Great Fire of Pittsburgh
Encyclopedia
The Great Fire of Pittsburgh, which occurred on April 10 1845, destroyed a third of the city with damages estimated in the millions, perhaps tens of millions of dollars. While having little effect on the culture of the city except to spur further growth, it would provide a temporal reference point for the remainder of the century and beyond.
and Monongahela
rivers. It remained relatively small though the end of that century, but the 19th century brought rapid growth of a population made up of natives of English, Scot and German descent, as well large numbers of immigrants. By 1845, its population topped 20,000, and was swelled by crews completing the new Pennsylvania Canal
. The city’s growth had been haphazard, resulting in a patchwork of the rich homes and businesses of the city fathers intermingled with the tightly packed abutting wooden structures housing its largely-immigrant labor force. Its outstripped infrastructure provided poor water pressure and an insufficient volume to its ten ill-equipped volunteer fire companies, which were more social clubs than effective public service organizations. The year before the city had completed a new reservoir, but had then closed the old. However, the water lines and pumpers were inadequate. There were just two water mains for the entire city, and the fire companies had insufficient hose to reach the center of the city from the rivers, most of the existing hose having been condemned.
An iron manufacture had developed in the city, and come to represent a quarter of its industrial output. The furnaces driving Pittsburgh’s iron and glass industries had filled the air with coal dust and soot, as an 1823 observer reported, coating the walls and leaving the men working in the streets “as black as Satan himself,” while Charles Dickens
, had written in 1842 that the city had a “great quantity of smoke hanging over it.” Other industries also contributed to a particularly incendiary mix, releasing flour dust and cotton fibers into the air, to settle on the city. In addition, the seasonal weather had deprived the city of rain for six weeks, leaving the reservoir "dangerously low," while frequent near-gale-force winds from the west hit the city at mid-day. These conditions left Pittsburgh primed for the disaster that would strike in 1845.
By 2:00 PM, with the fire throwing into the air embers that then started new fires where they landed, many of those of the citizenry who had been fighting the flames instead fled to try to save their own possessions. During its height, between 2:00 and 4:00, it marched block by block through the intermixed structures of Pittsburgh poor and elite, residences and businesses, with “the loftiest buildings melting before the ocean of flame,” which consumed wood, melted metal and glass and collapsed stone and brick. The Bank of Pittsburgh, thought to be fireproof, fell victim when the heat of the fire shattered the windows and melted the zinc roof, the molten metal igniting the wooden interior and burning all except the contents of the vault. A similar fate met the grand Monongahela House, called the “finest Hotel in the west,” when its cupola caught fire and collapsed within, resulting in a total loss. The mayor’s offices and churches fell. As it spread up Second Street to Market Street it destroyed the region where the city’s physicians had been concentrated.
While the flames were intense, they moved slowly enough that residents had time to remove themselves and many of their belongings. Some fled to the highlands to the east, the modern Hill District but then undeveloped except for the newly-built courthouse, an area which remained untouched by the flames. Of those who fled south to the Monongahela River, some were able to cross the Monongahela Bridge, which connected the city to the southern bank of the river, the first of what would be many bridges spanning Pittsburgh’s rivers, located at the site of the present Smithfield Street Bridge
. However, this soon became congested, and then the wood-covered structure ignited, being fully consumed in about 15 minutes and leaving nothing but its supporting pylons. Those counting on riverboats to take their belongings away fared less well, those boats that did not flee having burned, leaving the refugees to pile their belongings on the riverbank. Most of this material was burned by the advancing flames, stolen or looted, while the escaping population was typically left with nothing more than they could carry. The docks and warehouses on the waterfront were likewise consumed, and as with the residents, attempts to save materials from the warehouses by bringing them to the riverbank only delayed their destruction. The fire followed the river into Pipetown, an area of workers housing and factories, again spreading destruction. It only halted when the winds died down about 6:00, and by 7:00 it had fully abated within the city, having burned its way to the river and cooler hills. The factories of Pipetown burned on until about 9:00. Throughout the night, there were occasional flare-ups along with the repeated sounds of buildings collapsing.
