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Holiday treat ended in death
For Elizabeth Eberstein and her son Frank the cost of tickets
to an afternoon matinee would have represented a large expenditure, money generated
from upholstering carriages and sewing dresses. Though the location
of their seats at the Iroquois Theater is not known, it is almost certain
their seats or standing space were in the second- or third-floor balconies
where a majority died.
It was December 30, 1903 at Chicago's newest luxury playhouse, the Iroquois
Theater. When a stage fire spread to the auditorium the Eberstein's joined
nearly six hundred victims of America's worst theater disaster.
Elizabeth was one of thirty victims taken to the Samaritan
Emergency Hospital* at the corner of 481 Wabash and Eldredge Court (9th St.).
Newspapers reported that she died upon arrival. Her husband and sister, John
G. Eberstein (1853–1930) and Jane "Jennie" Brown
(1850–1927), found and identified her body there the day after the fire.
Frank's body was found at Gavin's funeral home and
identified by his father.
The Eberstein's other child, eleven-year-old
Bertha Gertrude Eberstein (b.1892), stayed home
from the theater thus survived.
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Forty-three-year-old Canada native Elizabeth Brown Eberstein (b.1859), and her
son, nineteen-year-old Frank B. Eberstein (b.1884), lived at 84 E. 26th Street in Chicago.
Dating back to at least 1874, and until his death, husband and father John Eberstein operated the Eberstein Bros carriage
trimmer shop with his brothers, Christian and
Frederick Eberstein. Upholstering carriages and automobiles was a trade begun by their
father, George Christian Eberstein. Frank Eberstein was a student at the time of his death, but his school is not known.
Elizabeth was the daughter of Irish and English
natives George Brown and Susan Abrams Brown. Like her sisters, Jane
and Margaret, Elizabeth was a dressmaker.
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Funerals
Elizabeth and Frank's funeral was held the Saturday after the fire at the
family's home followed by burial in Oak Woods
Cemetery in Chicago. The gravestone is weathered and
hard to read, but the office at Oak Woods verifies
the interment.
In the years after the Iroquois Theater fire
John and Bertha continued living with Elizabeth's
sisters, Jenny and Margaret. In 1915 Bertha married
Harry Hafford and had a couple of children. John
lived with them until his death. He did not remarry.
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Discrepancies and addendum
*Opened in mid-1900 as a private 45-bed emergency treatment
charity hospital to service Chicago's downtown area,
the Samaritan Hospital was one of eleven hospitals closed a month
after the Iroquois Theater fire for non-compliance
with Chicago building codes insofar as fire safety.
A month later, it was back in operation. In 1905
proprietor, Dr. L. Blake Baldwin announced a plan to
relocate to a newly remodeled Hotel Normandie at
Michigan and 18th street that would cater to a
wealthier clientele, but two years later, the
property was sold. Baldwin also owned the Dearborn
Medical College. At its opening, the Samaritan was
distinguished by being the first Chicago hospital
with a Turkish bath and for specializing in skin
ailments.
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