CHICAGO (CBS) -- On the night of Sunday, Oct. 8, 1871, a fire broke out in or near a barn on what we would now call Chicago's Near West Side. Popular legend that generations of Chicagoans were ...

Old St. Patrick’s Church is one of a handful of buildings said to have survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. 1. The ...

Mr. Smith is the author of “Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City.” When the monumental fire of October 1871 struck Chicago, the city, which had ...