Travel Channel 

As you might know, the Hotel Burnham in Chicago is named after the architect who designed it as well as many other Chicago buildings. The Hotel Burnham episode of GH has always been one of my favorites, but I had NO IDEA just what significance that hotel has!

I just finished reading the book The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Daniel Burnham was essentially the head of the whole operation, and what he accomplished in 2 years to get the fair ready, and what he did to keep it running after the fair started, is just amazing. He helped to design all these buildings and approve structures, he created an amazing destination, and basically put Chicago on the map.

Only 3 Chicago buildings designed by this revolutionary architect remain, two of which are The Rookery, and the Reliance building, aka The Hotel Burnham. The Atwood cafe, where Sam ate shepherd's pie and drank sangria, is named after Charles Atwood, Burnham's chief designer who replaced his parter Root, who died during the construction of the fair.

Oh, and he also designed the famous Flatiron building in NYC.

Well I just got a thrill out of reading this book and about the architect that I first heard about on Great Hotels.

(Actually, the serial killer part is really interesting too. Creepy, sick stuff.)

I enjoyed the book also. That's where the Ferris Wheel was invented and Walt Disney's father Elias, worked there and often told little Walter about the fair and maybe inspired him to build Disneyland. And the success of the fair inspired many more World Fairs including the 1915 San Francisco Exposition. Frank Baum, the author of "The Wizard of Oz', visited the fair and maybe picked up some ideas for his book there. And Shreded Wheat came out of the fair. So, it was quite an influntial and sucessful event. And the serial killer who was loose at the fair was indeed evil and creepy. It's amazing how they caught him.

Yes, I believe it inspired the Emerald City. Actually, the Emerald City was white, but it was so blindingly white that everyone who lives there has to wear green sunglasses. just kidding.

Something that struck me was how they shipped in actual people from Africa and India and other regions to be on display, for people to observe as if they were watching animals in a zoo. At least they let them dance at the ball... Also that famous tune originated there.

How did I, as a native sorta-Chicagoan, not know about this stuff? Why is it not taught in school? It's such an important part of our country's history, you'd think they'd at least mention it before high school when only some people take Chicago Literature. (which I didn't... oh well)

Now I REALLY want to stay in the Hotel Burnham.

And given the technology of the day, it must have taken a tremendous amount of extremely hard labor to accomplish the task. They had to fight the weather as well. The same goes for catching the serial killer. Lots of man hours following up leads. I agree, something should be mentioned in the schools about local history. Happy Friday the 13th.(if you are a trisadecaphobian)