I ate dinner at a wonderful French restaurant in front of Chicago's historic water tower last night. It was Steak au Pouvre with pomme fritte. Yum. I could travel the world for no other reason than to eat and look at buildings. The building behind us, the water tower, is definitely worth the trip as well. Between October 10, 1871 and October 12, 1871 downtown Chicago was destroyed by a massive unstoppable fire. Due to its wonderful stone, Gothic construction the water tower was one of the few buildings not destroyed in the fiery inferno. Apparently, Chicago was made mostly of wood in the nineteenth century and the water tower was one of the rare buildings made entirely of stone. The water tower and the water pump station across the street are two massive, castle like structures that stand out of down town Chicago like a Gothic cathedral would stand out in Alabama. The stone structure provided sanctuary to those fleeing the fire on October 10-12th.
According Dylan Clearfield, this tower that has born witness to Chicago's long history, is haunted by those who died during the fires. He believes that those who tried to reach the safety of the tower and failed still cling to the old structure finding the sanctuary in death there that they couldn't find in life. According to Clearfield, ghosts have been seen in the windows of the water tower and they are sometimes even seen hanging by their neck. There is no known reason for the ghosts to be seen in such a state, but the stories remain bearing witness to some haunted past that history has forgotten.
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