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CHICAGO'S
GREATEST ISSUE
AN OFFICIAL
PLAN
HIS Pamphlet portrays what
Chicago has — what it owes—
what it is worth — what it is
gaining — what it needs —
what it should do. It is designed for
easy reference and that all citizens of
Chicago may study "THE PLAN OF
CHICAGO," originally created at the
request of and promoted by The
Chicago Commercial Club — Later
committed for study and development
to The Chicago Plan Commission,
created by the Mayor of Chicago in
November, 1909.
One hundred and sixty-five thousand
copies of this edition were printed in
June, 1911, and distributed broadcast
throughout the city.
Additional copies may be had on
written request from the Chicago Plan
Commission's headquarters, Room
314, Hotel La Salle, Chicago.
1
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§ I
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CHICAGO'S
GREATEST ISSUE
AN OFFICIAL
PLAN
Prepared under the direction of
The Chicago Plan Commission
MAYOR CARTER H. HARRISON,
Honorary President ex-officio
CHARLES H. WACKER, Chairman
FRANK I. BENNETT, Vice-Chairman
WALTER D. MOODY, Managing Director
The charts and pictures are used by courtesy of the
Commercial Club of Chicago.
The Chicago Plan Commission
1911
Copyright 1911
by
THE CHICAGO PLAN COMMISSION
of the
CITY OF CHICAGO.
Table of Contents
Page
Owners of Chicago 9
What the Chicago Plan Is 16
Plans for the Lake Front 35
Forests for the People 46
OUT Transportation Problem 47
Street Needs of Chicago 53
Building a Civic Center 64
The Cost, How to Divide It 71
Capitalizing the Chicago Spirit 76
How Other Great Cities are Building 79
Original Promoters of the Plan of Chicago 88
Members Chicago Plan Commission *..,..!.. 89
1 009057
List of Illustrations
PAGE
Chicago in 1846 2
View of the proposed development in the center of the city 8
South Water Street, Chicago, 1834 9
Chicago from the West, 1845 15
Corner Clark and South Water Streets, 1864 16
Chicago, general diagram of exterior highways encircling, or radiating from,
the city 23
Plan of the quadrangle, bounded by Twelfth Street on the south, Halsted
Street on the west, Chicago Avenue on the north and Michigan Avenue on
the east 24
Proposed boulevard to connect the north and south sides of the river 26
Proposed Twelfth Street improvement at its intersections with Michigan
Avenue and Ashland Avenue 28
Twelfth Street, the new plan 30
Michigan Avenue from Park Row, 1864 34
Chicago, park development proposed for the lake shore from Chicago Avenue
on the north to Jackson Park on the south 36
View looking south over the lagoons of the proposed park for the south shore 38
Chicago, general map showing topography, waterways, and complete system of
streets, boulevards, parkways and parks 42
Diagram of city center, showing the proposed arrangement of railroad pas-
senger stations, the complete traction system, including rapid transit,
subway and elevated roads, and the circuit subway line 48
Diagram of the city center, showing the general location of existing freight
yards and railroad lines, the present tunnel system and proposed circuit,
and connections for all these services, running to the central clearing yards 49
Plan of the center of the city, showing the present and proposed street and
boulevard system 54
Plan of the complete system of street circulation; railway stations; parks;
boulevard circuits and radial arteries; public recreation piers; yacht
harbor and pleasure boat piers; treatment of Grant Park; the main axis
and the civic center ' 60
View, looking west, of the proposed civic center plaza and buildings. 65
The business center of the city, within the first circuit boulevard 67
View looking west over the city, showing the proposed civic center, the grand
axis, Grant Park and the harbor 69
The transformation of Paris under Haussmann, plan showing the portion
executed from 1854 to 1889 80
The Chicago Plan Commission
MAYOR CARTER H. HARRISON, Honorary President ex-officio.
CIIAELES H. W ACKER, Chairman.
FRANK I. BENNETT, Vice-Chairman.
WALTER D. MOODY, Managing Director.
CHARLES H.
A. C. BARTLETT
FRANK I. BENNETT
EDWARD B. BUTLER
CLYDE M. CARR
JOHN J. COUGHLIN
FREDERIC A. DELANO
JOHN V. FARWELL
ALBERT J. FISHER
ANDREW J. GRAHAM
RICHARD C. HALL
W. D. KERFOOT
THEODORE K. LONG
DR. J. B. MCFATRICH
WACKER, Chairman.
WALTER D. MOODY
JOY MORTON
JOHN POWERS
PETER REINBERG
JULIUS ROSENWALD
JAMES SIMPSON
JOHN F. SMULSKI
BERNARD W. SNOW
CHARLES H. THORNE
HARVEY T. WEEKS
HARRY A. WHEELER
W. A. WIEBOLDT
WALTER H. WILSON
MICHAEL ZIMMER
Headquarters Chicago Plan Commission, Room 314, Hotel LaSalle.
Telephone Franklin 700— Room 314
Twetty-
SccoriSL
Twelfth.
CmressSt.
WiskiittM
St.
ChkdgoAve.
SOUTH WATER STREET, CHICAGO, 1834.
It is almost incredible that Chicago has grown from a settlement of ten
building-s to a great city of 2,250,000 inhabitants in the short span of 76 years.
[Original owned by the Chicago Historical Society.]
Owners of Chicago.
us, as owners of the great corporation known
as the City of Chicago, devote a few minutes
of our busy lives to taking stock. Let us see
just what we have, what we owe, what we are
gaining, what our city is worth to us and what
to do to make this big property of ours more valuable to
ourselves and for our children.
Cities, like private enterprises, must move forward with
the times. Shall we permit our competitors at home and
abroad to outrival us in the march of progress? What other
cities are doing Chicago must do to hold her commercial
supremacy and maintain her rightful position in the front
ranks of the world's great arenas of commerce, art, science,
beauty and health. London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna and. New
York have each set the pace for greater development —
newer and better things.
Chicago must be aroused and shake off her lethargy of
indifference and self-satisfaction born in the hurly-burly of
success in other days. Let us pause, catch our breath and
take a glimpse of the future. What must we do to safe-
guard, and add to the greatest natural heritage bequeathed
to any world city — unrivaled geographical location?
It is not a question of what we are and what we have
become — but, of what we should be, and what we may
become.
The only right way to solve this problem is to stop right
where we are and determine to break the bondage of vanity
and self-praise while honestly inquiring of ourselves as citi-
zens, what manner of stewards are we?
In beginning this task, let us imagine ourselves grouped
around a great table as long and as wide as our city. Let
us take up the latest expert reports of the worth of the prop-
erty we own in common. First we will take the city itself,
because it seems nearest to us.
Are you surprised to be told you are an equal owner in
$200,000,000 of property there? '
Then the county property. It is worth $25,000,000 cash.
The sanitary district next. Its property would bring
$45,000,000 on the market.
The parks. Subdivide them, cut them up in lots, and
they would sell for at least $150,000,000.
Add these sums up, and we find ourselves today with
actual cash assets of $420,000,000. We could sell out today,
we find, and have $1,000 cash for every voter in Cook
County. Facts — and conservatively stated.
When we think of these things, and remember all that
property is ours — a great fortune we are to leave to our
children — we begin to feel a new responsibility and a new
pride in being citizens of Chicago. We feel that we ought
to handle that property well, don't we, and increase its
value if we can?
Now for the other side of the ledger.
What do we owe?
The books are brought in, spread upon the table, and we
find our total bonded debt is only $25 for each of us. And
we find, too, that we have many years to pay even this small
debt, which includes the sanitary district, park and World's
Fair bonds.
We are reminded by somebody about the table that our
family debt, though small, may be greater than the debt of
other city families. So we ask. about this, and we are
10
astonished and relieved to learn that of the sixteen largest
cities in the United States only one has a smaller debt
for each citizen than Chicago. We stand on the list be-
tween Milwaukee with $28.56 and Detroit with $18.78 per
capita.
The following figures, taking from Appleton's Year
Book, 1910, indicate Chicago's indebtedness per capita in
relation to the sixteen largest cities in the United States:
Population Indebtedness Per
Cities 1910 191O Capita
New York 4,766,833 91,014,626,356 $212.85
Boston 670,585 110,769,073 165.17
Cincinnati 364,463 51,323,518 I lo.s I
New Orleans 339,075 27,324,360 8O.58
Newark, N. J 347,469 25,674,200 73.91
Pittsburg 533,905 37,802,787 70.80
Baltimore 558,485 36,847,457 65.97
Cleveland 560,663 36,847,457 65.72
Philadelphia 1,549,008 95,483,820 61.64
Buffalo 423,715 24,694,901 58.28
San Francisco 416,912 16,105,8OO 38.63
St. Louis 687,029 24,389,312 35.49
Washington . 331,069 9,494,800 28.67
Milwaukee 353,857 10,107,000 28.56
CHICAGO 2,185,283 56,101,674 25.66
Detroit 465,766 8,749,000 18.78
CHICAGO'S TOTAL, INDEBTEDNESS ENUMERATED.
Park Bonds $11,009,000
Sanitary Bonds 2O,645,OOO
Total $31,654,OOO per capita $14.48
Municipal Debt 24,447,674 per capita I I . IS
Grand Total $56,101,674 per capita $25.66
This table, showing the indebtedness of Uncle Sam's
large cities, indicates that Chicago has not been extravagant.
Comparing our public improvements and our expenditures
with the other cities shown, it also indicates that "we cannot
get something for nothing." Chicago is a great business
enterprise worth $420,000,000 with an annual earning
power of upwards of $45,000,000, besides an additional rev-
enue may be had of many millions under its bonding power.
At the close of the year 1910 there was $20,000,000 in the
public treasury representing various unexpended appro-
priations. This great corporation of ours in which we are
all interested cannot be expected to stand still; investments
11
must be made for necessary present improvements and in
anticipation of future growth.
Next comes the question as to what we are gaining in
numbers.
Sixty-five thousand a year for the last forty years is the
answer. Uncle Sam gives it to us through his census re-
ports. He adds that in counting his nephews and nieces in
1910, he found they were gathering more and more every
year in his cities. Forty of every hundred Americans now
live in cities, the figures say, and twelve of every hundred
live in the three cities of New York, Chicago- and Phila-
delphia.
Those statements mean to us that it is a sure and certain
thing that city growth is to continue, and we begin to figure
on how fast Chicago is likely to grow.
Most of us who were born in America, and who are not
native Chicagoans, came from nearby places. It is fair for
us to assume, then, that it is from nearby places that Chicago
will draw her new-coming Americans.
"How many are near Chicago now?" we ask.
We get the surprising reply that fifty million people,
the bulk of a great nation, live within a night's ride of our
city.
When we sense these facts each of us begins to have a
new pride in Chicago. We remind ourselves that mere
bigness in a city is no longer the demand of Americans, but
that we are demanding now that each year our cities shall
be better places to live in, and we get down to figuring out
what our city is worth to us in our lives and our happiness.
We begin to look to Chicago's future, and to be interested
in our real part and our real duty in conducting this $420,-
000,000 Chicago of ours.
Now at this great meeting of the multitude making up
Chicago, hundreds of men arise to talk to us, as fellow
owners, about the right things to do to make Chicago what
we all would have it.
Let us listen to one of these men, talking to the people
of his own neighborhood at their section of the great imag-
12
inary table where we have gathered to discuss Chicago's
business.
"You live in Chicago, don't you?" queries the speaker.
"You have your business here?"
"You work here, don't you?"
"You are loyal to Chicago — for her, heart and soul —
aren't you?"
"You want to see Chicago the best city it can be. Isn't
that true?"
"You want to see it clean — and convenient — and health-
ful— and attractive — and prosperous — and safe. You want
to see it just as right for your comfort and success as it can
be made today, don't you?"
"You want the future Chicago to be better than the past,
if it can be, don't you? better for your children to be born,
live, work, marry and succeed in?"
"If you were making a new Chicago today — if you had
power to turn the wheels of time back forty of the seventy-
five years of Chicago's short life, you would make some
changes, wouldn't you?"
