Champaign has long history of being reshaped by fire
By Tom Kacich
Wednesday November 19, 2008
Postcard/The News-Gazette library
The biggest fire in the history of downtown Champaign may have been the one that struck on St. Patrick's Day 1915. The blaze, above, destroyed the four-story Illinois Building on Neil Street just north of University Avenue - and about 100 yards south of where the Metropolitan Building stood.
Almost from its beginnings, downtown Champaign has been regularly remade by fire.
The Nov. 7 blaze that destroyed the 1870s-vintage Metropolitan Building was the latest in a series of fires that was at once a loss and an opportunity. There is hardly a block of the city's downtown district that hasn't been touched by flames, and its appearance has evolved as a result.
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