12/3/2023 0 Comments Chicago fire station![]() The walls are solid, and the towers are not materially damaged, but the building is gutted from basement to roof.” - Chicago Tribune, Oct. Robert Collyer and his congregation, stands now stripped of all its grandeur, a ruined pile of blistered stone. “Unity Church, so recently reared in all its beautiful properties by the indomitable energy of Rev. ![]() The former Unity Church on Washington Square Park where some of the walls survived the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and are part of the rebuilt structure, July 12, 2021. The Bellinger Cottage was designated a historic and architectural landmark by the Chicago Landmarks Commission in 1977. A previous owner didn’t want the structure to become a historical landmark in the 1960s, but did allow a plaque citing the site’s significance to be placed out front. The cottage remains a private home, though there had been threats to tear it down. Bellinger, however, is reported to have told a subsequent owner of the home that the cider was not needed, at least to fight the fire - but maybe it was passed around to those who found refuge in the cottage.Ī letter published in the Tribune in 1921 by a writer with the initials “J.C.” claimed she was one of 21 people taken in by the Bellinger family after the fire. The fable was so fetching that it even found its way into Chicago Public School textbooks. Legend has it that when the well ran dry, a keg of cider from Bellinger’s cellar was appropriated to douse the last flames. When the well ran dry, Bellinger ran to nearby Ten-Mile ditch for refills. The men soaked rugs and blankets in Bellinger’s well and carried them to the shingle roof to protect it from cinders falling from the sky. The house was saved from the fire by the quick thinking of Bellinger, who along with his brother-in-law and another policeman ripped up the wooden sidewalk and picket fence surrounding the house, as well as the wooden front porch, to form a fire break. Like the city’s Water Tower, the wooden Italianate building is designed by Boyington. Then he poured water over the building until none was left, and when the water was all gone, he took his cider out of his cellar and used it in the same way.” - Chicago Tribune, Oct. He hauled up the sidewalk as far as possible isolating his house. A policeman named Bellinger, an invalid, was the occupant when the fire raged. ![]() One of these on Lincoln place, is a small white cottage, which remains unscathed in the midst of the dreary waste surrounding it. in Lincoln Park survived the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. ![]()
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