One For The Road: The Day The River North Art Galleries Burned
By Samantha Abernethy in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 10, 2012 10:30PM
On April 15, 1989 a fire broke out in the River North gallery district, causing $50 million of damage. The buildings destroyed were designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, built between 1881 and 1901. When they burned, they'd had been recommended for landmark status. No one was killed or seriously injured, but the event changed the art scene in Chicago forever. Photos courtesy of Flickr user Genial 23.Encyclopedia of Chicago writes:
A fire in April 1989 consumed nearly a dozen major galleries and struck a major blow to the River North gallery district. This disaster, combined with rapidly rising rents as the neighborhood became a dining and entertainment center, has continued the historic process of changing artists' neighborhood and gallery districts, in the 1990s relocating respectively to the near northwest Wicker Park/Bucktown and the near west Fulton Street Market/University of Illinois neighborhoods. The completion in 1996 of a new and architecturally controversial building by the Museum of Contemporary Art located just off the major North Michigan Avenue shopping district signaled the maturation of the presence of art as a vital force in Chicago, affirming the ideals of Chicago's founders that art is an essential component in a great city.