, to help fight the flames and evacuate residents. Congregation members rushed to help save the Third Presbyterian Church, while thirteen-year-old John R. Banks described going to the roof of the Western University of Pennsylvania (forerunner of the University of Pittsburgh
) in an attempt to prevent it from being ignited by the falling cinders, but as a witness described, "the cupola of the University burnt for a few minutes like paper and went down." The home of the University president was also lost. Others went into the evacuating areas to loot the abandoned homes and goods left in the streets. One hotel was saved within the burned area by using gunpowder to blow up the adjacent structures, creating a gap that the flames did not cross.
in Boston and James Baillie in New York (both of whom based their works on newspaper reports), in line with a growing trend of ‘disaster prints.’ The fire destroyed as many as 1200 buildings, while displacing 2000 families, about 12,000 individuals, from their homes. On the hills surrounding the city could be seen piles of household belongings. Surprisingly, only 2 people died. One was lawyer Samuel Kingston, who was thought to have returned to his house to rescue a piano but lost his bearings in the heat and smoke, his body being found in the basement of a neighbor’s destroyed house. The other body was not found until weeks later, and is thought to be that of a Mrs. Maglone, whose family had advertised not having seen her since the fire. Estimates of cost range from $5 to $25 million, one recent author placing it at $12,000,000, which he equated with $267 million in 2006 dollars. Almost none of this was recoverable, as all but one of Pittsburgh's insurers were bankrupted by the disaster.
Local ministers declared the disaster to be the judgment of God upon the iniquities of the industrial city and the Mayor of neighboring Allegheny City called for fasting, humiliation and prayer. The Mayor and attorney Wilson McCandless
personally traveled to the state capitol of Harrisburg to appeal for relief, and their petition was supported by Governor Francis R. Shunk
. The Legislature agreed to grant the city $50,000, to refund taxes for destroyed structures, and to give the entire city a three-year break from taxes. The latter had an unanticipated disadvantage, forcing public schools to remain closed for want of funding, while the Legislature subsequently made attempts to renege on some of the relief money they had granted. Public and private donations totaling almost $200,000 were received from as far away as Louisiana and even Europe, while several cities and towns in the United States, such as Wheeling
and Meadville
, made donations of commodities: flour, bacon, potatoes and sauerkraut. The moneys were distributed on a sliding scale to those making claims, the last being disbursed the following July.
The first response of the city was one of despair, as can be seen in reports to newspapers in other cities and in initial descriptions.
"It is impossible for any one, although a spectator of the dreaded scene of destruction which presented to the eyes of our citizens on the memorable tenth of April, to give more than a faint idea of the terrible overwhelming calamity which then befell our city, destroying in a few hours the labor of many years, and blasting suddenly the cherished hopes of hundreds – we may say thousands – of our citizens, who, but that morning were contented in the possession of comfortable homes and busy workshops. The blow was so sudden and unexpected as to unnerve the most self possessed, . . ."
However, this mood did not last long and the city was shortly rebuilding. The sudden dearth of structures resulted in skyrocketing property values and a coordinate construction boom which quickly replaced the destroyed structures, and after two months, even though "passways [were] scarcely opened through the heaps of stone, brick and iron, 400–500 new buildings had been erected in the burned area. Although the homes, warehouses and shops built were built of better materials and improved architecture compared to those destroyed, the problems remained, industrialist Andrew Carnegie commenting in 1848 on the fire-prone wooden buildings, and later on the smoke and soot-filled air. The market for replacement homes and household articles further invigorated the industries, and the fire was held to have “spurred the city to greater growth,” an attitude encouraged by the Pittsburgh's industrialists. This role of the fire was commemorated a century later, with a celebration of the anniversary.
