One For The Road: The LaSalle Hotel Fire
View looking north along LaSalle Street of pedestrians walking and automobiles driving on LaSalle and Madison Streets in the Loop community area of Chicago in 1927. The view is of the Hotel LaSalle, located on the northwest corner of North LaSalle and West Madison Streets. (This image is reversed). Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.
Informal three-quarter length portrait of Theodore Roosevelt riding in an automobile with others while visiting Chicago on Oct. 19, 1914. A crowd of people gathered around him. Hotel LaSalle is partially visible in the background. Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901-1909. He was in Chicago to build support for Progressive Party candidates for the United States Senate. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.
Sept. 15, 1924 view of the Daily News radio tower on the top of the La Salle Hotel, located at the northwest corner of LaSalle and Madison Streets in the the Loop community area of Chicago. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.
Exterior view of a corner of the LaSalle Hotel during construction in 1909 at the northwest corner of North LaSalle and West Madison Streets in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Construction workers are working on an exposed beam. Chicago History Museum.
Image of three construction workers working on a beam of the LaSalle Hotel during construction in 1909 at the northwest corner of North LaSalle and West Madison Streets in the Loop community area of Chicago. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.
View of men working on a vertical steel beam during the construction of the LaSalle Hotel in 1909 at the northwest corner of North LaSalle and West Madison Streets in the Loop community area of Chicago. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.
Elevated view of men working on the construction of the LaSalle Hotel in 1909 at the northwest corner of North LaSalle and West Madison Streets in the Loop community area of Chicago. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.
On this date in 1946, a blaze swept through the 22-story LaSalle Hotel, killing 61 people and leaving more than 200 injured in one of the worst hotel fires in history. The hotel was built at the corner of LaSalle and Madison streets between 1908 and 1909, designed by architects Holabird & Roche. We've included photos of the hotel before the blaze and during construction above.
The Tribune writes:
Many of the guests panicked, but others kept calm and managed to escape to safety. A husband and wife, trapped on the 18th floor, leaned out of a bathroom window to breathe the clear night air, the wife absentmindedly applying lipstick as they waited to be rescued. Joseph Hearst, who had just returned from China as a Tribune war correspondent, and his wife survived by wrapping wet towels around their faces and finding their way to a fire escape. In a rash move that could have cost him his life, an orchestra leader dashed back to his dressing room to rescue his $3,500 violin. He was later seen wading through water from the fire hoses to salvage musical arrangements valued at several thousand dollars.
The disaster spurred several regulations for fire guards, inspections, sprinkler systems and automatic fire alarms, plus inspiring all fire stations to be equipped with two-way radios. The LaSalle Hotel was rebuilt and operated until 1976 when it was torn down to make way for an office building at that corner of LaSalle and Madison.
