Look at this ridiculous building. It looks like a tiny castle that got lost on its way to medieval England and ended up on Michigan Avenue. This is the Chicago Water Tower — and the reason it looks so out of place is because everything around it burned to the ground in 1871 — and this weird little Gothic tower just... didn't.
The Great Chicago Fire killed around 300 people, left 100,000 homeless, and destroyed over 17,000 structures. The fire was so hot it melted iron. It jumped the Chicago River. It turned the entire downtown into ash in about 36 hours.
And this tower — made of limestone, which doesn't burn — just stood there. The pumping station across the street survived too. They both look like they're cosplaying as churches, and that's because the architect, William Boyington, was VERY into Gothic Revival. He thought water infrastructure should look like it belongs in a Bram Stoker novel.
Here's the thing about the Great Chicago Fire that nobody talks about — the same night, a
fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin killed between 1,500 and 2,500 people — the deadliest fire in American history. But Chicago had better newspapers, so guess which one everyone remembers.
And that cow? Mrs. O'Leary's cow that supposedly kicked over a lantern and started the whole thing? Total lie. A reporter admitted YEARS later that he made it up because it was a good story. The O'Learys were Irish im
