In the Great Fire of 1871 , all buildings on Michigan Avenue from Congress Street north to the river were destroyed . Immediately after the fire , the character of Michigan remained residential , but the street no longer was directly on the lake shore , as after the Fire , wreckage from the burnt district was used to fill in the inner harbor of Chicago , beginning the landfills that by the 1920s had moved the lake shore more than a quarter-mile east of its original shoreline , creating space for an expanded Grant Park . Beginning in the 1880s , the expansion of the central business district replaced houses on Michigan Avenue so that today , Michigan 's character is primarily commercial north of 35th Street
Great Fire of 1871
Great Chicago Fire
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)