"Now some of us — plain men, business men, practical
men — -have been interested in the changes necessary," the
speaker goes on to say. "We believe we have a way to
make the changes needed — easy, sensible, simple to under-
take. We have had the world's ablest architects at work
for years. We have worked night and day ourselves. We
have spent over a hundred thousand dollars, and we believe
we have created a way to make Chicago a better city for
everybody."
"This has been referred to as a dream," suggests some-
one about the table.
"Yes," continues the speaker, "it is a dream — just such
a dream as the new LaSalle and Blackstone Hotels present
in contrast to the old Tremont House — a dream such as
the new Chicago & Northwestern twenty-million-dollar
passenger terminal presents in contrast to the old North-
western station at Wells Street."
"We want to suggest our plan to you right now," the
speaker concludes, "and we want you to study our sug-
13
gestion. If you like it — if it will do what we say it will do
— we ask only that you approve of it and that work be
begun upon our plan right away, so that Chicago may not
have to spend millions in the future where thousands will
do the work today. If it can be improved upon, we want
that improvement made, for it is not a hard and fast prop-
osition. Any changes anybody can suggest o-ught to be
given thought, but let us get together again, in the same
spirit that immortalized Chicago in the birth of her great
World's Fair, and make Chicago the best, as well as the
biggest, of all our great American cities."
Present conditions in Chicago — lack of order in city
building, coupled with the lack of many great necessities,
are an outgrowth of a natural condition. For upwards of
fifty years or more the, people of Chicago for the most part
were struggling in their efforts to build up successful busi-
ness enterprises. Our people were without large means.
The first duty of every individual is to safeguard and pro-
mote his own business, but when individual success is as-
sured attention should then be directed to the public wel-
fare.
Neglect of the citizen to give some of time, some of
thought and some of money to public good, if widely dis-
tributed, would mean disaster to the community.
Having become prosperous, we should now earnestly di-
rect our attention to solving our many perplexing problems,
which have crowded in upon us seemingly all at once — the
building of a subway — construction of outer harbors —
realization of a proper housing plan — and the development
of a city plan as a whole. Provision is made in the Plan of
Chicago which affords a solution of practically all of these
things.
As citizens of Chicago we would be enthused by that
kind of a speech, would we not? We would be impressed,
too, and would determine to give careful attention to the
ideas advanced by those speakers. That determination
brings us face to face with a patriotic, non-political and
non-partisan, all-Chicago issue, and with the work of the
14
Chicago Plan Commission — a body of three hundred and
twenty-eight sound, hard-headed Chicago business men,
drawn from all classes and representing all interests, and_
working today to benefit all the people of Chicago in all
the years and centuries to come.
CHICAGO IN 1845. FROM THE WEST. Population 12, <
[Original owned by the Chicago Historical Society.]
An individual never attains any very great size mentally
nor morally except as he attaches himself to a great
idea, and that idea, being worthy, grows with him
until the stature of the man becomes equal to the stature
of the idea to which he has attached himself."
15
CORNER CLARK AND SOUTH WATER STREETS, 1864. Population 169,353.
[Original owned by the Chicago Historical Society.]
What the Chicago Plan is.
The characteristic of greatness is
wisdom to anticipate the future
while conserving the present.
IHAT is the* Chicago Plan?
It is a plan to direct the future growth of
the city in an orderly, systematic way.
What is its object?
To make Chicago a real, centralized city in-
stead of a group of overcrowded, overgrown villages.
What does it mean?
That by properly solving Chicago's problems of trans-
portation, street congestion, recreation and public health
the city may grow indefinitely in wealth and commerce,
and hold her position among the great cities of the world.
Above everything else it is concerned with the three most
vital problems confronting every metropolitan community
—congestion, traffic and public health. The easy and con-
venient movement of traffic facilitates business, while the
chief concern of any city is the public health of its citizens
— its greatest asset. The Chicago Plan demands — in the
16
interest of the latter — more and larger parks and play
grounds and better and wider streets.
The conservation of natural resources as a national asset
of prime importance is occupying the serious attention of
the government, as we all know, but what is more important
than the conservation of public health, especially in large
cities?
Every human life is a national asset and should be care-
fully preserved.
It is a matter of governmental record in countries where
conscription to army service is compulsory that the physique
of the city dwellers is degenerating, so that only a relatively
small percentage of those living in congested cities are able
to measure up to the strict requirements for military service.
Germany is alarmed on account of this condition and
has begun a wide movement to intelligently and systematic-
ally direct proper city plans for bettering present conditions
and for future growth.
England found that during the Boer war only a small
percentage of recruits from large cities offering themselves
for service in the army were physically fit.
The United States during the Spanish-American war
found the same condition of affairs existed to a very alarm-
ing extent. We can all remember the publicity given to the
large number of rejections of recruits offering themselves
for service from our large cities.
In the United States at the time of the Civil War only
3% of the population lived in cities. In 50 years this has
increased to more than 40%. In the past the problem con-
fronting our people in the rapidly growing cities was to
provide gas, electric light, pure water, adequate schools and
scientifically equipped and conducted public institutions for
the sick and improvident. The problem of our great cities
today and for the next generation, is to provide light, air,
ample means for healthful recreation, relief from conges-
tion, facilitation of traffic, housing of the poor, scientific
organization of charities, better public improvements and
attractive surroundings to the multitudes swarming to the
cities. Right city planning is basic. A proper plan of-
17
finally adopted and realized for the direction of the growth
of a city in an orderly and systematic way practically affords
a complete solution of the problems confronting our great
municipalities. Such is the Plan of Chicago.
What are we as citizens to do to promote it?
First we are to study it that we may understand it.
When that is accomplished we are to make it clearly and
distinctively our ideal. We are to bid good-bye to pro-
vincialism that calls itself "community patriotism," and
thinks itself loyal because it sneers at the efforts of every
other city to solve their problems, while ignoring its own.
We are to break the bonds of civic paresis and come to un-
derstand that wise and great as we are in Chicago, we are
not so wise but that we can learn something in city plan-
ning from France, from Germany, from England and from
our own American cities — nor so great but that we should
enhance our greatness by the kind of wisdom which respects
civic advance wherever it may be found. We are to look
forward to the time when all barriers to the Plan of Chi-
cago will be broken down in the broad spirit that an in-
jury to one is an injury to all, and that the well being of
one promotes the well being of all. We are to make the
PLAN our ideal and to put it before us and dare to recog-
nize it and to BELIEVE in it and to build for it. We are to
forecast the time when it will seem as extraordinary not
to have an official plan toward which to direct the growth
of our city as it now seems that Chicago was ever allowed
to be worked out like an ill-patched crazy quilt. We are
to establish by the influence and work of a united citizen-
ship the power of law necessary for Chicago's advance com-
mensurate with her greatness. It requires only sufficient
local patriotism to substitute order for disorder, and rea-
son, common sense and action for negligence, indifference
and inertia.
Let us bear in mind the vital point that forty per cent
of all the people of the United States are now living in
cities; twelve per cent, as stated, live in New York, Chicago
and Philadelphia. Medical authorities assert that the
physical condition of men in cities "as compared with that
18
of men in the country" is deteriorating and gradually be-
coming more deficient. There is a great public responsi-
bility resting upon the metropolitan municipality in pro-
viding adequate means for recreation and the health of its
citizens that physical efficiency may be maintained, thereby
adding tremendously to the composite earning power of
the community. Thus it will be seen that aside from the
humanitarian and practical necessity for right city build-
ing there is a decided commercial asset in right planning
that should not be lightly set aside.
We designate the life of Chicago as being 75 years, but it
might be more properly figured as 40 years, for within two
generations we have added in round numbers 2,000,000
members to our great family. In all likelihood we shall
have a population of 4,000,000 twenty years from today. A
single generation is a short span in the life of a great and
growing city. The majority of our big family will live to
see the year 1930. What, then, do we propose to do to sur-
round ourselves, our children and their children with
attractive conditions — comfort, convenience, means of recre-
ation, health and happiness?
Again answering the question, "What does it mean?"
Municipal economy is of prime importance. Lack of
order and extravagance go hand in hand. It is as neces-
sary to build a city in accordance with a well laid out plan
as it is in building a house or in having a model for the
making of a garment.
In the twenty-five years ending with 1906 more than
$222,000,000 of the taxpayers' money were spent for extraor-
dinary betterments and improvements. This colossal item
affords startling evidence of what might have been accom-
plished toward the realization of a plan such as we are urg-
ing had the city adopted an official plan a generation ago.
Many millions may yet be saved by carrying out this
work before property values appreciate still higher and
by securing cohesion of all interests, such as the park com-
missions, forest preserve commission and other powers,
in carrying out their future work according to a set plan.
19
Who is handling the Chicago Plan?
That is being done by the Chicago Plan Commission,
a great representative body of men appointed by Mayor
Fred A. Busse in November, 1909, who placed in charge
as permanent chairman Mr. Charles H. Wacker.
At the first meeting of the Commission held in the
City Council Chamber, November 4, 1909, Mr. Frank I.
Bennett was elected Vice-Chairman, and Mr. Henry
Barrett Chamberlin, Secretary pro tern.
The Commission is being actively supported in its work
by the parent of the Chicago Plan movement, the Com-
mercial Club of Chicago, Edward B. Butler, chairman
Plan Committee.
In January, 1911, the Commission appointed as its man-
aging director, Mr. Walter D. Moody, formerly general
manager of the Chicago Association of Commerce.
How came the Commission to be established?
It was done that the government of the city could under-
take and control the work of carrying out the plan for a
centralized and improved city. This is with the approval
of the governments of the state and county, and park sys-
tems—all our public bodies are supporting the Chicago
Plan. Mayor Carter H. Harrison, like his predecessor, ex-
Mayor Fred A. Busse, is in full accord with and has ap-
proved the work of the Chicago Plan Commission. The
Plan of Chicago is a non-partisan all-Chicago issue.
How and when was the Chicago Plan originated?
The germ of the idea was the World's Columbian Ex-
position held in Chicago in 1893. Credit for first voicing
this idea is given to Mr. Franklin MacVeagh, now secre-
tary of the national treasury, who in 1901 suggested it to
the Commercial Club of Chicago. At almost the same time
the Merchants' Club of Chicago became interested
through Mr. Charles D. Norton, its president, and Mr.
Frederic A. Delano. Work on the plan was formally un-
dertaken by the Merchants' Club in 1903, and was well on
the way to development when the latter organization was
merged with the Commercial Club under the name of the
latter in 1907.
20
In that year the first Plan Committee of the Commercial
Club was organized with Mr. Norton as Chairman and
Mr. Charles H. Wacker as Vice Chairman. These two
leaders of the plan movement retained their respective
offices with each succeeding Plan Committee until the year
1909, when Mr. Norton resigned to take up his residence in
Washington. Mr. Charles H. Wacker succeeded him as
Chairman, which position he in turn vacated when he re-
ceived his appointment from the Mayor of Chicago as per-
manent Chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission at the
time of its organization.
Who worked out the Chicago Plan?
For this great work of the actual drafting of a practical
plan for Chicago's growth, the city was given, without any
charge, the services of Mr. Daniel H. Burnham, architect.
The genius of this world-renowned man was contributed
to Chicago's good, and that at a time when other great
cities, busy at planning betterments, were bidding tens of
thousands of dollars for the services Chicago was getting
for nothing.
Mr. Burnham was assisted in his great work by his as-
sociate, Mr. Edward H. Bennett.
What will the Chicago Plan mean for Chicago in a
business way?
Wellrit will attract to Chicago millions of dollars now
being spent annually in other cities.
You do not mean the millions being spent each year in
Europe by Americans, do you?
No, possibly not in Europe, but by making Chicago
healthful and as convenient, beautiful and attractive as Eu-
ropean cities, vast sums of money would be spent by our
neighbors in the great Southern, Southwestern, Western and
Northwestern sections of our own United States — who
would visit Chicago with their families and friends and re-
main indefinitely as other Americans now visit and stay in-
definitely in Paris, Berlin and other attractive European
cities. That's a commercial asset of incalculable value,
isn't it?
If we learn as we go, profiting by experience, both in
21
the matter of our mistakes as well as achievements, we must
realize that the future will hold us responsible for the ful-
fillment of the demand for better surroundings, better utili-
ties, better hygienic conditions, better public improvements
and greater comforts; for these always follow in the foot-
steps of increased commercial activity and wealth.
