History of Chicago

The first Europeans to discover the area that today is Chicago were Louis Jolliet, a Canadian explorer, and the French-born Jesuit Jacques Marquette in 1673.

Founding the city

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, an African American from Santo Domingo, established the first permanent settlement in 1781. He chose the location at the mouth of the Chicago River because of its strategic importance to establish a trading post as the river linked the lake with the Mississippi river. A military base, Fort Dearborn, later occupied the area at the mouth of the Chicago River. Native Americans attacked the fort on a regular basis until the defeat of Chief Black Hawk in 1832. Chicago was formally incorporated as a town the next year, and four years later, when the population had reached 4,170, as a city. It got its name from the native Indians word for the area.

Boom and disaster

Chicago truly started to boom when the railways arrived and in 1870 counted a population of 300,000. Disaster hit the next year, when the Great Chicago Fire laid the city to ashes. About 17,450 buildings were destroyed by the fire, but the Chicagoans swiftly began to rebuild their city. Only 6 weeks after the fire, more than 300 buildings had already started to be built. By 1893 Chicago had recovered enough to be able to host the World Columbian Exposition, celebrating the discovery of America by Columbus some 400 years ago.

Some of the leading architects who had a hand in reconstructing the city after the Great Fire laid out the foundations of todays Chicago. The first ever visionary urban city plan, the 1909 Chicago plan, was designed by Daniel Burnham. It was named Paris on the Prairie and featured wide boulevards and parks.

The first skyscraper

Land prices had risen considerably by the end of the 19th century, leading to higher buildings being constructed. William Le Baron Jenney built what today is known as the worlds first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building, in 1885. It measured 55 metres tall and rose to a height of 9 storeys, later extended to 11, but the building was demolished in 1931. It was built using a load-carrying structural frame which later would become the basic structure for all skyscrapers to follow. This structure marked the beginning of Chicago as a ground-breaking architectural city. Many famous architects such as Louis Sullivan and later Mies van der Rohe would set new standards for urban architecture in Chicago.