DeKoven Street is a street in Chicago. Located in the city's
Near West Side, it was named for John DeKoven, one of the founders of the
Northern Trust Company
Northern Trust Corporation is a financial services company headquartered in Chicago that caters to corporations, institutional investors, and ultra high net worth individuals. Northern Trust is one of the largest banking institutions in the Un ...
.
History
The earliest
plat of Chicago, surveyed in 1830 in preparation for the
Illinois and Michigan Canal
The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago Por ...
, was located to the northeast of DeKoven Street and established Chicago's grid system. Chicago was incorporated as a town in 1833, and surveyors began extending its grid in 1834. DeKoven Street first appeared as a street at this time.
Great Chicago Fire
The
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...
of 1871 started in the barn behind the cottage of Patrick and
Catherine O'Leary
Catherine "Cate" O'Leary (née Donegan; March 1827 – July 3, 1895) was an Irish immigrant living in Chicago, Illinois, who became famous when it was alleged that an accident involving her cow had started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Born Ca ...
at 137 (after 1909, 558) DeKoven Street. Although the popular story is that a cow kicked over a lantern to start the fire, Michael Ahern, the ''Chicago Republican'' reporter who created the cow story, admitted in 1893 that he had made it up because he thought it would make colorful copy. At the time, the street was in a less prosperous neighborhood of Chicago.
Subsequent history
The site is now occupied by the
Chicago Fire academy,
near the intersection of
Roosevelt Road and Canal Street, just southwest of the
Loop
Loop or LOOP may refer to:
Brands and enterprises
* Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live
* Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets
* Loop Mobile, an ...
. The address of the academy "...by design is the same as that where legend has it that Mrs. Mollie (sic) O'Leary's cow kicked over the lantern that started the Great Chicago Fire."
The site is a designated landmark of the City of Chicago.
References
External links
* http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/chidisasters/greatfire.php
Streets in Chicago
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