Chicago River site of the 1915 capsizing that killed 844 people—the worst Great Lakes shipwreck in history
Chicago River between Clark St and LaSalle St, Chicago, IL 60601
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public riverwalk; no admission charge
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved Chicago Riverwalk along the south bank
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1903 · Deadliest Disaster in Chicago History · Worst Great Lakes Shipwreck · Western Electric Hawthorne Works · 1915 Maritime Disaster
At 7:28 a.m. on July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland rolled onto its port side while still moored at the Chicago River dock between Clark and LaSalle Streets. The ship was carrying 2,752 passengers—employees of Western Electric's Hawthorne Works plant in Cicero and their families, heading to a company picnic at Michigan City, Indiana. The river at that point is only about 20 feet deep. The Eastland settled on its side in minutes.
The death toll reached 844: 841 passengers and three crew. Most victims drowned in the hold or were trapped beneath the hull. The majority of the dead were young immigrant workers and their children, many of them Czech-speaking employees from the Hawthorne Works. At least 22 entire families were wiped out. The disaster unfolded within sight of the city's downtown skyscrapers during morning rush hour.
The proximate cause was instability from ballast mismanagement and structural modifications. The ship had been made top-heavy by the addition of concrete decking and mandated new lifeboats following the Titanic disaster three years earlier. Captain Harry Pedersen and chief engineer Joseph Erickson were indicted for criminal negligence but never convicted; the case was dismissed in 1919. The steamship company also escaped civil liability.
Bodies were transported to the Reid Murdoch Building at 325 N. LaSalle—visible from the disaster site—and to the Second Regiment Armory at Washington and Curtis Streets, both of which served as temporary morgues. The Armory later became Harpo Studios. The Eastland was eventually righted, sold, and converted to a naval training vessel named USS Wilmette. It was decommissioned in 1945 and scrapped in 1947.
Sources
Reports of strange experiences at the capsizing site date to the years after the disaster. Passersby on the Clark and LaSalle Street bridges have described hearing unexplained sounds from the water—most commonly characterized as screaming—and, in rarer accounts, seeing what appeared to be a hand rising from the river or a face at the surface. Chicago police have reportedly received calls about apparent drownings at the site that turned out to have no victim when officers arrived.
The Reid Murdoch Building at 325 N. LaSalle, one of the improvised morgues, has generated its own accounts: workers in the building over subsequent decades described shadow figures in the upper halls and doors moving on their own.
The more extensively documented claims come from Harpo Studios, the former Second Regiment Armory at Washington and Curtis that served as the primary morgue for Eastland victims. Oprah Winfrey's production staff reported hearing children's sounds in empty corridors, and a security camera is said to have captured an image of a woman in a gray dress—dubbed the "gray lady"—walking through a hallway. The connection between these studio reports and the 1915 disaster is circumstantial; the armory served many functions over the following decades before becoming the Harpo facility.
Paranormal investigators who documented the centennial in 2015 reported capturing audio recordings with sounds they described as Czech words in response to questions about the Eastland.
Notable Entities
A 2-hour, 2-mile walking tour of the River North District that covers the Eastland disaster site alongside Fort Dearborn and other Chicago dark-history locations. Meets at the Reid Murdoch Center, 325 N. LaSalle Dr. Fridays at 8 PM. Minimum age 13+.
The LaSalle Street Bridge and the stretch of the Chicago Riverwalk between Clark and LaSalle streets runs directly above the capsizing site. No admission, no hours restriction. The Clark Street Bridge offers the clearest vantage.
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