Chicago: Black City, White City

Not too long after the middle of the last century, my parents were married in St. Louis.
It was a small ceremony, with parents and close friends, followed by a wedding breakfast, followed by a short honeymoon in Chicago. In February.

Times being what they were, it was cold and snowy in the Windy City. My dad, 6 feet plus a few, probably weighed not more than 140 pounds. He was a beanpole. Mom remembers he somehow fell in a snow drift, limbs askew, and all his bride could do was laugh. That was a good sign, though. There was a lot of laughter in their marriage.
I've never been to Chicago, but took a trip through a small section of its late 19th century history this month through the pages of "The Devil in the White City," by Erik Larson, a book with two parallel stories: of the planning, building and destruction of the 1893 World Columbian Exposition and the emergence and crimes of the man believed to be America's first urban serial killer.

The book is meticulously researched and well-written (if with a slightly too scholarly tone). It's amazing to think of the scale of the exposition, taking up the space between Washington and Jackson Parks, and of how quickly it was built. And of how many things debuted there that we take for granted, like incandescent light bulbs and Cracker Jacks and Ferris wheels.

The fair's chief architect was Daniel Burnham and the serial killer was H.H. Holmes. The two men never met, but their lives existed in parallel in Chicago. Burnham, with help from a sorely tasked Frederick Law Olmsted, saw the fair as a way to show Americans that urban life could be civil, beautiful and clean (unlike the "Black City" of smoke and the stench of offal that Chicago then was). Holmes saw it purely as a way to take advantage of the thousands of visitors who would descend on the city, and pluck from among them the most innocent and vulnerable, and alone, who would likely not be missed. At least not at first.

The last part of the book, after the close of the fair, follows the detective who revealed Holmes' crimes and feels a little rushed, as if the author was in a hurry to finish. Still, I felt as if I had taken a trip back to 1893.

Leonardo di Caprio has the rights and the movie is scheduled for release in 2013.

Read the book first. It is populated with great names who made their marks on American society the end of the century and interestingly, reveals that the more times change, the more they stay the same.

The image (via Wikipedia) is of the Court of Honor and Grand Basin, presided over a statue representing the Republic, an affectionately known as "Big Mary."