Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-06-27
CHICAGO.
A Drive Through the Burnt District

built with Unparalleled RapIdity-
PIuck Displayed by the Business
| Men.
| Correspondence of the Union and American.
CHICAGO, June 19.-The point Of great
est interest to the stranger in Chicago is
''the burnt di strict" This afternoon | took
! a ride through portion Of this district, and
must confess that the energy displayed 10
| rebuilding the business portion is wonder
| full. 1t is not quite nine months since the
| fire swept like a fearful tornado through the
| city from near the Southern to the Northern
! limits, tapping up in its wild career every
| veStige of the buildings in its track, save
! here and there the bare walls. Yet in that
! time enough business houses have been
| put up to accommodate the trade of much
| larger city than there is in Tennessee to-
| day. Scarcely vestige Of the great COnfs-
| grafton is to be seen in some Of the princi-
| pal streets. Vacant spaces are still left, it
! is true, but they are hid from the eye, and
| the city presents a front to the spec
tatOr of newness and prosperity that equals
| the palmiest times before the fire. On
| every hand are to be seen evidences that
| Chicago is rising from the ashes in a most
| creditable manner, and in the course Oftwo
| or three years more there will be as many
| business houses as the city contained prior
| to the great fire. 1t is true the buildings
have been run up so rapidly there is some
! fear that many of them are not as secure as
| they should be. This is especially the case
with reference to buildings erected during
! the winter. A letter to the New York
! Ecening Post from Chicago, dated March
y, refers to the winter operations as fol-
| lows:
"During the recent severe weather, ex-
! tending over the Northwest, gentlemen
prominently connected with the New York
| Insurance Companies have repeatedly seen
bricklayers pursuing their labOrs with port
able stoves at hand to enable them to warm
their fingers, so that they could handle the
trowel and lay the bricks. Fires, as WELL
are frequently made on the scaffOldings of
three and four story buildings, that the
mortar might be kept from freezing while
it remains Undisturbed in mass. Just as
soon as the rays of the spring sun, or even
the warm atmosphere of a mild day, have
sOftened mortar prepared and laid after the
fashion mentioned, the mortar VII eXude
from the crude preparation, which becOm-
ing disintegrated, VIII have no more subsis-
tency or Cementing power than so much
wet sand. The settling of the building,
moreover, will eXpel the mortar from be-
tween the seams, gaps and cracks may be
expected, though, from being prOpped up
on either side by other structures, the build
ing may appear, TO the casual observer
as secure as any ordinary editice.
Before Christmas soma two or three build
ings, put upWith mortar which was laid when
the weather was too cold to permit of it
with safety, tOppled down during high winds
which shook them apart ere the mortar
could gain consistency. Builders are, Of
course, anxious to push operations forward
with all celebrity, as the profits realized now,
when contracts are so high, are simply i'm
mense. Bricks at S75 per thousand, and
bricklayers' wages at $3.50 per day, cannot
be expected to last through the spring.
The reckless Western spirit and Untiring
eagerness in this rebuilding matter it is diff
fcult to combat, and it is argued, reason
ably enough, that the remedy for this haste
is hard TO find. Warehouses, stores, offices
and dwellings must be had; trade must not
be permitted to drift into other channels,
and the necessities being immediate it would
not do to suffer the winter to elapse with
out providing for hese imperative needs. |
Enchantments in regard to restrictions, |
fre-limits of time and locality, and other |
wise precautions, have in too many instan- !
ces, by force Of public opinion, became a. !
most dead letter."
At the date of this letter-less than six |
months from the Chicago |
had about twenty miles frontage of solid |
stone and brick buildings finished and in |
progress, while the number of less peTma- |
nent structures, from one to three stories !
high, then completed and occupied, was |
counted by tens Of thousands. With this |
evidence of ''the reckless Western spirit" !
before the writer for the EUening Post, it is |
not strange that he looked forward to the |
coming Of summer with misgiVings as to |
the effect of warm weather upon the build |
ings thus hurried to completion through the
extremely cold weather of last winter. But |
his fears have not been realized, except in
rare instances, and in these few cases the !
fault was not so much that Of the weather
as of the mechanic who sighted hls work. !
One Of the Chicago papers declares that !
''the great town Of Boston, Ou the 4th of |
July, 1776, had not as many buildings con-
tanning as much stone, brick, timber and /
iron as have been erected In our burnt dis
trict since the 1st OfNOvember. This state
ment will give the readers the UNION AND
AMERICAN some idea Of the rapidly with
which Chicago is beingrebuilt. It's notice
able that the buildings now bailg erected |
along the business streets Of the before-the-
fire era, are of the most substantial charac-
ter, and nearly all Of five stories above
ground. These buildings are not only sub
stantial, but most Of them will present a
magnificent appearance when completed. /
Two or three years more the business pOr-
ton OF the burnt district will be rebuilt with
more imposing editiCes than those that COW
cred 1t before the fire. One clement Of this
extraordinary power Of recuperation, in the
face of the stupendouS losses sustained, is
explained by an old citizen as follows.
"ChicaoO Wa Tot ike any other city
in the Union. Hundreds of Eastern capt
talists were represented here in variety Of
ways. Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
Plttsburg, and other places, had branch
houses here. MOneyed men and inCOrDo-
rations in those cities hal ialSe sums loaned
on The security OF Chicago real estate. An
immense commission business was done by
some of our citizens. Consequently tb2
prOdigiOus fire losg did not fall upon or
citizens as fully as it would have done had
the situation more resembled that in East
ern cities. Men via lived al distance,
ana had only q fraction Of their means in
vested here, would quietly resume their
former relations u business, AMI had many
inducements to prompt action in that re-
spect. To capitalists who had money on
mortgage in Chicago, rebuilding became a
vital consideration, and a symbol Ct the
ability of tbeir 6ea orz to earn in rents the
amounts necessary to discharge at least the
interest on loans. Wherever a firm or indi-
viduaI succumbed to the fire, a breach was
created into which many others, from yari-
Gus quarters Of the country, stood ready to
enter; FOR it offered the inheritance Of an
established business. These and a multi
tude of like exceptional cases have become
potential factors in solving the problem of
our speedy reconstruction"
Tho rebuilding of the "North Division"
which was devoted mainly to residences,