Museum recalls 1849's 'Great Fire' in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- There are no historic landmarks along the Mississippi riverfront to commemorate what people called "The Great Fire" that nearly paralyzed St. Louis 157 years ago. But a museum event here is recalling the devastating blaze.

Today, the fire's 157th anniversary, Barnes Bradshaw with the Missouri Historical Society will deliver a theatrical account of the forgotten fire called "Up from the Ashes" at the Missouri History Museum.

The museum is one of the few places that commemorates the fire that gutted 15 blocks of the city and destroyed more than 400 buildings and homes.

"There's no real lore or legend connected to the St. Louis fire," Bradshaw said. "As devastating as the St. Louis fire was, there were only three reported deaths in the city."

The lack of recognition may be partly because 21 years after the St. Louis fire of 1849, an even greater blaze in terms of death and destruction nearly burned another Midwestern town -- Chicago -- to the ground and killed at least 300 people.

St. Louis rebuilt and the city on the bustling road to the west still prospered. Time would soon forget "The Great Fire." More than a century later, near the area that burned to the ground would come a more prominent landmark -- the Gateway Arch.

Unlike the cholera outbreak that was spreading quickly in St. Louis at the time, killing more than 100 people a week, the fire moved slowly with strong winds fueling its strength.

"People and businesses actually had time to pack up all of their things and move away from the fire," Bradshaw said, standing in the museum's 1849 fire exhibit that includes a fire buggy that carried water for volunteer firefighters in the mid-1800s.

After the steamship White Cloud caught fire at around 10 p.m. on May 17, 1849, fire bells rang out as volunteer firefighters tried to battle the blaze.

Nearly two dozen steamboats that lined the shores of St. Louis burned one by one down the Mississippi River, which was a highway for commercial goods in those days.

The docked boats illuminated the night sky and created a wall of fire blocking access to the river.

Blew up buildings

After working through the night, firefighters decided the only way it could be stopped was to create a fire wall by blowing up a string of buildings. A fire captain, Thomas Targee, died in the process of igniting a keg of explosive powder and was recognized as the hero who saved the city.

"There's nothing to commemorate the fire along the river. It's tragic as far as I'm concerned," said Maureen Kavanaugh, owner of St. Louis Walking Tours.

The headlines that week read "The Great Fire in St. Louis" and newspapers estimated damages around $6 million. Many business were insured, though, allowing for new and better buildings to go up.

St. Louis visitors couldn't even tell a fire had destroyed a large part of the city within a year, Kavanaugh said. New city codes prohibited the construction of wood-only buildings. Brick structures followed to become the district known today as Laclede's Landing.

"People just picked up and went on," she said.

"This city was so successful then and there was so much commerce coming through St. Louis. The fire didn't seem to faze it. I think that's why it's overshadowed in history."

On the Net

Missouri History Museum: www.mohistory.org