Background
The city of Pittsburgh had its origins in the mid-18th century as a French military settlement at the confluence of the AlleghenyAllegheny River
The Allegheny River is a principal tributary of the Ohio River; it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
and Monongahela
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
rivers. It remained relatively small though the end of that century, but the 19th century brought rapid growth of a population made up of natives of English, Scot and German descent, as well large numbers of immigrants. By 1845, its population topped 20,000, and was swelled by crews completing the new Pennsylvania Canal
Pennsylvania Canal
Pennsylvania Canal refers generally to a complex system of canals, dams, locks, tow paths, aqueducts, and other infrastructure including, in some cases, railroads in Pennsylvania...
. The city’s growth had been haphazard, resulting in a patchwork of the rich homes and businesses of the city fathers intermingled with the tightly packed abutting wooden structures housing its largely-immigrant labor force. Its outstripped infrastructure provided poor water pressure and an insufficient volume to its ten ill-equipped volunteer fire companies, which were more social clubs than effective public service organizations. The year before the city had completed a new reservoir, but had then closed the old. However, the water lines and pumpers were inadequate. There were just two water mains for the entire city, and the fire companies had insufficient hose to reach the center of the city from the rivers, most of the existing hose having been condemned.
An iron manufacture had developed in the city, and come to represent a quarter of its industrial output. The furnaces driving Pittsburgh’s iron and glass industries had filled the air with coal dust and soot, as an 1823 observer reported, coating the walls and leaving the men working in the streets “as black as Satan himself,” while Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, had written in 1842 that the city had a “great quantity of smoke hanging over it.” Other industries also contributed to a particularly incendiary mix, releasing flour dust and cotton fibers into the air, to settle on the city. In addition, the seasonal weather had deprived the city of rain for six weeks, leaving the reservoir "dangerously low," while frequent near-gale-force winds from the west hit the city at mid-day. These conditions left Pittsburgh primed for the disaster that would strike in 1845.
Conflagration
Dawn of April 10, 1845, brought a warm but windy day. During a brief interlude in the winds just before noon, Ann Brooks, who worked on Ferry Street for Colonel William Diehl, left a newly stoked fire lit to heat wash water unattended. A spark from this fire ignited a nearby ice shed or barn. The fire companies responded, but got nothing but “a weak, sickly stream of muddy water” from their hoses, and the flames quickly spread to several buildings owned by Colonel Diehl, including his home, and to the Globe Cotton Factory. The bells of the Third Presbyterian Church had given the original alarm, but the church itself was only preserved by dropping its burning wooden cornice into the street. Once saved its stone walls served as a barrier to further spread of fire toward the north and west. Then the wind veered to the southeast and gave the fire added vigor, a witness describing that “the roar of the flames was terrific, and their horrible glare, as they leaped through the dense black clouds of smoke, sweeping earth and sky, was appalling.”By 2:00 PM, with the fire throwing into the air embers that then started new fires where they landed, many of those of the citizenry who had been fighting the flames instead fled to try to save their own possessions. During its height, between 2:00 and 4:00, it marched block by block through the intermixed structures of Pittsburgh poor and elite, residences and businesses, with “the loftiest buildings melting before the ocean of flame,” which consumed wood, melted metal and glass and collapsed stone and brick. The Bank of Pittsburgh, thought to be fireproof, fell victim when the heat of the fire shattered the windows and melted the zinc roof, the molten metal igniting the wooden interior and burning all except the contents of the vault. A similar fate met the grand Monongahela House, called the “finest Hotel in the west,” when its cupola caught fire and collapsed within, resulting in a total loss. The mayor’s offices and churches fell. As it spread up Second Street to Market Street it destroyed the region where the city’s physicians had been concentrated.
While the flames were intense, they moved slowly enough that residents had time to remove themselves and many of their belongings. Some fled to the highlands to the east, the modern Hill District but then undeveloped except for the newly-built courthouse, an area which remained untouched by the flames. Of those who fled south to the Monongahela River, some were able to cross the Monongahela Bridge, which connected the city to the southern bank of the river, the first of what would be many bridges spanning Pittsburgh’s rivers, located at the site of the present Smithfield Street Bridge
Smithfield Street Bridge
The Smithfield Street Bridge is a lenticular truss bridge crossing the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.The bridge was designed by Gustav Lindenthal, the engineer who later designed the Hell Gate Bridge. The bridge was built between 1881–83, opening for traffic on March 19, 1883....