What is it proposed to do to carry out the Chicago
Plan?
Before the plan was drawn careful study showed that
Chicago has tended to grow in population in a southwest-
erly direction from the original Fort Dearborn at the
mouth of Chicago river. This fact has been taken into
consideration in looking to the probable future center of
the city in the preparation of the general plan.
A SYSTEM OF OUTER ROADWAYS AND
HIGHWAYS ENCIRCLING THE CITY— To connect
the various parts of Chicago with each other, with the center
of the city and with outlying sections, is considered a great
need. With the exception of five per cent, a perfect system
of outer highways — called "turnpikes" in the old days —
now exists. Partly disconnected roads form ninety-five per
cent of the proposed system today.
A study of the accompanying chart will show that circle
No. 1 connects Winnetka, the northern lake terminal, with
La Grange, Hinsdale, Blue Island and Orland, ending with
Roby on the lake to the South.
Circle No. 2 starts with Waukegan on the lake to the
North, connecting that city with Libertyville, Lake Zurich,
Elgin, Geneva, Aurora, Joliet, Chicago Heights, ending
with Gary on the lake to the South.
Circle No. 3 is also a lake terminal at Kenosha on the
North and embraces Woodstock, Genoa, Sycamore, Morris,
Momence, Kankakee and La Porte, finding its southern out-
let again on the lake at Michigan City.
The Chicago Plan Commission proposes to enlist the aid
of the various townships en route on these three circles in
the construction of the connecting links, amounting as stated
to but five per cent needed to complete these highways.
Consider these circular roadways and their connection with
22
CHICAGO. General diagram of exterior highways encircling or radiating
from the city. Ninety-five per cent of these arteries now exist.
(Copyrighted by the Commercial Club of Chicago.)
the proposed diagonal street system of our plan — the con-
venient and time saving feature of this system is apparent at
a glance. Country turnpikes and their relationship to the
metropolis should be inseparably interlinked and that is
especially true in considering Chicago's welfare and her
outlying suburban cities, when we realize that the popula-
tion of the twenty-four cities and village's on these circles
amounts to 250,000, and will continue their growth in
proportion to their relationship to the city of Chicago and
its future development.
DIAGONAL STREETS— One great element in the
saving of time and labor in the transportation of people
and merchandise in cities comes from the existence of di-
agonal streets, so traffic may, as we say, "cut across" instead
23
of moving always at right angles. Milwaukee, Blue Island
and Archer avenues are examples of such streets. The plan,
then, looks to developing such streets to their greatest use-
fulness. Also it means, in time, the cutting of more such
streets, particularly on the great west side of Chicago.
CIRCUITS — Another idea of the plan is to establish
several circuits of existing thoroughfares and to improve
them so traffic can move freely and directly about the city's
center.
QUADRANGLE— The first constructive work of the
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CHICAGO. Plan of the quadrangle bounded by Twelfth Street on the
South, Halsted Street on the West, Chicago Avenue on the North and Michigan
Avenue on the East. These four streets are destined to bear the heaviest traffic
of any thoroughfares in the city. The completion of the quadrangle means the
construction of a substantial part of the main vertebra of the street circulation
system. It is the purpose of the Chicago Plan Commission to complete this
square as the first great necessary step in carrying out the plan as a whole.
24
Chicago Plan Commission — the foundation stone for all that
is to follow — is to carry out the circuit idea by completing
the great quadrangle formed by Twelfth street on the South,
Halsted street on the West, Chicago avenue on the North
and Michigan avenue on the East. These four streets are
destined to bear the heaviest traffic of any streets in Chicago.
The initial step will be to widen Twelfth street from Mich-
igan to Ashland avenue, the second to widen Michigan
avenue from Randolph street North to connect with Chi-
cago avenue. Chicago avenue is sufficiently wide, so we
come next to the completing link of the quadrangle — the
widening of Halsted street.
MICHIGAN AVENUE, a section of the quadrangle-
It was found, is really the base line of the city's traffic. A
great development of this avenue is proposed, to make it
a great, wide street skirting the entire front of the city.
This means widening the avenue from Randolph street to
connect with Lincoln Park drive at Ohio street, and the
construction of a wide, roomy concrete viaduct and bridge
across the river. The bridge is to be a double deck, bascule
structure, the upper deck for carriages and automobiles and
the lower one for heavy traffic, with wide sidewalks above
and below for pedestrians. Arrangements would be made to
have east and west traffic of all kinds in the busy section near
the river pass through this viaduct at about street grade.
There is to be a gradual grade the entire width of the
street from building line to building line, starting from Ran-
dolph street, reaching a maximum height of sixteen feet at
the river crossing, then a gradual descent to Ohio street. This
grade will be no more perceptible than is Jackson boulevard
at the river. The grades suggested are less than those exist-
ing on Fifth avenue, New York. Imagine standing at the
intersection of Randolph street and Michigan avenue and
being able to follow with the eye the straightened course
of that magnificent widened thoroughfare direct to Lin-
coln Park, where it would end in the lake at the intersection
of Bellevue place.
The completion of the North and South boulevard sys-
tem with this connecting link as shown in the cut on page
25
C Imago
River
CHICAGO. Proposed boulevard to connect the north and south sides of
the river; view looking- north from Washington Street. The boulevard is raised
to allow free flow of east-and-west teaming traffic under, and both Michigan
Avenue and Beaubien Court are raised to the boulevard level. The raised por-
tion throughout its entire length, from Randolph Street to Indiana Street,
extends from building line to building line. It is approached from cross streets
by inclined roadways or ramps; these may be changed to the east side or
omitted.
From a painting for the Commercial Club by Jules Guerin.
(Copyrighted by the Commercial Club of Chicago.)
26
26 would give Chicago the most magnificent thorough-
fare in the world. The estimated cost of this work is less
than six million dollars; the value of its realization is ines-
timable. If there is one phase of the Plan of Chicago that
every citizen should demand, it is the building of this con-
necting link. Its value as a Chicago asset would attract
internationally-wide attention. Property values in the im-
mediate section of this proposed improvement would be
tremendously enhanced. Indirectly the benefit would be
to the whole city, even to those of our citizens living in far
remote sections.
Attractiveness is a community asset shared in by all.
It is not believed that there can be any serious objection
on the part of any citizen, either directly or indirectly
affected, to an improvement so palpably in the interests of
all as the completion of the boulevard link as proposed.
"Michigan avenue is more than the main connecting
thoroughfare between the north and the south sides," as has
been well said, "it is the great plaisance for office buildings,
hotels, clubs, theatres, music halls and shops of the first
order, lining the western side of the avenue. So desirable
has property become, that the extension of it to the north
must enhance the value of the abutting real estate, because
of the increased opportunities for continuing the building
of structures of the highest class." The property owners
there should be the first to recognize their opportunity and
co-operate to the fullest extent in this greatest of all needed
street improvement.
"Michigan avenue is destined to carry the heaviest move-
ment of any street in the world. Any improvement for this
thoroughfare which does not recognize its importance will
be a waste of money and energy and an error of the first
magnitude." Michigan avenue north of Randolph street
is now 66 feet wide. It should be widened to at least 130
feet, by taking a 64 foot strip off from the lots on the east
side of the street. The lots in the blocks affected are 130,
124 and 121 feet deep. After the city has taken the neces-
sary property for the improvement, there would remain of
these lots a depth of 66, 60 and 57 feet respectively — plenty
27
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of depth for merchantable, high-class property, when it
is remembered that certain large office buildings in the loop
are situated on very shallow lots. When the improve-
ment of Michigan avenue is completed, the remainder of
the lots affected will be worth more than the present prop-
erty of full depth.
TWELFTH STREET, the first section of the quad-
rangle, is being developed under the Chicago Plan. It is to
be widened and arranged to bear easily a heavier traffic than
that which now makes it a badly congested street. The wid-
ening of Twelfth street is the initial step in the constructive
work of developing the plan as a whole and bears a relation-
ship to the general scheme of street construction and street
widening.
The necessity for the improvement of that street lies in
the fact that it is the only through thoroughfare between
Harrison and Eighteenth streets connecting the west side
with the down town district. The actual heart of the city's
population today is a little north of the corner of Twelfth
and Halsted streets. Traffic and the city's growth are grad-
ually moving in a southwesterly direction. Adequate pro-
vision must be made for a suitable outlet from that district
to the present business center of the city.
Twelfth street from Ashland avenue to Michigan ave-
nue is at present 66 feet wide between building lines with
the exception of the block between State street and Mich-
igan avenue, where the street is but SO feet wide; 39 feet
wide between sidewalk curbs and only nine feet and nine
inches wide between the street car step and the curb. It
is proposed to make the street 108 feet wide from Ashland
avenue to Canal street, taking a 42-foot strip off from the
lots on the south side of the street. It is to be widened to
1 18 feet from Canal street to Michigan avenue.
It is not intended to boulevard the street, but to make it
a clean, wide, business thoroughfare with a double, rapid-
transit surface street car line down the center, and on it
might be established sub-stations of all the great railroads
entering the city from the east, south and southwest. It is
hoped that the railroads may be induced to locate terminals
south of Twelfth street between State street and the river.
29
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30
On November 16, 1909, the Chicago Plan Commission's
Executive Committee appointed a special Twelfth street
committee whose mission it was to investigate the entire mat-
ter and report back to the Executive Committee. On Jan-
uary 19, 1910, the Executive Committee received the
Twelfth Street Committee's report, adopting same, which
was referred to the Commission as a whole and unanimously
adopted on January 19, 1910.
On March 2, 1911, there was a public hearing on the
matter before the Board of Local Improvements, after
which the property owners on that street were given thirty
days in which to file a protest representing a majority of the
lineal front footage. The time limit expired without such
majority protest having been filed with the Board, and the
matter then went to the City Council, where on April 6,
1911, the Twelfth street widening ordinance passed by a
vote of 46 to 10.
The improvement might properly be designated as
both a "local improvement" and a "general benefit."
The Chicago Plan Commission has made a strong recom-
mendation for a large "general benefit" in order that a
large percentage of the cost of the improvement shall be
borne by the whole city, in which case the matter of a
bond issue to defray the city's part of the cost will have
to be referred to the people in a referendum. Mayor
Carter H. Harrison has declared himself in favor of a
large "general benefit" and has pledged himself to see
that the people in that section will receive fair and just
treatment.
Public sentiment generally and the united support of
the press is back of this movement. Every citizen of Chi-
cago should aid with his influence and vote at the proper
time in the realization of this improvement, thus insuring
the success of the first practical step in carrying out the
Plan.
HALSTED STREET, a section of the quadrangle, it
is predicted, will, in time to come, carry an enormous traffic.
It is so situated that its usefulness, already great, may be
31
very much increased. It is selected as, next to Michigan
avenue, the most important north and south traffic thorough-
fare. Under the Chicago Plan the street would be widened,
paved properly and developed as one of the great central
business streets of the future city.
CHICAGO AVENUE, a section of the quadrangle,
already one hundred feet wide, will serve for a long time the
traffic it will be made to carry. Crowding of vehicles is not
so great upon the north side of the city and is not increasing
so fast as in other sections. It will connect with the pro-
posed Michigan boulevard extension at Pine street, complet-
ing the first circuit of improvement in our streets.
PARK SYSTEM— Going further with their work, the
architects found our park system encircling the city on three
sides, and along part of the shore. To this system it is
planned to add park lands and park ways, so as to extend
and complete it, and make it encircle the entire city — this
to meet the needs of increasing population. Numerous
small parks are also proposed, and the plan looks to taking
over large forest areas, now outside the city limits, that open
air pleasures may be had by the city's millions in summers
to come.
LAKE FRONT— One of the really great features of
the plan, and one most easily to be carried out, is the im-
provement of the lake front. We all know how, in a few
years, the city's waste, heaped upon one part of our city's
"front yard," produced for us our tremendously valuable
Grant Park, which is land worth millions, created for us
out of our city's refuse. •
Why, we ask, as the owners of Chicago, can not that good
work go on?
