropolitan hotel, to which paragraph 15 refers, was built at the southwest corner of Fifth avenue and Randolph street, and was called the Planters’ house. When rebuilt in the ’50s by a jeweler’s clerk, who used the money purloined from his employer, it was called the Metropolitan hotel. Paragraph No. 35 refers to the same house, which was rebuilt after the fire. The history of the Tremont house in paragraph No. 17 is incorrect. This hotel was burned in 1839 and rebuilt at the southeast corner diagonally opposite to the first site in 1840. It was again burned in 1849 and rebuilt in 1851. This new building contained Tremont hall.

The site at Madison street and Michigan avenue was occupied by the house of Mrs.
Hulda Wright in 1844 and not by the first college of Chicago, as stated in paragraph No. 20. No college was ever on that site. Where the Montgomery Ward building now stands, on the opposite corner, however, the bishop’s palace was once located. The first public school building was erected in 1844, and not in 1845, as stated in paragraph. No. 27.

Paragraph No. 34 says the Baltic hotel was a fashionable hotel. The Baltic house was a third-class affair. Paragraph No. 36 says the Owings building was the first fourteen-story office building in the world. This ts also incorrect. The Tacoma building at LaSalle and Madison streets was erected first. And there was a bus line running from Lake street to Twelfth street years before 1858, the date referred to in paragraph No. 38. Paragraph No. 42 says that Hugh Maher was the richest man in Cook county in 1857, which is not true, and the Matteson house spoken of in paragraph No. 43 was built by Joseph Matteson, and not the Governor.
The City hotel was built some time before 1868, and the first iron-front structure built was at the southeast corner of South Water street and Fifth avenue by Allen Robbins. The foregoing refers to paragraphs Nos. 45 and 46.

Paragraph No. 48 has Crosby’s opera-house (not theater) on the south side of Washington street, between State and Dearborn streets. It was on the north side, and Harmony hall referred to in paragraph No. 5l was not the first office building. There were plenty of others before it was built. Bryan hall referred to in paragraph No. 63 was demolished, and Hooley’s theater occupied the site at the time of the great fire. The first Masonic temple is not correctly located in paragraph No. 55. It was on the east side of the street, where the Chemical building now stands.

The site of the Grand Pacific hotel was never occupied nor owned by the Northwestern university, as stated in paragraph No. 65. It was once the place of residence of P. F. W. Peck. The location of the first Catholic church given in paragraph No. 73 is wrong. It was on the southwest corner in 1833. The same can be said of the office of the Chicago Democrat, paragraph 75. It was on the southeast corner instead of the northwest. St. Mary’s Catholic church was built in 1845 and not in 1836, as stated in paragraph No. 146, and the museum, paragraph No. 150, was burned in 1849, not 1845. The location of the State street market in 1840, paragraph 10L. is also wrong. At that time it was on the river bank in the middle of State street. Ten years later a new one was built in the middle of State street, north of Randolph street, and the old one moved to Washington and Market street. The site of the first bank was the southwest corner of LaSalle and South Water streets, and not where paragraph 154 says it was.

There are many other mistakes, many of them in the reading matter, but the foregoing is sufficient to show that “Chicago at a Glance” is unreliable. It is unfortunate that such an apparently ambitious effort as the page in the Tribune should not be correct, at least in the details upon which the numerous histories of Chicago agree.—Old Resident, Chicago, May 3.

Wards of Chicago in 1900 Part 1—First Ward

The Wards of Chicago in 1900

INTRODUCTION

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