Found on the pages of The Chicago Tribune on May 22 of 1862 . . .
The following blurb
on Page 4 of the 1862 Tribune effectively
characterizes the personality of the city nine years before the Great Fire of
1871 leveled it:
“Since the
presentment of the ordinance before the last meeting of the Council, relative
to cows, these animals have taken to grazing in the Court House Square. In addition to the milky mothers, all the
dogs of the South Division also make it their rendezvous. We suggest that they be mildly prevailed upon
to skedaddle, unless, as is probably the case, they are Democratic candidates
for office, in which case they are bound to remain.”
 |
| Courthouse Square as it looked in 1862 |
Courthouse Square
stood where today the Richard J. Daley center stands, bounded by Washington and
Randolph Streets to the south and north, and by Clark and Dearborn Streets to
the west and east.
Written between
1875 and 1878 newspaper reporter Frederick Francis Cook’s Bygone Days in Chicago describes the square.
“. . . The Court
House in those days brooked no rivals.
With its aspiring cupola, it so dominated the town that none could help
looking up to it as something superior and apart–being, in fact, the only
really tall object in sight, except when ‘Long John’ (John Wentworth, two-term
mayor of Chicago in the late 1850’s and 1860’s) took an airing. If you wanted a hack you went to the Court
House Square for it; and it was nearly the same if you were looking for a
policeman, for several could generally be found hanging about there to prevent
rival hackmen from murdering each other, or a combination of the pestiferous
crew from doing a stranger to death, both being not infrequent happenings.”
 |
| The Courthouse in flames, October 8, 1871 |
“In a way, also the
Court House was everybody’s monitor and guide.
It told you when to rise, when to eat your dinner, when to knock off
work, when to jubilate, when to mourn, and , above all, it helped you to locate
fires; for the clang of its great bell could be heard in almost every part of
the town.”
“In 1862 the Court
House Square was surrounded by an oddly assorted architectural hodgepodge, typical of the various stages of the city’s development, from the
primitive ‘frame’ of the thirties, to the new, six-storied marble Sherman
House, at this time the finest building in the city, as well as one of the best
appointed hotels in the country.”
The designer of the
original 1853 Courthouse was John M. Van Osdel, who was born in Baltimore in
1811 and moved to Chicago in 1836. (The Page Brothers Building at 177-191 north of the Chicago Theater, although significantly altered is a remaining Van Osdel design). The
original Courthouse grew in stages over the years.
Shortly after the building was erected the city added five feet of fill
to the square on which the building sat, partly burying the lower most
level. A third floor, along with a
cupola, was added with an observation post 120 feet in the air that was
accessed by way of a spiral staircase.
This was the fire watchman’s post in the great tinderbox of a city.
 |
| The Courthouse Bell, fallen into the basement during the fire. |
By the time of the
Chicago Fire in 1871 a clock had been added along with a 10,849-pound bronze
bell that continued to ring for five hours in the early stages of the fire
until it finally fell through the burning building.
Thanks to the well-researched
website The Great Chicago Fire and The
Web of Memory for the detail.
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