‘That fearful sound of “fire” and “fire,”/Let no man know is my Desire.’*

by chuckofish

Today is the 174th anniversary of the great fire which pretty much destroyed the St. Louis waterfront–levee, wharf and business section–back in 1849. Fifteen blocks became engulfed in the firestorm. Can you even imagine?

At the time of the fire, the population of St. Louis was around 63,000, and the city was about ¾ miles wide with three miles of riverfront. A fire alarm sound at 9:00 p.m. on May 17, 1849 when the paddle-wheeled steamboat “The White Cloud” caught fire. It was located on the river at the foot of Cherry Street and St. Louis’ volunteer Fire Department immediately responded. Unfortunately, the moorings that were holding the steamboat burned through, allowing the burning White Cloud to drift down the Mississippi River, eventually causing 22 other steamboats as well as several flatboats and barges to catch fire.

From there, the flames from the burning boats jumped to buildings on the shore, and soon everything on the waterfront levee was burning for four blocks. After moving westward to Main Street and crossing Olive Street, the fire completely gutted the three blocks between Olive and 2nd Street. It also went as far south as Market Street. Finally the fire subsided after the Fire Department blew up six buildings. The fire was contained after 11 hours. In all, 430 buildings were destroyed, 23 steamboats along with over a dozen other boats were lost, and three people died including Captain Thomas B. Targee who was killed while trying to blast the fire break.

(Daguerreotype by Thomas Easterly. Missouri Historical Society Collections)

Let’s not forget that this was also the year of the cholera epidemic which decimated the city. Good grief! But as is often the case, the tragedy redefined St. Louis and certain reforms, such as legislating for brick buildings and the development of a safe water supply, were put in place. The city was rebuilt and the population jumped to 77,580 residents in 1850, which translated into a 372.8% increase from the 1840 census.

In other news, Ida is four months old!

*Anne Bradstreet wrote this poem after her home in Massachusetts burned to the ground in 1666–read the entire poem here.