An early morning fire damaged the historic Seth Warner home, one of Chicago’s earliest residences and the oldest home in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side.
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at the Chicago Tribune.The Seth Warner home, a landmark in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, was damaged by fire, water and smoke on June 15, 2023.
Hours after the fire, homeowner Cynthia Weaver told the Tribune she alerted her husband, James Bowers, after smelling smoke at the home.The damage appeared confined to the upper floors and the owners were allowed to enter the structure in the afternoon. “These landmarks — they are cornerstones of the community. It’s so important that they remain and we’re grateful that the house remains standing and the damage was really limited to the upper portions of the attic and the roof,” said Ward Miller, executive director of advocacy organization Preservation Chicago.The Warner home is one of the rare Chicago structures that survived the Great Fire of 1871 and remains standing.
Warner, a blacksmith, abolitionist and one of the city’s first musicians, built a music center in downtown Chicago called Warner’s Hall, which once hosted a speech by fellow abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass during his first visit here.
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