the great chicago fire of 1871 started in the barn behind the cottage of patrick and catherine o'leary at 137 (after 1909, 558) dekoven street. although the popular story is that a cow kicked over a lantern to start the fire, michael ahern, the "chicago republican" reporter who created the cow story, admitted in 1893 that he had made it up because he thought it would make colorful copy. at the time, the street was in a less prosperous neighborhood of chicago.