Let us consider, just for a moment, what we are really
doing in Chicago now, and how we are neglecting our op-
portunities. We spent $60,000,000 digging a canal — one
of the greatest civic tasks ever done — that we might have
pure water to drink. And we are actually dumping into
our lake, which we spent that great sum to purify, hundreds
32
and thousands of tons of refuse matter — dirt and filth which
not only imperils our health but proves us a most wasteful
people and tends also to create obstructions gravely danger-
ous to navigation — a matter for first consideration as being
of prime importance.
What should we do about it?
Just this : Send crews out into the lake. Have them drive
lines of piles at proper distances from shore, and instead of
throwing the city's refuse into the open lake, pile it up —
ashes, old bricks, building wreckage, street sweepings — and
make thus a long line of islands extending up and down the
length of the city's water front.
Twenty-seven to thirty-three acres can be created in this
way every year. We can dispose of the city's refuse and at
the same time — as we did in Grant Park — build up a water-
side park system greater and more extensive than that of any
city in the world. The entire work can be done at a cost so
trifling as to surprise not only Chicago, but all the world.
TRANSPORTATION— In connection with the street
and park features of the plan was considered the problem
of transportation facilities. The location of passenger and
freight stations had great bearing on the plan. Included is
a plan for arranging the railway stations and connecting
them by a subway street car system.
FREIGHT YARDS— Removal of the freight yards
from the center of the city so far as possible, and stopping
the expensive rehandling of freight in the crowded districts
is to result from the plan. Great central freight clearing
yards are to be established southwest of the city. All incom-
ing freight trains will go there. An industrial freight
harbor is proposed at the mouth of the Calumet river, South
Chicago; a commercial harbor is proposed at the mouth of
the Chicago river, and all the freight centers are to be con-
nected by subway lines.
CIVIC CENTER— In seeing the growth of the city
ever southwesterly the men having the plan in hand, figur-
ing on the experiences of all great cities of modern and an-
33
cient times, were able to tell where the real center of the
future Chicago is to be. Near that point, then, it became
their duty to plan the heart of the coming great city. That
point was decided to be near the crossing of South Halsted
and West Congress streets. They planned there a great
work, designated as the principal civic center of Chicago.
It is hard for any mind to grasp this great plan thus
hastily outlined. It is hard to realize the ease with which
Chicago's millions can make the Chicago Plan a reality.
Let us study it. If the plan is good let us band together
and go to work on it, willing to wait fifty years, perhaps, to
see the whole plan worked out, but determined to see it suc-
ceed. Let us look at the plan in detail, taking one thing at a
time, considering all facts, weighing all things justly, and
decide what to do about it.
MICHIGAN AVENUE— FROM PARK ROW. 1864.
[Original owned by the Chicago Historical Society.]
As marvelous as is the growth of Chicago during its life of 76 years, it is
still more astounding that the city added 2,000,000 inhabitants to its population
in less than 50 years. During the Civil War, the period this picture represents,
the city's population was 169,353.
Plans for the Lake Front.
jpjEFORE giving attention to the many things in
the Chicago Plan which look to upbuild the
commerce of Chicago, increase her power as a
manufacturing city, make easier the handling of
her traffic, and work for her general advance,
let us talk of the lake front. All of us know something of
that. We know the lake itself at Jackson, Lincoln and
Grant Parks. We would like to know it better, to be able
to enjoy its pleasures without facing its dangers. Let us
see what the Chicago Plan offers us as to the lake front.
It is well to talk of the Lake Front park system first, too,
because it is to cost us so little, as has been shown. This
seems to bring the realization of it nearer, for if it is good to
have we can begin right away to get it.
As the central idea of the lake front parks, imagine a
plan for parks in the lake, reaching from Jackson Park on
the south to Wilmette on the north, a stretch of twenty miles
of water-front parks. These are not to be boulevarded for
vehicles, but real parks and playgrounds for all the people,
where family picnics, baseball, tennis and all manner of out-
door sports may be freely indulged in.
Beginning at Jackson Park, the Chicago Plan provides
first for a yacht harbor in a basin about three miles along
shore and perhaps two miles across. This will result from
the building of a half-circle of little islands in the lake in
the zone from Forty-third to Fifty-fifth street, where the
water is quite shallow.
Then northward will sweep one large island, or perhaps
two islands, reaching to the main harbor at Twelfth street.
This land is to be from 600 to 1,000 feet across. Between
it and the mainland will run a lagoon, 400 feet wide, to be
canoeing, motor-boating and rowing. It will provide a wa-
terway, always calm, always safe, five miles long and nearly
a thousand feet wide.
35
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Washington
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Twelfth Street
Twenty-seceid
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Ihirty-ninth
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Midway Plaisagce
As a further development of this water-front park
scheme, it is planned to build a new strip of land immedi-
ately east of the Illinois Central railroad tracks and extend-
ing out into the water for a distance of approximately 200
or 300 feet, running the entire length from Jackson Park to
connect with Grant Park at Twelfth street, paralleling the
lagoon and outer parkway strip.
This would give Chicago the most magnificent water-
front of any city in the world, and would give the people an
opportunity to enjoy the alluring pleasures that only water
sports and waterway parks can provide. In every other
country excepting our own waterfronts of every description
are reserved and beautified as intended by nature for the
free and unlimited pleasure of all the people. The proposed
improvement of Chicago's waterfront is the most practical
and feasible part of the Plan of Chicago and can be accom-
plished, at practically no cost, at the rate of twenty-seven to
thirty-three acres each year by utilizing Chicago's waste
material, as shown on pages 32 and 72. It is not contem-
plated that this work shall be accomplished in a day, or a
year; but to gradually create this park as rapidly as can
be, in the manner above described.
Accessibility to the lake front is a matter of prime im-
portance, and has been given thorough consideration and
comprehensive treatment in the plan for street widening and
street construction, which is readily shown by a study of the
charts of streets.
Another splendid feature of the lake front parks is an
idea to have extending from Twelfth street north to Wash-
ington street a great central harbor faced by Grant Park.
This great basin lies in the hollow of curving parkland
shores extending into the lake for three-quarters of a mile.
Two long seawalls, curving outward, with openings at the
center and at either end, permit easy passage of vessels and
assure calm water always within the harbor.
At the extremity of the northern coast of this harbor, pic-
ture to yourself great piers and stations, arranged in a circle,
for use of the passenger carrying vessels of the lakes. At
37
CHICAGO. View looking south over the lagoons 'of the proposed lake
front park for the south shore.
Painted for the Commercial Club of Chicago by Jules Guerin.
(Copyrighted by the Commercial Club of Chicago.)
the extremity of the southern coast of the harbor imagine
refectories, boat houses and other buildings built for park
purposes, overlooking the lake, crowning an island in the
lake.
Go further with the view of the central lake front. Pic-
ture to yourself two long, narrow parks built as island piers,
and running out into the lake for over a mile, one at the
foot of Twenty-second street, the other at the foot of Chi-
cago avenue. These great piers, to be tipped with high
lighthouses marking the entrance to Chicago's magnificent
harbor, will serve as walls to break the force of all storms
which assail the city from the lake. Each of these parks
will be, say, five hundred feet wide, perhaps reaching a
mile out, and each to have trees and flowers and drives for
carriages.
Northward from Chicago avenue the plan offers a varia-
tion from the south shore plan, the islands being built a
38
little farther off-shore, and the inner lagoon narrowing, but
continuing unbroken until it connects with the yacht harbor
and park already established at Wilmette, where begins the
inland waterway provided by the north channel of the drain-
age district, which canal now cuts through Evanston and
connects with the Chicago river at the city's northern ex-
tremity.
The preliminary plans for these great island parks,
which will be hundreds of acres in extent, call for bridges
and connecting ways by which the people of the various
divisions of the city may at all times easily reach the lake
front parks, playgrounds and the recreation and bathing
beaches adjacent to them.
Because of the small cost of this vast improvement, and
because it can be carried out by use of the city's waste,
which is increasing in amount every year, the lake front
park island work is likely to be the first major step by Chi-
cago in putting the Chicago Plan into effect. The building
of Chicago's subway, as now seems certain, will greatly aid
in pushing the development of the lake -front improvement
on account of the vast quantities of excavated material that
would have to be deposited somewhere; besides, it would
cost far less to haul this material to the lake front than to
some far more distant point.
As a side feature of the lake front plans it is proposed to
drive a boulevard skirted lagoon through the Midway Plais-
ance on the South Side, connecting the lagoons of Jackson
and Washington parks, and opening a way for pleasure
craft to pierce far into the heart of the residence section of
the city. The earth removed in the construction of this long
lagoon, of course, will go far toward helping the island
construction work within the lake.
Think of what this lake front development means to Chi-
cago and her citizens. An extremely beautiful parkway,
twenty miles in length, with the lake on one side and the
city on the other. Frequent fields, numerous playgrounds,
spacious avenues, fine groves — all in closest touch with the
life of the city. What an effect it will have upon our health
39
and happiness who live here. How many visitors its beau-
ties will attract from other cities. How many millions of
dollars it will mean to the city's trade thus to establish in
our great city a pleasure resort of such splendid extent and
possibilities.
Think what this great park system means to the people
of our city. Unlimited opportunities for recreation, un-
limited relief for the millions in the heat of summer on this
great public playground at our city's front door, unlimited
enjoyment of winter sports upon the frozen lagoons — an all-
the-year, every-day-in-the-week joy to all Chicago and all
her guests.
Truly spoke the eminent French visitor to Chicago who
said, "Chicago has not yet discovered its lake front."
40
Forests for the People.
EXT in importance to the lake front development
we may perhaps give place to the matter of se-
curing for the people large areas of forest lands
adjacent to Chicago. These should be in their
natural condition, filled with such wild trees,
shrubs, vines and flowers as grow in this climate, and the
people should have free access to them for all time. These
large parks, we may all agree, should be selected with a view
to getting the best lands for such purposes, the most attrac-
tive natural sites, and have them readily accessible and near
to all the people.
Let us look for a few minutes into the possibilities which
nature has given us to secure such places for the people. We
will begin at Glencoe, near the northern border of Cook
County, and in our minds go through the territory which
we can well take and improve for our benefit and the bene-
fit of future generations, coming back to Lake Michigan on
the southern border of the Chicago zone.
Glencoe, on Lake Michigan, lies in the center of a
broken country which affords a natural park entrance to the
country from the lake shore. Here are virgin forests where
lordly oak, elm, ash and cottonwood trees cast their summer
shade.
Piercing the country we have the Skokie marshland,
almost as beautiful as the lake itself.
A mile inland we have the valley of the north branch of
Chicago river, where the ever-changing views give never
ending delights.
Southward the forests extend along the river down to-
ward and approaching the city limits. There are about
eight thousand acres which should be taken for this great
natural northern park. The land could be secured now at
comparatively small cost.
41
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5
01 d—
lr
A park area entirely surrounding the city can be had by
extending westward from Glencoe to the valley of the Des
Plaines river, and passing down that valley to Riverside.
Thence, taking in the valleys of Salt and Flag creeks — a
country of great natural beauty. Thence in a southerly di-
rection to the drainage canal, including the fine rolling
country and forests in the Willow Springs district. Now
bearing eastward, extend the line along the Calumet Feeder,
Stony Creek and Little Calumet river, to and including
Lake Calumet,, and so to the lake shore below South Chi-
cago.
This recital brings a view, perhaps, of great expense.
But the cost would not, in fact, be as large as most people
would believe at first thought.
First, most of the territory suggested still lies in its
natural state. No expensive improvements have been made;
which would naturally lessen the cost.
Secondly, much of the territory is now either public
property, such as streams, or is practically valueless for till-
age or improvement because of its wild and broken state.
It is proposed, as part of the plan, to create a driveway
around Lake Calumet, and to reclaim the lowlands south
of that body of water, and also to plant a belt of woods sur-
rounding this lake park set in the center of one of the world's
greatest manufacturing districts. Driveways, too, are to
run through all this outlying park territory, connecting
with the main routes to the center of the city.
We are already engaged in serious attempts to provide
good living conditions for the many thousand people work-
ing in the large industries of the Calumet territory. Exten-
sive parks are demanded in that region because city condi-
tions, no matter how ideal, fail to satisfy the craving for
real out-of-door life. Human nature demands such simple
and wholesome pleasures as come from roaming the woods,
from canoeing and boating, and from sports and games that
require large areas.
