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| Marshall Field's in 1902 (departmentstoremuseum.blogspot.com) |
Big cities were
dangerous places as the twentieth century began. Maybe that is still true, but we can’t
imagine the daily onslaught of train fatalities, unfortunate falls beneath
streetcar wheels, poisonings, diseases and fires that besieged the average
citizen as the 1900’s began.
One event that clearly
shows the truth of that statement occurred on this date, November 5, of
1902. It happened in the brand new store
of Marshall Field when an elevator and its two passengers fell from the ninth
floor to the basement of the building.
The 25-year-old elevator operator, Thomas Byrne, was killed in the
accident. His passenger, John Steiskal,
suffered injuries and was removed to the Presbyterian Hospital.
Harry G. Selfridge,
the manager of the store, was also injured as he was cut by falling glass as he
helped to clear away the wreckage. You
may recognize Mr. Selfridge’s name. He
worked his way up the ladder at Field’s and left in 1906 for London where he
spent an extraordinary sum to open a department store on the west end of Oxford
Street.
It was a dramatic
accident at Marshall Field’s as the entire building shook when the car landed,
and the sound of the crash reverberated throughout the interior of the
store. The car fell with such speed that
the counterweights were hurled through the roof of the building. That was unfortunate because much of the
cabling came back down the elevator shaft, and that seems to have been the
cause of young Mr. Byrne’s death.
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| Harry Selfridge |
Said Mr. Selfridge,
“The cause of the accident is unknown to me, but is being investigated as
rapidly as possible. The car did not
fall precipitately, but gradually, comparatively, as shown by the safety
apparatus. Our employee would not have
been killed but for the fall of the cables.”
Just a cursory look
at newspaper accounts of 1902 show that elevator injuries and deaths occurred
with regularity with nearly one incident per month. I think that if I were living back in 1902, I
might be inclined to take the stairs.
Chicago Elevator Mishaps in
1902 – A Partial List
• January 11 –
Elevator falls in Chamber of Commerce Building, the third mishap in the same
building in a month, killing a workman.
• January 27 – Two
workmen escape death when an elevator falls at Openheim’s General Store at
Forty-Seventh and Ashland.
• March 10 – Mrs. Anna
Schneider is killed in a West Side Hospital elevator as she is being
transferred on a wheeled cart from one ward to another.
• April 14 –
16-year-old George Calbach is killed as he is caught between the weights of two
elevators while riding in a freight elevator at 128 Franklin Street.
• May 12 – Seven men
and two women escape from an elevator in the Marquette Building after it falls
three floors.
• May 15 – Joseph
Brown, a teamster, is injured as an elevator falls at 170 Clinton Street, the
second such mishap in a year.
• June 4 – A young
boy, identified, is killed in an elevator at 221 State Street.
• June 6 – An
elevator drops from the sixth story of the Warren Springer Building at 199
South Canal Street, injuring three.
• July 15 – Frank H.
Griswold, president of the Northwestern Storage Company, the Newberry Storage
and Warehouse Company, and the Griswold Storage and Tansfer Company is killed
by a falling elevator at 280 Michigan Avenue.
• July 28 –
14-year-old Tolif Buchkowski, is maimed as a he is wedged between a heavy
freight elevator and a stone wall.
• November 7 – L. D.
Johnson, a clerk, is crushed between an elevator cage and the shaft of the
Schlesinger & Mayer’s store.
• December 6 – Emil
Ryandorf, 17-years-old, has his skull fractured when he falls down an elevator
shaft at the Warren Springer Company, 231 South Canal Street.
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