A color photo of the Nederlander Theatre in Chicago in 2019. A tall brown building with a lighted vertical marquee reading "Nederlander." https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nederlander_Theater_Chicago.jpg And a black and white photo of Chicago's Iroquois Theatre on Dec 31, 1903, the day after the deadly fire. The theater looks unburned, and has a beautiful stone arch and other decorations, with a white awning in front. People dressed in black are standing on the street. Public domain image. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IroquoisTheater.jpg

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Hey, y’all, it’s Weird Wednesday! Where on some Wednesdays, I blog about weird stuff and give writing prompts.

Today: Why the Nederlander Theatre is Haunted: Chicago’s Little-Known 1903 Disaster

Welcome to Weird Wednesday! Today we’re stepping back in time to the closing of the year 1903, and one of Chicago’s deadliest days.

Theaters are often said to house a ghost or two: a famous actor, a murdered understudy, a jealous lover. But the shadowed halls of the present-day Nederlander Theatre in Chicago are a little more crowded than that: try 602 ghosts.

On Dec 30, 1903, a different theater sat where the Nederlander does today—The Iroquois Theatre, and it was the site of America’s deadliest structure fire.

The Iroquois Theatre was billed as “fireproof.” And to be fair, it was. On the morning after the fire, the theater stood, as gorgeous as the day before, with its massive stone arch and magnificent carvings. It was just everything inside that had burned: the elegant seats and draperies, the rich carpets and stage scenery—and 602 people, twice as many as died in the entire city in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

How could something like this possibly happen in such a beautiful place? How could so many people die in such a short amount of time?

Let’s take a look at what went so wrong that late December afternoon.

Check out the blog post for the whole story and some writing prompts, such as:

Those left behind. Many literary stories describe a family or town affected by a tragedy, such as a deadly fire. In this case, the loss of many women and children would affect families in a devastating way. Funerals would give way to lawsuits and trials, and expose divides in communities. Your story could be told from the point of view of a grieving family member, lawyer, town official, injured survivor, doctor, or even one of the visiting actors mourning the loss of coworkers.

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Image credits Nederlander Iroquois