We live in an era of holidays. We use every available
day for recreation and rest for the tired body and mind.
We need, therefore, the large parks, and the necessity for
43
them is greatest in the regions south and southwest of the
city. There the city's workers will find their largest means
of enjoyment for their hours of leisure and days of vacation.
The outer park plans have been so drawn, generally, as
to provide proper areas for the people of all the various
parts of the city, and to have these areas all easily accessible
for the many thousands who will use them.
The forest preserves, as shown on the chart accompany-
ing this chapter, indicate that these reserves are placed in
relation to the radiating arteries. Naturally these arteries
will be larger and better paved as the forests are developed,
since they will always be the short-cut to the forests; this
applies particularly to Milwaukee avenue for the Des
Plaines River reserve, Twelfth street for the Elmhurst re-
serve, and Archer avenue for Mt. Forest reserve.
The Des Plaines River reserve, and particularly the
Elmhurst and Mt. Forest reserves are destined to be the big
forests because the topography of the land and in all prob-
ability the price of these (if the purchases are not delayed
too long) are more favorable than the other districts.
Fifty-eight American cities are now engaged in city plan-
ning and fourteen of these are arranging for radical changes,
providing for extensive park areas, civic centers and public
squares.
The subject of forest preserves in connection with the
world's large cities is receiving most serious attention by the
authorities of Berlin, Vienna, London and Paris. In fact,
these cities have already secured properties adequate for
this purpose.
Berlin, with about the same population as Chicago, has
a total area of proposed forest reserves of over 75,000 acres
within a radius of ten miles of the center of the city. Ber-
lin's Grunewald Forest contains 10,000 acres and is situated
no further from the center of the city than our own Wash-
ington Park.
Vienna, with nearly the same population as Chicago,
has a total park area of 15,000 acres, and is making exten-
sive preparations for large forest preserves.
44
Chicago's present actual park area is 3,200 acres. The
outer park system recommended by the Special Park Com-
mission in their report of 1904, is 37,000 acres; proposed
by the Plan of Chicago, between 40,000 and 50,000 acres.
CHICAGO'S PARKS AND THOSE OF OTHER
CITIES — From President Henry G. Foreman's Park
Commission report of 1904 — from which we may see at a
glance how Chicago stands in regard to parks when
placed side by side with other American cities. The show-
ing is not flattering to Chicago. While our city is second
in population, it is seventh in park area.
City Acre Area of Parka
BOSTON 12,878
"LONDON 8.4O4
NEW YORK 8.O74
I' A His 4,299
PHILADELPHIA 4,175
LOS ANGELES 3,737
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, and environs 3,548
SAN FRANCISCO 3,411
CHICAGO 3,174
WASHINGTON 2,911
*[The acreage of foreign cities does not appear in President Foreman's report, but have
been inserted here for the purpose of comparison.]
In the year 1909 the General Assembly of Illinois passed
an act providing for the creation of Forest Reserve Districts
within counties in Illinois. This act provided that upon
petitions being filed, the question should be submitted to the
voters of the proposed district, and if the vote was in favor
of the adoption and creation of such district, thereupon the
district should be organized.
The affairs of the district are managed by a Board of
Commissioners consisting of a President and four commis-
sioners, appointed by the Chairman of the Board of County
Commissioners, with the consent of the members of such
Board. Such a petition was presented to the County Court
in September, 1910. The question was submitted to the
voters at the election in November, 1910, resulting in a vote
of about 138,000 for such district, and less than 40,000
against such district.
45
Thereupon, on the 30th day of November, 1910, the
President of the Board appointed a President and Board of
Commissioners for such Forest Preserve District, which dis-
trict embodied all of Cook County. The act provides that
the Commissioners shall have power to designate by ordi-
nance, to lay out, establish, open, widen, pave and otherwise
improve and maintain pleasure driveways; to prescribe rules
and regulations concerning such driveways, and also the
Forest Preserves acquired under the provisions of the act.
The Board also has power under the act to acquire by gift,
devise, purchase or condemnation any and all grounds and
lands necessary for such driveways and Forest Preserves
and lands contiguous thereto.
The Board further, according to the act, has power to
acquire and hold lands for the erection and maintenance
thereon of public buildings for the use of the public for
assembly and recreation purposes, but not of a religious
character. In order to provide revenues with which to carry
out the purposes of the act the Board may issue bonds and
levy taxes in the same manner as taxes are levied for city
and village purposes. Such Board shall report annually to
the County Commissioners the revenues received, expendi-
tures made, land acquired, the progress of construction work
and the condition of the property and such other matters as
may have been acted upon by the Board during the previous
year.
A quo warranto proceeding was instituted in December,
1910, which proceeding involves the constitutionality of the
act under which the Forest Preserve District was organized.
At the hearing before Judge Dever, a decision was rendered
sustaining the act; an appeal was taken by the State's Attor-
ney, which appeal was considered by the Supreme Court of
this State at the April Term, A. D. 1911, and a decision
thereon is expected at the present June Term, which term
began on June 6, 1911.
This decision when handed down by the court will either
declare all or a portion of the act unconstitutional, and if the
act is sustained, no doubt the court will define the powers
of the district.
46
Our Transportation Problem.
E ALL know Chicago has been made, largely, by
the railroads. We know, too, that our future
prosperity depends upon them. We see, then,
that we ought to give much thought to transpor-
tation, that in all possible ways the railroads may
be helped to handle our people and our freight as quickly
and as cheaply as possible.
When we investigate today, we find each railroad hand-
ling its business in its own way, without a central system.
We ask, then, if the time has not come to develop a com-
mon system, at least for the handling of freight, and we
look about to see how such a system could be established.
We think of freight matters first because we know that
upon the proper handling of freight depends the business of
our factories, the growth of our commerce, and the steady
employment of our people. We know that upon that sub-
ject depends the growth of our city and the stability and
increase of the value of all our property.
Most of us are astonished to learn that the chief reason
for the congestion of our freight terminals, for delays, for
railway smoke and for other evils from which we suffer lies
in the manner the roads are operated. The great trouble is
that the railroads haul thousands of cars every month into
the heart of Chicago, switch them and haul them out again
without unloading. No need for this appears to us, as we
study the subject. We ask ourselves how to avoid this, and
the answer comes to us at once.
"Turn all those through cars into a common clearing
yard on the outskirts of the city," we say. "Stop them at
Gary on the south, at Summit on the southwest, at Franklin
Park on the northwest and at Waukegan on the north, and
send them by a great belt railway to a common center out
southwest, there to be sorted, made up in trains and deliv-
ered to the various roads to continue their journeys."
47
We can see at a glance how much this would prevent
congestion down in the center of the city, leaving the cen-
tral district tracks more clear for passenger traffic and for
quick delivery of such freight as is intended for merchants
and factories in Chicago. We see, too, how it means a
cleaner city for us, and at the same time a big saving for the
railroads.
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CHICAGO. Diagram of city center, showing the proposed arrangement of
railroad passenger stations, the complete traction system, including rapid
transit, subway and elevated roads, and the circuit subway line.
The last is designed — (A) to connect all railroad stations with one an-
other; (B) to connect passengers from all points of the city within and with-
out the center with the railroad stations by transfer from the subway line
proposed in the Arnold report; (C) to supplement by transfer the interchange
of passengers from traction line going through the center from the north,
south or west to any point in~the city.
(Copyrighted by the Commercial Club of Chicago.)
labile M.
48
IIS
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WstdSL
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reigit Yard
Milwaukee
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CHICAGO. Diagram of the city center, showing the general location of
existing freight yards and railroad lines the present tunnel system and pro-
posed circuit, and connections for all these services, running to the central
clearing yards.
(Copyrighted by the Commercial Club of Chicago.)
Having decided this as a good move, we would then go
a step further. We know that many thousands of cars of
goods are sent to Chicago each year, which goods are un-
loaded, stored, and shipped out through the country by
wholesale merchants from time to time as they are sold. It
seems clear, then, that a great general storage depot could
be created outside the city, at the place most convenient,
where these goods could be handled more cheaply and
quickly than in the center of a great city.
49
In making these moves, we would have to figure on the
fact that much freight reaches Chicago by water, and that
this water trade should grow as the city grows. It would
be well, then, to greatly develop the harbor at South Chi-
cago, as nearest the general freight clearing yards, as all
heavy freight now goes there, and also a commercial harbor
at the mouth of Chicago river. These harbors we would
connect by underground or surface raihvay, operated by
electricity, with the freight clearing yards, and also with the
general freight distribution system for the city itself.
The Chicago Plan Commission endorses the report for
the provision of both the industrial and the commercial har-
bor made by the Harbor Commission of the City of Chicago
in 1909.
COMMERCIAL HARBOR— proposed at the mouth
of the Chicago river — "At large cities provision must be
made for the delivery of passengers arriving by vessel, and
for the freight that is used in the city locally, including coal,
fruits, vegetables, and other merchandise. Such a harbor re-
quires docks, warehouses and unloading facilities near, or
convenient to, the heart of the city, and may be termed the
'city' or 'commercial' harbor. All traffic through the city, or
moving from lake to rail, or rail to lake, cannot be handled
at an outside harbor. Some of this is high class package or
fruit and vegetable freight, which is carried by the same ves-
sels that bring to the city freight needed locally. Hence the
'city' harbor must provide for this 'through' business and
interchange of lake and rail traffic." — [Extract from Har-
bor Commission report of 1909.]
INDUSTRIAL HARBOR— proposed at South Chi-
cago— "An entirely different class of requirements arises in
connection with the handling of commodities which are in
transit through the city, or which are required for manu-
facturing. A harbor supplied with facilities for handling
such traffic may be called the 'industrial' harbor, and need
not be near the heart of the city. It is desirable that such a
harbor should be convenient to an industrial and manufac-
turing neighborhood. The industrial harbor bears about
the same relation to a great city as do the freight yards,
50 •
switch tracks, etc., of a railroad. The congestion which ex-
ists in large cities should not be increased by attempting to
handle in the heart of the city wares intended for manufac-
ture or which are passing through or being transshipped
from water to rail or vice versa."— [Extract from Harbor
Commission report of 1909.]
Thus we would outline to ourselves the creation of one
great machine, planned to handle all the freight traffic of
Chicago— preventing congestion in the freight yards, saving
untold sums in the handling of goods, preserving pavements
from unmeasured needless wear, carrying on the city's en-
tire business without waste or delay.
Having thus disposed of the city's freight troubles, at-
tention would be given passenger traffic, so that the railway
stations of the city could be grouped into a system giving us
all the best and most convenient service.
Conditions would lead us probably to select the district
between Clinton and Canal streets, extending from Twelfth
to Lake streets, for the railway stations of the west side, and
to arrange the south side stations along Twelfth street from
State street to the south branch of the river.
It will be seen, by a little study of this plan, that this ar-
rangement would give us ideal railway facilities. The sta-
tions should be arranged so as to avoid closing any streets,
either building the main stations above or below street
grade. The latter arrangement would appear the best, be-
cause it would allow the use of the areas above the railway
tracks all to be used. Such parts of this area as were not
used for station purposes could be devoted to business uses,
the rentals reducing the cost of operating the roads.
Our transportation plan provides for a great belt line
system interlinking all railway terminals and crossing all
surface and elevated lines. With a proper system of trans-
fers, we could save time for the people desiring to reach
various parts of the city as quickly as possible, which can
only be arranged by avoiding the congested downtown dis-
trict. Transportation experts concede the belt line idea to
be the only feasible and practical plan to accomplish this re-
51
suit. In a less comprehensive manner than our plan desig-
nates, the belt line plan is operated with complete satisfac-
tion in other large cities.
Thus we would complete a system able to easily handle
many times the number of people that at present are accom-
modated with so much difficulty. Besides this, our most
important gain would be to restore to general business uses
the big area between Van Buren and Twelfth streets,
west from State street to the river. It would mean adding
a territory almost as large as our present entire downtown
business district to the heart of Chicago, making the growth
of the city easy and natural.