. However, this soon became congested, and then the wood-covered structure ignited, being fully consumed in about 15 minutes and leaving nothing but its supporting pylons. Those counting on riverboats to take their belongings away fared less well, those boats that did not flee having burned, leaving the refugees to pile their belongings on the riverbank. Most of this material was burned by the advancing flames, stolen or looted, while the escaping population was typically left with nothing more than they could carry. The docks and warehouses on the waterfront were likewise consumed, and as with the residents, attempts to save materials from the warehouses by bringing them to the riverbank only delayed their destruction. The fire followed the river into Pipetown, an area of workers housing and factories, again spreading destruction. It only halted when the winds died down about 6:00, and by 7:00 it had fully abated within the city, having burned its way to the river and cooler hills. The factories of Pipetown burned on until about 9:00. Throughout the night, there were occasional flare-ups along with the repeated sounds of buildings collapsing.
Fighting the fire
The burgeoning fire companies of the city found themselves overwhelmed. In a city flanked by rivers, their equipment and infrastructure was insufficient to bring water to the site of the blaze. The volunteer companies functioned more as gentlemen's clubs. However, most lost their hosing in the blaze, and two their engines. Help also came from individual volunteers. While the vessels on the Monongahela fled the city, those on the Allegheny side, to the north, were active in ferrying refugees across the river and bringing back men from Allegheny City, among them a young Stephen FosterStephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
, to help fight the flames and evacuate residents. Congregation members rushed to help save the Third Presbyterian Church, while thirteen-year-old John R. Banks described going to the roof of the Western University of Pennsylvania (forerunner of the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
) in an attempt to prevent it from being ignited by the falling cinders, but as a witness described, "the cupola of the University burnt for a few minutes like paper and went down." The home of the University president was also lost. Others went into the evacuating areas to loot the abandoned homes and goods left in the streets. One hotel was saved within the burned area by using gunpowder to blow up the adjacent structures, creating a gap that the flames did not cross.
Aftermath
The morning of April 11 saw a third of the city smoldering ruins, a forest of chimneys and walls amid a heap of ruins, although occasional buildings that were inexplicably left untouched amid the destruction. It was said that “the best half of the city” had been burned, an area representing 60 acres, and the entire Second Ward of the city had just two or three dwellings untouched. Local artist William Coventry Wall captured this landscape in a series of paintings which he quickly had printed as a lithograph. This was published in Philadelphia and saw a broad market, as did prints by Nathaniel CurrierNathaniel Currier
Nathaniel Currier was an American lithographer, who headed the company Currier & Ives with James Ives.-Early years:...
in Boston and James Baillie in New York (both of whom based their works on newspaper reports), in line with a growing trend of ‘disaster prints.’ The fire destroyed as many as 1200 buildings, while displacing 2000 families, about 12,000 individuals, from their homes. On the hills surrounding the city could be seen piles of household belongings. Surprisingly, only 2 people died. One was lawyer Samuel Kingston, who was thought to have returned to his house to rescue a piano but lost his bearings in the heat and smoke, his body being found in the basement of a neighbor’s destroyed house. The other body was not found until weeks later, and is thought to be that of a Mrs. Maglone, whose family had advertised not having seen her since the fire. Estimates of cost range from $5 to $25 million, one recent author placing it at $12,000,000, which he equated with $267 million in 2006 dollars. Almost none of this was recoverable, as all but one of Pittsburgh's insurers were bankrupted by the disaster.
