Burling had many architectural works during these early years. Unfortunately for Burling’s architectural legacy, nearly all of his early work was consumed by the Great Fire in 1871. The fire practically wiped Chicago’s slate clean. Despite his work getting destroyed, his Tribune Building—the first supposedly fireproof building in the city—saw its iron beams melt into liquid rivers in the blasting heat, and its stone baked and crumbled to dust. Still, a stone-walled survivor of Burling’s early work stands next to the Driehaus Museum today: St. James Cathedral, which he built in 1857 and rebuilt in 1875.