Chicago's people are all appreciative of the good done
the city by the railroads. More than a million of us now
regularly use their facilities, and our demand is constantly
growing for better service, which the railway managers are
anxious to supply. We want the irritation to our nerves
which comes out of railway operation reduced to the mini-
mum. We know the community will get far more out of its
million workers when their nerves cease to be racked by ir-
ritating conditions and great noises.
We are coming to think well of the fact that what is
best for the city as a whole is best also for its business inter-
ests. And so it is in railway matters.
The solution of the transportation problems which
would be of the best advantage to the city will also most
benefit the railway lines, each and all of them.
The transportation managers have in recent years shown
a desire to act together in matters for the public good.
Whatever will be required of them, therefore, to bring
about good order in traffic, it is expected will be conceded
by them; so there may be completed a system of handling
both freight and passenger traffic which will enhance Chi-
cago's commerce and thus maintain and build up the rail-
roads themselves.
52
Street Needs of Chicago.
"City streets are the parlor and playground
of the poor — the happy hunting
ground of youth."
HEN we think with a view to deciding what the
greatest needs of a city are, we conclude, gener-
ally, that two things are of the greatest impor-
tance. The first need is for enough streets,
sufficiently wide and running in the right direc-
tion, to permit the people to go about the city easily and
quickly. The second is park area great enough to insure
good health and a pleasing appearance.
Proper street arrangements are the prime need because
we are all interested in saving time. Life is made up of
minutes, and to save minutes means to lengthen life. Time,
then, is of tremendous value to us all, and almost any sacri-
fice of money today is right if we can save daily minutes for
the millions of tomorrow.
Right here we should remind ourselves that Chicago has
at no time' ever looked far enough ahead. We can all see
today the mistakes made when Chicago was rebuilding after
the fire of 1871. We see how the people then were short
sighted in not planning for the orderly growth of the city.
We must understand, then, that the people of Chicago twen-
ty-five years hence will hold us in light esteem if we let slip
the opportunities before us today.
We should not feel, in considering the street needs of
Chicago, that there is any danger of undertaking too big a
plan, or of over-shooting the mark. This fact was well
shown in the work of erecting our new county building.
We started a structure more than twice as big as the one then
existing for county purposes, but before it was finished our
needs had outgrown the new structure. It was the same
with our new city hall. Neither of those structures is large
53
enough to house the departments of government for which
it was intended.
In all growing cities it has been necessary, before build-
ing according to an orderly plan, to begin, at large expense,
to correct the error of not having a plan to build upon when
•«
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CHICAGO. Plan of the center of the city, showing the present street
and boulevard system, the proposed additional arteries and street widenings
(heavy black).
(Copyrighted by the Commercial Club of Chicago.)
54
the city was founded. The longer this beginning has been
delayed the greater has been the expense. To postpone it
means multiplying the cost, besides a greater burden of dis-
comfort and loss of business every day.
Later on will be discussed the history of other cities in
this work, and the tremendous cost they have had to pay for
delay. But it may be said now that all these cities have
found that no matter how great the labor or how large the
cost, the result has always well repaid the necessary outlay.
Let us see how it is best to lay out, construct and keep up
the streets in a city like Chicago. Beginning in the retail
district, the past has taught us we should have streets from
eighty to one hundred feet wide, with smooth, noiseless pave-
ments. The lighting and signs should be arranged to give a
pleasing general effect. Such streets should be about equally
divided into roadway and sidewalk space.
Where heavy tonnage is moving a width of from seventy
to ninety feet is desirable, a little more than half being given
to roadway. Here the pavements should be most wear-
resisting, regardless of noise.
Next comes the usual residence street. Here we may
well lessen the space devoted to traffic to from twenty to
thirty-six feet, as necessity warrants. We should do this
where houses are crowded together or apartments abound so
the smaller children may have playgrounds close at hand,
and that grass and trees may add to appearances and furnish
shade for pedestrians.
After that we consider the avenues, or traffic streets.
These should be wide enough to draw in the streams of
traffic passing from one part of the city to other parts, and
to provide for street car traffic, keeping the stream of ordi-
nary vehicles and cars each moving in its own place and not
interfering with each other.
Then we think of the boulevards. From these we ex-
clude heavy traffic. They are the wide streets, of fine dwell-
ings, ornamented with grass, shrubs and trees. They pro-
vide continuous playgrounds for the children of the neigh-
borhood. They give us places for statues and fountains.
55
Our parks are connected with them. We adorn them with
flowers and embellish them with rare and beautiful trees and
plants. They are important ornamental features of our city,
elevating and educational.
Lastly, and most important, come the time and distance
saving diagonal streets. We all know their value. We all
know that Chicago could not possibly be the huge city it is
today if it had not always had such streets as Milwaukee,
Lincoln, Ogden, Blue Island, Archer and other avenues—
the straight-aiming trails of the Indian and the trapper-
developed to aid in the handling of its people and its traffic.
Usually cities are compelled to create these diagonals, al-
ways at great expense. But no matter what the expense, it is
always found that these streets, when constructed, pay in con-
venience and time-saving, many times over what they origi-
nally cost.
It is certain that Chicago needs more diagonal streets
than it has. The need is greatest for direct routes by diago-
nals to connect the north and south sides of Chicago with its
great west side. The need of more open spaces on the west
side itself is already acknowledged in the movement for
small parks. These spaces could be created in large part
by cutting diagonal streets through, thus letting light and
air into all crowded sections. A further benefit of a proper
system of such thoroughfares is that they will serve at all
times to provide fresh air and healthfulness to all parts of
the city, no matter from which direction the wind may be
blowing.
Diagonal streets which would serve hundreds of thou-
sands of people daily ought now, experts say, to be cut
through the central part of Chicago on these routes :
First, from the crossing of Chicago avenue and Lincoln
Park boulevard southwesterly to Milwaukee avenue and
Canal street.
Second, from the crossing of West Washington and
Canal streets southwesterly to the crossing of West Congress
and Halsted streets. These two streets completed, we would
have an almost straight street, practically extending Blue
Island avenue to the lake front at Chicago avenue.
56
Third, from the crossing of Halsted and West Congress
streets southeasterly to the crossing of West Twelfth and
Canal streets, and thence still southeasterly, and crossing the
river at Sixteenth street, to Archer avenue at State street,
and, still southeasterly, to Cottage Grove avenue at Twenty-
second street.
By cutting a further street from the crossing of Milwau-
kee and North Ashland avenues to Halsted and West Con-
gress streets we would have an almost straight street con-
necting the extreme northwest and southeast sides of
Chicago.
The value of the "quadrangle" around the center of the
downtown district is apparent to us all, especially when we
foresee the growth of the retail business district bringing
such high values for land in these districts that the factories
will be crowded further out, and the proposed diagonal
streets become great, wide retail streets.
When we consider that at the present day it is necessary
for people wishing to go from either the north or south to
the west side of the city to travel long distances at right an-
gles, we are forced to decide that this is wrong, and ought
not to continue. Besides that, we know that- today if one
wants to make such a trip quickly he is forced in most cases
to go through the business district in the city's center. Thus
everybody is constantly getting in the way of everybody els
and adding to the useless crowding of the downtown streets.
We ask ourselves if we cannot do something to bring the
various sides of the city into closer touch with each other.
We begin a study of the plans of the architects, which we
must remember are drawn to prepare for fifty or more years
of work for the city.
Each of us is interested, perhaps, in his own section of
Chicago. Each of us wants to know what the plan prom-
ises for his neighborhood in the way of new streets, and in
the way of convenience in going about the city.
Here is a little sketch of what is proposed in the way of
new streets for each side of the city, by which we can each
see how easy the plan would make it for us to travel through
Chicago if the streets were already cut through.
57
NORTH SIDE — Let us begin on the north side and
swing around the entire city by way of the proposed diagonal
streets.
Starting at the crossing of North and La Salle avenues
on the second circuit of diagonals about the city's downtown
district a street would run southwesterly, crossing Clybourn
avenue at Sedgwick street, and there turning more westerly
to run straight southwest to the crossing of West Chicago
avenue and North Halsted street, and continuing thus to
connect with Ogden avenue near the crossing of Washing-
ton boulevard and North Ashland avenue. Thus Ogden
avenue would be practically extended to the gate of Lincoln
Park.
Starting again at Belmont avenue and the lake, and run-
ning southwesterly to the crossing of Lincoln avenue and
North Halsted street, another new street would run thence
straight southwest to where North and North Ashland
avenues cross, thence turning south to the crossing of Mil-
waukee and North Ashland avenues, and then southwest
again to the crossing of Grand and North Western avenues,
and then still southwesterlv to connect with Colorado avenue
it
at West Madison street. Thus would be provided a new
highway reaching from beyond South Fifty-third avenue to
the lake shore at the north extremity of Lincoln Park as it is
' to be when extension work now in progress is completed.
Again starting at the lake shore, this time at Irving Park
boulevard, a new street would be cut through southwesterly
to the crossing of Lincoln avenue and North Ashland
avenue, thence straight southwest to the crossing of West
Fullerton avenue and North Western avenue, and on south-
west to Humboldt Park at North Kedzie and West North
avenues. Then the route would be south in North Kedzie
avenue to the southwest corner of Humboldt Park, where
the new street would go on cutting southwest to West Con-
gress street at Fifty-second avenue.
Short diagonals would also be cut from Irving Park
boulevard and the lake shore northwesterly to Lawrence
avenue, near North Ashland avenue, and from that point
58
southwest to North Western avenue and Irving Park boule-
vard.
WEST SIDE — Over on the west side the chief diagonal
streets needed would find a common center at South Halsted
and West Congress streets.
Starting from that point, where is planned the future
center of Chicago, the first of these new streets would run
northerly and westerly to connect with Milwaukee avenue
near North Ashland avenue, which would thus become prac-
tically a straight extension of the new highway.
The second new street would be cut from the same point
at South Halsted street westerly and north to Grand avenue
and North Western avenue, connecting there with Grand
avenue and making that street a long straight avenue run-
ning to the center at Halsted street.
The third of these new streets would run from the same
point westerly and south to where West Twelfth street
crosses South Ashland avenue. It would open up a greatly
congested part of Chicago, give ease of travel and add to
public health.
All the remaining new diagonal streets needed on the
west side can be best shown, perhaps, by beginning to lay
them out and show how they will connect the west and south
sides of the city. - Together, they form the remainder of the
general plan for giving all the people of Chicago free ways
of travel to all parts of the city.
Starting, then, to show how best to connect the south and
west sides of Chicago, a new street would start at Thirty-
ninth street and the lake shore, and run northwest to Thirty-
first street and Wentworth avenue, crossing Grand boule-
vard at Thirty-fifth street. On northwesterly it would go
to South Halsted street at Archer avenue. South Halsted
street would be the route then to West Twenty-second street,
when the street would again cut northwesterly to the cross-
ing of West Twelfth street and South Ashland avenue, and
on in the same direction to cut Ogden avenue at West Con-
gress street, finally ending at the crossing of North Western
avenue and Grand avenue.
Another great highway to the west side would start at
59
CHICAGO. Plan of the complete system of street circulation; railway
stations; parks, boulevard circuits and radial arteries; public recreation
piers; yacht harbor and pleasure-boat piers; treatment of Grant Park; the
main axis and the Civic Center, presenting the city as a complete organism
in which all its functions are related one to another in such a manner
that it will become a unit.
(Copyrighted by the Commercial Club of Chicago.)
the western edge of Jackson Park at Sixty-seventh street,
and run northwest to the southeast corner of Washington
Park at Cottage Grove avenue, and through or around the
park to where Garfield boulevard enters the park. Then it
would cut northwest again, crossing Wentworth avenue at
Forty-seventh street, South Halsted street at Thirty-ninth
street, crossing the river at South Ashland avenue near
Thirty-first street, and north on South Ashland avenue to
West Twenty-second street, thence northwest again to South
Western avenue at West Twelfth street, and then westerly
and north to North Forty-eighth avenue near Washington
boulevard, crossing Colorado avenue at Garfield Park.
