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Introduction
- Southern Illinois University Press
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1 NIntroduction O The year is 1893.Chicago’s elite intends the Columbian Exposition to make their young metropolis world famous.It does.That majestic fair becomes the most magnetic event in the city’s history and draws visitors from home and abroad. Whether they view Chicago as glorious or startling, the crowds of fairgoers find the city unforgettable and recognize it as a force to be taken seriously. Held in Jackson Park from May 1 to October 30, the fair offered a dazzling display of vast neoclassical buildings laid out on a pattern by Daniel Burnham and designed by the likes of Richard Morris Hunt, Henry Ives Cobb, and the trio of Charles McKim, William Mead, and Stanford White.The one major nonclassical structure,the Transportation Building,was the work of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan.The Midway Plaisance showcased cultures from around the globe; its focal point was the world’s first Ferris wheel. Nearly twenty-seven million people attended the fair—a figure that is even more astounding when one realizes that the population of the United States was barely sixty-three million. Yet, ironically, the “White City” of 1893 has cast such a long shadow that it has obscured many other events that also occurred within that single year—all of which played central roles in Chicago ’s growth. When was Chicago’s most important skyscraper completed? In what year did Chicago writers launch the urban literature movement? When did Sears, Roebuck and Company get started? When did the Art Institute of Chicago open? When did architect Frank Lloyd Wright open his office? When did William Wrigley invent Juicy Fruit? When did the “Chicago hot dog” begin? When did the Cubs unveil the ballpark in which they last won the World Series? When did the Illinois Institute 2 Introduction of Technology get started? These all happened in 1893. Even if Chicago had not built the White City and hosted the fair, 1893 would still have been its banner year. By 1893, Chicago had completed its transition from a provincial city to a world metropolis. It had now acquired all, or nearly all, of the components that make up a great modern city—museums , a rapid-transit system, a symphony orchestra, powerful business enterprises of national and international scope, universities, hospitals, a championship sports team, a progressive upper class keen on civic improvement, a willingness to do what was needed to provide clean water and air, a group of authors and journalists able to express city life, and, perhaps most famous of all, a school of architects that was doing more than just erecting impressive buildings but was revolutionizing world architecture. And, with the Columbian Exposition, Chicago had a showcase that proclaimed all these achievements not just to the nation , but to the world. It is to be remembered, however, that as the year 1893 approached its end,many in the city and the nation were probably beginning to think that things were not quite so shiny after all. Beginning in January, the economy began to weaken, and by December both the weather and financial prospects were bleak. The country was mired in the “Panic of 1893,”which, before the 1930s,was also known as the “Great Depression.”The unemployment rate,which had been around a healthy 3 percent in 1892,was now hovering near 11 percent,although it was probably nearer 25 When this photograph of bustling Randolph Street was taken in 1890, Chicago was well on its way to becoming a world metropolis. (ICHi-59567, Chicago History Museum; photographer , J. W. Taylor) [3.230.162.238] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 01:19 GMT) Introduction 3 percent among industrial workers. Bankruptcies were epidemic, railroads were failing,and the worst effects of the downturn were being felt in manufacturing cities like Chicago. Chicago, like the nation, would ride it out, but the financial predicament did loom in the background of most of the events described here. It considerably slowed the progress of Chicago’s celebrated architecture ,for one,and it inspired the civic reformer William Stead, the subject of chapter 13, “Reforming Chicago,” to write one of the most detailed and chilling accounts of nineteenth-century urban destitution.The year began in bright light—the radiance of the White City—but it ended in shadow. Concentrating on a single year in the history of Chicago makes it possible to concentrate on specific stories that are usually not covered in depth in histories of the city that...