Local ministers declared the disaster to be the judgment of God upon the iniquities of the industrial city and the Mayor of neighboring Allegheny City called for fasting, humiliation and prayer. The Mayor and attorney Wilson McCandless
Wilson McCandless
Wilson McCandless was a United States federal judge.Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, McCandless received a B.A. from Western University in 1826 and read law to enter the Bar in 1831...
personally traveled to the state capitol of Harrisburg to appeal for relief, and their petition was supported by Governor Francis R. Shunk
Francis R. Shunk
Francis Rawn Shunk was the tenth Governor of Pennsylvania from 1845 to 1848. Born into a poor family, Shunk served in the Pennsylvania militia during the War of 1812...
. The Legislature agreed to grant the city $50,000, to refund taxes for destroyed structures, and to give the entire city a three-year break from taxes. The latter had an unanticipated disadvantage, forcing public schools to remain closed for want of funding, while the Legislature subsequently made attempts to renege on some of the relief money they had granted. Public and private donations totaling almost $200,000 were received from as far away as Louisiana and even Europe, while several cities and towns in the United States, such as Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
and Meadville
Meadville, Pennsylvania
Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city is generally considered part of the Pittsburgh Tri-State and is within 40 miles of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was the first permanent settlement in northwest Pennsylvania...
, made donations of commodities: flour, bacon, potatoes and sauerkraut. The moneys were distributed on a sliding scale to those making claims, the last being disbursed the following July.
The first response of the city was one of despair, as can be seen in reports to newspapers in other cities and in initial descriptions.
"It is impossible for any one, although a spectator of the dreaded scene of destruction which presented to the eyes of our citizens on the memorable tenth of April, to give more than a faint idea of the terrible overwhelming calamity which then befell our city, destroying in a few hours the labor of many years, and blasting suddenly the cherished hopes of hundreds – we may say thousands – of our citizens, who, but that morning were contented in the possession of comfortable homes and busy workshops. The blow was so sudden and unexpected as to unnerve the most self possessed, . . ."
However, this mood did not last long and the city was shortly rebuilding. The sudden dearth of structures resulted in skyrocketing property values and a coordinate construction boom which quickly replaced the destroyed structures, and after two months, even though "passways [were] scarcely opened through the heaps of stone, brick and iron, 400–500 new buildings had been erected in the burned area. Although the homes, warehouses and shops built were built of better materials and improved architecture compared to those destroyed, the problems remained, industrialist Andrew Carnegie commenting in 1848 on the fire-prone wooden buildings, and later on the smoke and soot-filled air. The market for replacement homes and household articles further invigorated the industries, and the fire was held to have “spurred the city to greater growth,” an attitude encouraged by the Pittsburgh's industrialists. This role of the fire was commemorated a century later, with a celebration of the anniversary.
See also
- Great Chicago FireGreat Chicago FireThe Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...
- Great Fire of LondonGreat Fire of LondonThe Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...
– 1666 - Great Fire of Toronto (1849)Great Fire of Toronto (1849)Great Fire of Toronto was the first major fire to destroy part of the City and the second in the 19th century.The fire began at Post's Tavern, east of Jarvis Street and north of King Street in the early morning of April 7, 1849...
- Great Toronto Fire – 1904
Sources
- Marcellin C. Adams, "Pittsburgh's Great Fire of 1845", Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, vol. 25 (1942), pp. 17–36.
- Charles F. C. Arensberg, "The Pittsburgh Fire of April 10, 1845", Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, vol. 28 (1945), pp. 11–19.
- Donald E. Cook, jr., "The Great Fire of Pittsburgh in 1845, or How a Great American City Turned Disaster into Victory", Western Pennsylvania History, vol. 51 (1968), pp. 127–153.
- Charles T. Dawson, Our Fireman. The History of the Pittsburgh Fire Department from the Village Period until the Present Time, Pittsburgh, 1889, pp. 270–280
- J. Heron Foster, A Full Account of The Great Fire at Pittsburgh of the Tenth Day of April, 1845, Pittsburgh: J. W. Cook, 1845
- Peter Charles Hoffer, Seven fires: the urban infernos that reshaped America, New York: PublicAffairs Books, 2006, pp. 63–103.