For many years it was believed that Mrs. Catherine O’Leary’s cow was responsible for the great Chicago fire in 1871. Years later a reporter for the Chicago Tribune admitted that he had in fact, made up the story of the cow kicking over the lantern because he thought it would make for a colorful story. Thirty years later Jacksonville, Florida would be ravaged by a similar fire that would change the future of the city in many ways.While there has been considerable speculation as to what started the fire, the consensus opinion is that around noon on May 3, 1911, sparks from a kitchen fire during the lunch hour at the Cleveland Mattress Factory set mattresses filled with Spanish moss on fire at the factory. The mattress factory was in an area of town now known as LaVilla.
The fire was soon discovered but unfortunately a decision to call the Fire Department was delayed as the workers attempted to extinguish the fire on their own. By the time the alarm was sounded the fire had gone beyond their control. By the time the fire department arrived, the fire had spread from the outside platform where it started, to the pine buildings, which rapidly became a blazing inferno. Then a breeze sprang up, and fire embers and millions of sparks were dropped on the roofs of nearby homes and those blocks away.

As the fire at the mattress factory seemed under control, calls for other fires in the vicinity began to come in. The wind had spread embers throughout a several block area. These wind-fanned

embers ignited a massive fire that engulfed a major portion of the city. The majority of Jacksonville’s downtown area — over 140 city blocks — was destroyed.

Most of the homes in Jacksonville’s down town area were completely destroyed and over 10,000 people were left homeless. The National Guard was called out to protect what was left of the commercial downtown Jacksonville real estate.

But out of the ashes — not unlike the mythical Phoenix — Jacksonville was to rise again. With the help of New York’s famous architect Henry John Klutho, the rebuilding started. Klutho and his associates were taken by the “Prairie Style” of architecture then being popularized by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

The influence of Wright, who was just 35 at the time but very well known for his designs in Chicago and other Midwestern cities, is still obvious in the large number of Klutho-influenced homes that still stand in Jacksonville today.

The rebuilding of the city moved quickly. Many out-of-state advisors and investors saw the long-term potential for Jacksonville. Many of the old frame buildings that were destroyed by the fire were replaced by concrete and brick structures — some of which stand even today.

The Jacksonville Fire Memorial was erected to remind our community of the disaster our city faced and survived. The memorial was dedicated in 2003, to mark the 100th birthday of what many have called the most destructive burning of a southern city in history. It is located on the North bank of the Riverwalk.

post by Ronald