The first World’s Fair on American soil ran from May 10 to November 10, 1876. Millions of visitors flocked to Philadelphia to see the show. But two months before it ended, it nearly went up in smoke.
In early October of 1871, a small fire started in or near a barn that belonged to the O’Leary family on the southwest side of Chicago. Thanks to the hot, dry, windy conditions, the blaze built into a roaring inferno. Over the course of three days, the fire destroyed three square miles of the city. It killed 300 people, burned 17,000 structures, and left 100,000 people homeless. It became known as the Great Chicago Fire for good reason. One year later, a similar fire ravaged Boston. It started downtown near the corner of Summer Street and Kingston Street on a Saturday evening. It tore through sixty-five acres of the city and destroyed nearly eight hundred buildings.
After two devastating events in two major cities, the organizers of the Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia—the first World’s Fair on American soil—knew their greatest fear was fire. The city of Philadelphia outlawed the construction of wooden structures leading up to the Centennial celebrations, but it didn’t have the resources to fully enforce the edict. Nearly every street and alley was packed with theatres, saloons, brothels, beer gardens, hotels, restaurants, and shops of every description. Everyone knew that millions of tourists would visit the World’s Fair in the spring, summer, and fall of 1876. There was a fortune to be made, and Elm Avenue was ground zero.
