UIC Library Staff

October 8-10, 2021 will mark the 150th anniversary of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire.  As the anniversary approaches, Tracy Seneca would like to invite any interested walkers from the UIC Library to join her on a commemorative walk of the perimeter of the fire.   

The walk will take place at 9am, Saturday, September 18th. Why September 18th? Because she's also leading a walk of this route on the actual anniversary date, and it is completely booked! So it’s a little early for the anniversary, but she wanted to invite others to join her on her ‘practice’ walk.  

Starting just blocks from the UIC campus, the fire consumed the area from Taylor to Fullerton, and roughly from the North Branch of the Chicago River to Lake Michigan.  We’ll begin the walk at the Chicago Fire Department Academy at DeKoven & Jefferson, then follow the 1871 shoreline up to Fullerton.  We’ll circle back around along the river back to the Fire Academy, covering about 11 miles total.    

There are a number of historic maps of the Great Chicago Fire, many of which do not agree, so we can’t swear that this walk will be historically accurate.  The route is based on “Richard's Illustrated and Statistical Map of the Great Conflagration in Chicago 1871” https://explore.chicagocollections.org/image/newberry/115/xs5kp1v/   

The walk includes stops at a couple of fire relics and offers plenty of places to pause for a rest or a bite to eat.  Here is a guide to the walk route: https://tinyurl.com/uic-lib-fire-walk  
If you’re already an avid walker, just a note that we won’t be in any hurry, but you’re welcome to use the walk guide if you want to go at a faster pace. If you’re concerned that 11 miles will be a challenge, you’re welcome to join for as much or little of the walk as you’d like.  There are plenty of public transportation options if you decide to leave early.   
If you’d like to join, please sign up at: https://forms.gle/kNV2CWsQ5SBF9uTj8 
We hope you’ll join us; it’s a beautiful walk and an interesting way to begin to understand the scale of the fire that shaped our city’s history.  

If you'd like to attend, please register by August 20th.  That will give the LCBC time to plan the walk more carefully if we have a large number of walkers signed up.