Another route, further out still, would follow in its
southeasterly section a route alongside the Lake Shore and
Michigan Southern railway to about Sixtieth street near
State street, then under the railway tracks to Wentworth
avenue and there begin cutting northwestward, crossing
South Halsted street at Garfield boulevard, and South
Ashland avenue at Forty-seventh street. It would join
South Western avenue at Thirty-ninth street, and run north
in Western avenue to West Thirty-first street, west in
Thirty-first street to the crossing of an extension of Blue
Island avenue at West Thirty-first street, and thence north-
westerly to cross Ogden avenue at South Fortieth avenue,
and thence northwest indefinitely, crossing West Congress
street at South Fifty-second avenue, and running indefi-
nitely into the country.
SOUTH SIDE— The south side would have to have a
number of diagonal streets created for the use of its own
people, designed to serve such general purposes as is served
for the north side by Evanston, Lincoln, Clybourn and El-
ston avenues and by Clark street.
One such street would be cut through from the crossing
of Michigan avenue and Twenty-second street, running
southwesterly, crossing Wentworth avenue at Thirty-first
street, and running to South Halsted street at Thirty-ninth
street, there being broken by the stockyards, but resuming
its course at about South Ashland avenue at Forty-seventh
61
street, and being planned to continue then indefinitely
southwest.
Another street for south and southwest side uses would
begin at Thirty-first street and the lake, running southwest-
erly, crossing Grand boulevard at Thirty-fifth street,
Michigan avenue at Thirty-ninth street, State street near
Forty-third street, Wentworth avenue at Forty-seventh
street, South Halsted street at Garfield boulevard and South
Ashland avenue at Sixty-seventh street, also continuing in-
definitely in the same direction.
Finally, diagonal streets would be driven from the lake
shore at Thirty-ninth street southwest to Grand boulevard
at Washington Park; and from the lake shore at Forty-
seventh street southwest to the northwest corner of Wash-
ington Park.
"Streets should be made to blossom
once in a while. Usually they
are all stem and no blossom"
LINKING ALL STREET SYSTEMS— Finally, to
link all the street systems together in an effective, practical
and impressive manner there is planned a wide, park-like
boulevard to sweep across the entire southwest, west and
northwest sides of the city. It would be throughout its
length equally distant from the civic center at South Hal-
sted and West Congress streets. It would serve as a great
continuous driveway across the city and as a park through-
out its entire length, and come to be known in time as one
of the most wonderful architectural features of any city
on earth.
This curving boulevard would start at Garfield boule-
vard and South Western avenue, and curve around to con-
nect with Irving Park boulevard at North Western avenue,
eleven miles away, holding a width of 300 or 500 feet
throughout its course. In its sweep it would touch Fifty-
second avenue on the west, and it would cut the courses of
every important diagonal street of the city. Most of the
land needed for this great arc could be secured today at
very low cost.
62
In planning the circling avenue across the city, a scheme
for regular and systematic park work in connection with it
has been undertaken. Both ends of the great sweeping
boulevard would be at the entrances to great parks, and
midway of the arc, where West Congress street would cut
it, has been planned another people's playground, and one
larger than any now existing in Chicago.
The park planned at the southern end of the curved bou-
levard would include the mile square bounded by. Western
and Kedzie avenues from Garfield boulevard to Sixty-third
street, besides some 150 acres northeast of that square. The
park at the West Congress street intersection of the arc is
planned as of a width measuring from Taylor street to
Monroe street, and to reach from about Fiftieth avenue to
Sixty-sixth avenue or about two miles. Such a park would
be of over 1,000 acres. The park at the northern end of the
curving boulevard would extend from North Western
avenue west to about Whipple street, or three-quarters of a
mile. Its western border would run from Addison street
north to Lawrence avenue, a mile and a half. Its eastern
border would run north on North Western avenue from
Byron street, two blocks south of Irving Park boulevard,
to Lawrence avenue, a mile and a quarter. There would
be added, to complete the plan for this park, about forty
acres lying east of North Western avenue and as far as
Irving avenue, extending from Byron street to Cullom
avenue.
These great parks, thus made easy for all Chicagoans to
reach, would be laid out and improved after the manner our
present west side parks have been beautified. They would
complete the street and park plan necessary to the good
order, good health, progress and wealth of Chicago when
it shall be a city of ten or fifteen millions of people.
63
Building a Civic Center.
HICAGO is held by leading architects and ex-
perts in city planning to have advantages for
greatness superior to any city anywhere in the
world.
Let us look at the facts briefly so we may see
and appreciate the chance our city has to accomplish almost
without effort and with comparatively small expense, that
which cities the world over are struggling to do, that is, to
unite all their governmental forces in one center.
It has been said that Congress street has been selected as
the central east and west street of the Plan of Chicago.
This is for many practical reasons.
We have seen how the density of population of Chicago
is constantly moving to the southwest. In that direction,
then, lies the future true center of our city.
Now, why was Congress street chosen as the thorough-
fare to be made a great avenue leading into the heart of the
west side?
Looking at the facts today, we find that Congress street
is substantially in the business center of Chicago. It is
equally distant from Washington and Twelfth streets, and
from Twenty-second street and Chicago avenue, which four
streets are important parts of the great city plan and the
natural plan for the harbor of the future Chicago.
You will remember that the harbor proper lies between
Twelfth and Washington streets, which are to be extended
into the lake, under the plan, to land-lock the central har-
bor. You will remember, too, that the great piers to mark
the entrance to the harbor and to provide lake parks for
future Chicagoans are to jut out from Chicago avenue and
from Twenty-second street.
Congress street is equally distant, too, from the two
great east and west railway rights-of-way at Kinzie street
on the north and Sixteenth street on the south.
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65
Economy dictates the selection of Congress street be-
cause it is now a street of disconnected character. The
buildings throughout the district it is proposed to widen
are comparatively inexpensive, too. Also if we were to
widen another street we would have to destroy two front-
ages to obtain sufficient width, while the opening of Con-
gress street can be done by taking only one frontage.
Again, to open Congress street means combining its use-
fulness with that of Van Buren street on the north and
Harrison street on the south.
More reason for the choice can be found in the fact that
Congress street terminates practically at the center of Grant
Park at the lake front, a point of beauty in the arrangement
of such a highway that must not be overlooked.
The new Congress street would be widened from Wa-
bash avenue to Canal street, with a greater width from that
point to the civic center at Halsted street. It would be built
up as a highly adorned thoroughfare, with theatres, semi-
public buildings and great retail shops.
Picture this great street, with separate divisions for its
different classes of traffic, running westward from the lake.
Imagine that from its center arises a great bronze dome,
hundreds of feet into the air. Fancy this impressive dome,
plainly viewed by a million people daily traveling on the
ten broad streets approaching this center, thus always telling
Chicago's millions and Chicago's guests of the dignity and
importance of our great city. If you can do this, you can
get a faint foretaste of the civic center as Chicago can real-
ize it in her future days.
In detail, the civic center planned at Halsted and Con-
gress streets can be described as a move to assemble at that
place the great buildings of the City of Chicago, Cook
County and the United States government. These build-
ings, it is felt by the architects, should be constructed as a
group. Each should be made part of a plan, and the plan
should be carried out to produce in the buildings, when
erected, the most beautiful, impressive and perfect archi-
tectural effect possible.
CHICAGO. The business center of the city within the first circuit
boulevard, showing the proposed grand east-and-west axis and its relation
to Grant Park and the yacht harbor; the railway terminals schemes on
the south and west sides, and the Civic Center.
(Copyrighted by the Commercial Club of Chicago.)
It is the united opinion of all who have studied the mat-
ter, that the municipal buildings should be the largest in the
group proposed. They also should occupy the center of the
scene, with the federal and county buildings in smaller
groups at each side of the Congress street axis.
The plan, as drawn, provides for opening a space cover-
ing perhaps four blocks east of Halsted street, that is, the
space from Jefferson to Halsted street between West Har-
rison and West Van Buren streets, or a larger space if neces-
sary, and arranging to group the county building on one
side of Congress street, with the federal building on the
other.
The plan further provides for opening up a great trian-
gle west of Halsted street, with its greatest side on that
thoroughfare. The peak of the triangle would be, perhaps,
two blocks west of Halsted street in Congress street. With-
in the triangle would be erected the city buildings, — monu-
mental structures exceeding in impressiveness those of any
other city in the country and perhaps in the world.
The land necessary for this improvement, which would
provide a group of buildings carrying Chicago's fame
around the world, could be secured at a cost not too large
to be assumed by so great a city as our Chicago, and very
much cheaper in cost than in other localities close to the
present business center and not so desirable for the purpose.
Into the spacious civic center as laid out, all the wide
thoroughfares, including the new-made streets centering
there, would empty their crowds. The great dome of the
city hall would be visible for miles in any direction. It
would form the finest monument ever built, probably, at the
junction of any group of streets in the world. It would be
perpetual, stand forever, and for all time anchor Chicago's
center. It would form an ideal nucleus about which to build
the future greatest city of the world.
That such a center is a real need of the city today, and
that steps ought to be taken to provide it, we can all see.
The federal building of Chicago, as is well known, has
never from the day it was opened been large enough to
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69
house the government departments in Chicago. Growth of
the city during the last ten years has made it hopelessly
small for the purposes intended. Like the city and county
buildings, it is too small, and like them, too, will have to be
replaced within a very few years. When this time comes
Chicago ought to be ready to gather its great public build-
ings together at this logical business and geographical
center.
70
The Cost— How to Divide It.
HEN the Mayor of Chicago created the Chicago
Plan Commission he sent that body the plans as
drawn by Architect Daniel H. Burnham, saying
that it could be taken as a suggestion for begin-
ning the work of orderly construction for the
city. Since then eighteen months have passed, and the
ablest business and scientific minds of Chicago have studied
the plan. It has been examined from every angle. Its
sharpest critics have been unable to point to a serious defect
in it.
The result of this eighteen months of trial by fire of the
Plan of Chicago has been to set the minds of the men who
know most about the plan in a determination that Chicago
must and shall carry out the plan as it has been laid down
for them. We may well say, in that case, that we all will
see it the same way and want the Plan of Chicago carried
out. PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN CHICAGO SHOULD
DEMAND THAT THE PLAN AS IT EXISTS BE
ADOPTED AS THE OFFICIAL PLAN OF CHI-
CAGO. The sooner that is done the more quickly will any
portion of the plan be realized by building to it in the mak-
ing of necessary public improvements that are bound to be
inaugurated from this time on through the coming years.
What, then, is the next step for us?
What will it cost?
How will it be paid for?
To decide these questions, we must set down just what
the plan provides for us, as the people of Chicago, to do.
These six things:
First, to improve the lake front.
Second, to create and bind together a system of high-
ways outside of the city.
Third, to improve the railway terminals and develop a
better way to handle Chicago's freight and passenger
business.
71
Fourth, to acquire an outer park system and to build a
system of parkway circuits.
Fifth, to so arrange the streets within the city as to make
it easier to go from one part of Chicago to any other part,
and to end congestion in the central business district.
Sixth, to develop a great center of civic government, and
erect there great monumental buildings typifying the spirit
of Chicago and inspiring the city's people to a deeper civic
patriotism.
Of course, it looks to us at first sight as if it is beyond
our power to pay for these things. As a fact, though, if we
citizens of Chicago decide we want the plan carried out it
can be done without increasing our city expenses very much.
Few of us know that in fact the assessed value of real estate
in our city in the last ten years is greater than the entire
cost of putting the plan in operation.
Besides that, we have in our city of Chicago a great
growing institution, creating wealth faster than mines can
produce it. Our growth alone furnishes a basis for bond
issues greater than the entire cost of the plan. And, too,
the changes will lead to increasing the city's growth in
wealth, so that we plainly have a way to do the work if we
want to.
It may be necessary for us to have new laws passed at
Springfield to give Chicago an equal chance in financing
her city building with her sister cities engaged in such
work. Clearly, we may have such new laws if we will ask
for them. Now let us go on, counting the cost of each step
and seeing how it is to be paid :
New York is adding to Governor's Island made ground
from city refuse, one mile by one-half mile in area.
