Chicago Housing
| Title | Chicago Housing |
| View | Conservation Area Problems 1:4:5 |
| Series | II: Buildings and Grounds |
| Description | An elderly woman recluse and an invalid brother whom she tried to rescue perished when flames swept their ornate Victorian home. Firemen discovered Miss Calista Pratt, 70, and her brother, Richard, 80 suffocated in a second floor hallway. Their sister, Jeanette, 63, also described as a recluse by neighbors, was rescued by firemen who found her running through the first floor carrying a heavy antique vase filled with water to fight the flames. Jeanette said she rose shortly after midnight and saw a piece of paper burning on a hotplate in her brother’s second floor room. Firemen said the Pratt home, a rambling two-story frame dwelling built at the time of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, was filled with costly antiques, including rare candelabra, statuary, paintings and bric-a-brac. The sisters and brother were thought to be part of a once wealthy family that lost heavily in the 1929 crash. |
| Subject Terms | Pratt, Calista, died 1948 | Pratt, Richard, died 1948 | Pratt, Jeanette | Fires--Casualties | Fires |
| Photographer | Mead, Mildred LaDue, 1910-2001 |
| Photograph Date | 1948-12 |
| Physical Format | Photographic prints; 19.3 x 24.0 cm |
| Location | 1228 E. 57th Street | Chicago, Illinois |
| Collection | Archival Photographic Files. Addenda. Mildred Mead Photographs |
| Repository | University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center |
| Image Identifier | apf2-09071 |
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