To improve our lake front will cost next to nothing, —
indeed it can be done at a saving on what we are spending
today. We have a million cubic yards of waste material
every year. It can be dumped on the lake front cheaper
than any place else'. Dumped there, it will build up from
twenty-seven to thirty-three acres of land every year, and so
we can produce the parkways and islands, leaving only the
72
breakwaters and bridges to be built. In thirty years Chi-
cago's waste would supply all the material for the islands
between Grant and Jackson parks, giving us a yacht harbor
and a center for boating rivaling the famed course at Hen-
ley on Thames, the greatest water pleasure course on earth.
Long before the end of thirty years, however, the amount
of filling seeking the lake front will be vastly increased.
The dirt to be disposed of from subway building will go far
toward completing the lake shore parks, and the entire lake
front, from Wilmette to the Indiana state line, can within
the lives of most of us be made a great, beautiful public
playground, a refuge from summer heat and a place for
winter sports. We should not forget that this new park to
be created from the city's refuse will always belong to the
people.
To have the roads outside Chicago for a distance of
sixty miles improved, as are those about the great cities in
Europe, can be done very cheaply. Ninety-five per cent
of the necessary roads now exist. Townships will be asked
and will, no doubt, readily co-operate in opening up the re-
maining five per cent. To widen and straighten those few
roads needing that treatment, to plant trees along them for
beauty and shade, and to macadamize them, is a work of
apparent ease. We do not need to worry about that.
Next we turn to the improvement of the railway termi-
nals. While this move is of great importance to us all, we
must remember that when it is undertaken we will not be
called upon to pay for the work. It will be a railroad en-
terprise, undertaken for and carried out by the railroad
companies, which will unite in paying for it.
While we are thinking of this railroad move, we must
determine that Chicago ought to aid, assist and co-operate
with the railways in the changes, for Chicago's future as a
shipping and factory center depends upon it. It is the cost
per ton of handling freight into and out of Chicago that
measures our city's commercial prosperity. The cheaper
it can be done, the bigger and more wealthy will Chicago
become.
That the street railway companies will carry out their
73
part of the traction plan is already assured. In fact, work
has already been done by them to that end.
Thus we are brought down to the three propositions of
the outer parks, the streets and parks within the city and the
civic center. The additional parks provided for in the Plan
of Chicago are extensive, and rightly so when we consider
the growth and coming size of our city. Fifty years ago, be-
fore population had become dense in parts of the city, people
could live without parks. It is not so today. We today
hold the promotion of health of mind and body a necessary
public duty, that our city may have a higher degree of
good citizenship, which, after all, is the first object of good
city planning.
The extensive woodland outer parks proposed, with the
new city parks covering an area of sixty thousand acres,
means a considerable investment. It would put Chicago
almost on a level with Berlin in parks. The German capi-
tal has seventy-five thousand acres of parks, including one
park of nine thousand acres, no farther removed from the
center of the city than our Washington Park, while Chi-
cago's present park area is only thirty-two hundred acres.
Experts say the outer park system can be completed
within ten years. We can arrange by bond issues to defer
paying for the land taken, thus making the coming genera-
tions, which will enjoy the parks, assist in paying for them.
The plan for new streets, as laid out, is the most costly
feature of the Plan of Chicago. But it will be found in
Chicago, as in other cities, that such work brings about
great increases in property values, caused by increased con-
venience and attractiveness. The cost will be many mil-
lions of dollars, but miles and miles of new street frontages,
all of great commercial value, will be created. Sites worth
millions for the growing retail business of the city will
result.
Other cities have faced the situation Chicago faces today.
They have had crowded, narrow, insufficient streets. They
have tried for years to avoid cutting new ones. They have
delayed, lost millions upon millions in trade, inconvenienced
their own people for decades, and finally been forced to do,
74
at a cost multiplied many times, that which they fought to
avoid. So it will be with Chicago. Unless the street
changes are decided upon now, and the work started, Chi-
cago will finally have to make them at a staggering expense.
The work done, the result will be steady growth and pros-
perity for all in Chicago. Such prosperity Chicago can
not have unless it becomes a convenient and pleasant place
in which to live.
To create the civic center is a work which must be done
at general expense to the city. We ought to secure the land
at once, while values at the point proposed are reasonable.
We can treat the land, at first, as park space. And as the
city, county and federal governments outgrow their present
places their buildings can be erected for them at the new
center as they are needed. Each building, then, will be
part of a complete and beautiful building scheme.
Adoption of this plan means the saving of a very large
sum in the purchase of building sites for public uses in the
future. This development is of special importance to the
west side territory, as it will provide an impetus toward
higher civic standards there, as well as throughout the city.
The civic center would benefit every part of the city; it
should be paid for by the entire community.
75
Capitalizing the Chicago Spirit.
T HAS been said a million times or more that
Chicago is the wonder of the world. It is true.
The world does not marvel at Chicago's wealth.
Her people are not plutocrats — her millionaires
are few. The marvel is not at her size. Nature
gave us the location that under the touch of modern com-
merce produced the great city. It is not Chicago's growth
that amazes. That growth naturally accompanied industry.
It is Chicago's spirit which grips the world's attention.
It is the striving, reaching, living, throbbing, determined
spirit of Chicago's people that rivets the world's gaze. It
is the I-CAN-IF-I-WILL, undying desire to excel that
spells Chicago's greatness.
The realization of the Chicago Plan simply means the
capitalization of Chicago's civic pride, so inoculated in
each of us.
No city in America — perhaps none in the world — has
the love and devotion of its people that Chicago has.
No people of any city will labor so hard or sacrifice so
much for their city as will the people of Chicago.
It is this civic patriotism — almost as strong as our- love
of country — that has carried the name of Chicago in ad-
miration around the globe.
Four times within a short history of seventy-five years
have we of Chicago proven to the world this soul-stirring
devotion to our city. Four times, by harnessing the energy
of every Chicagoan, we have brought forth civic works of
great magnitude. Today all the world knows that what
Chicago WILLS to have created WILL be created, and
what she WANTS done WILL be done.
Sixty years ago, before the days of great engineering
feats, Chicago's mettle was first proven and the Chicago
spirit first invoked. It became apparent that to secure
proper drainage the street levels of the entire city would
have to be raised. It was a tremendous task, for it meant
76
raising all the streets and most of the buildings from the
river to Twelfth street, and also on the north and west sides
of the city. The people of Chicago did it, amazing the
nation, for the work at that day was much greater than to
carry out the entire Plan of Chicago would be today.
The second great work was done fifty years ago, when
Chicago undertook to acquire and improve a chain of parks
extending around the city. This was done, at the time, not
because the city needed the parks for use, but because its
people wanted to make Chicago attractive. These parks
were taken, and paid for, and never was the load burden-
some for the then small city.
Later came the need for purifying the waters of Lake
Michigan and Chicago again arose and put $60,000,000
and years of work into the task of digging the drainage
canal.
Still later came the World's Fair, and there Chicago
accomplished a work never surpassed either in scope or
architectural beauty. To spend over $20,000,000 in grounds
and buildings, as Chicago did for that project, was a sur-
passing feat of civic spirit for those days.
While it is a healthful condition to like to enjoy the
fruits of labors well accomplished, we should safeguard
against the besetting fault of resting in content on past
achievements while hugging to ourselves self-appreciation
for big things done. It is right to enjoy in a reasonable
way the blessings that have come with our great natural
heritage and as a result of our interdependence one upon the
other, while not forgetting at all times to look the facts
squarely in the face.
It is a fact that Chicago in the matter of city building is
a mere pygmy. It is not in the nature of the average Chi-
cagoan to be long content to remain at the bottom of the
list of the world's cities in recognizing the need for and
carrying out plans for adequate public improvements cre-
ating conditions conducive to comfort, convenience, good
health and general contentment.
The passing of the World's Fair, twenty years ago, wit-
nessed the last of the great works done under the impulse
77
of the Chicago spirit — works which had proven our peo-
ple ready to take up large schemes for public improvements.
Now is the time for the NEXT great step— THE OFFI-
CIAL ADOPTION OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO.
The cost of carrying out the Plan of Chicago will not
stop the people when the Chicago spirit is again aroused.
Our people are bent on betterments. The people of Chi-
cago during the twenty-five years ending with 1906 have
spent more than $220,000,000 in permanent improvements,
but our misfortune lies in the fact that we have builded
haphazardly and without a plan. If we had had a plan
toward which to work the results accomplished would have
been vastly greater. We should not be dismayed at the cost,
then, and less than ever when we know that the people of
Paris numbered only a little over half a million souls, and
had nowhere near so sure a commercial future as Chicago's
today, when they began work on a street improvement plan
involving over $260,000,000 and carried it to completion
in fifty-seven years. No sooner was this gigantic task fin-
ished than the city of Paris appropriated an additional
$181,000,000 for still greater improvements requiring fif-
teen years to complete. These great expenditures on the
part of the people of the French metropolis are indicative
of the great thrift and wisdom of that people. It is known
the world over that the French people are not extravagant;
on the contrary, France is the most frugal nation in the
world.
78
How Other Great Cities are
Building.
ERHAPS the best guide for humanity in all its
progress lies in observing the experience orothers,
studying the mistakes others have made, and
analyzing the causes which led to failure on the
one hand and brought success upon the other.
This principle has been absorbed by Chicago, and in the
work of city planning the deepest and most careful study
has been given to the struggle for better conditions in every
great old-world center.
London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Venice, Ham-
burg, Dresden, Budapest — all the great cities of Europe,
have been studied as through a microscope. The elements
making for wealth in each have been adopted for Chicago,
the elements of weakness of each have been classified that
Chicago may avoid the difficulties that have hampered and
prevented development of cities abroad.
Besides this great task, there has been completed in
Chicago's behalf a critical study of all the great American
cities which are working to self-development under condi-
tions of good order, cleanliness, and wealth-producing
power.
The great public projects for improvement of New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Washington, Cleve-
land, St. Paul, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, San
Francisco, Seattle and Portland have been examined with
infinite pains that Chicago might draw to herself all the
good ideas of her wide-awake, ingenious, and ambitious
American sisters.
In the arduous task of preparing for the launching of
the Plan of Chicago the experts entrusted with the work
went back to the dawn of civilization as expressed in the
orderly founding of cities. They noted the springing up
of Rome in disorder and squalor, with narrow streets
79
crowded to the utmost until her great emperors, by whole-
sale destruction of buildings at a cost of millions, opened the
city to the sunlight and through a succession of sovereignties
built the magnificent Eternal City which even in the decay
of centuries exists as one of the marvels of human effort.
The greatest value gained for Chicago by the study of
city history has been, of course, in the experiences of mod-
ern cities. No review of facts, perhaps, points a better
moral for Chicago today, than a recital of the action of the
far-seeing, prudent and economical French people in the
building of Paris, contrasted with the policy of the slow and
unimaginative Briton in the development of London.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF PARIS UNDER HAUSSMANN.
Plan showing1 the portion executed from 1854 to 1889. The new boulevards
and streets are shown in heavy black lines.
(Copyrighted by the Commercial Club of Chicago.)
PARIS — The first real planning for a city had its origin
in Paris under Louis XIV, about 1700 A. D. In various
commercial aspects Paris is a great deal like Chicago, being
built upon a fertile plain extending indefinitely back from
the Seine as the plain of Chicago extends from Lake Michi-
80
gan. The cities are alike, too, in their great supply of build-
ing material, as well as in the breadth of landscape.
Paris in the day of Louis XIV was a crowded, congested
city, but the architects selected by the great French king
foresaw the development of the splendid city now existing.
They therefore went outside the walls of the compact city,
and laid out the plans upon which Paris has been builded.
The Madeleine, the Place de la Concorde, the great axial
avenue from the garden of the Tuileries to the Place de
L'Etoile, — all existed on paper decades before they were
finally realized in the building of the city.
The lesson for Chicago in this is that, as Paris increased
in size, it grew according to a well-devised and symmetrical
plan; and that the greater portion of the convenience, im-
pressiveness and beauty of modern Paris was attained at no
money cost whatever. Good sense and foresight made up
the only price paid. It remains only to point out that Chi-
cago has a similar opportunity today, and to show its citi-
zens wherein that opportunity can be grasped.
Modern Paris is largely a creation from the mind of
Georges Eugene Haussmann, who became prefect of the
Seine in 1853 after successful work in other French cities.
His work tended toward providing adequate circulation of
traffic within the old city, effected by cutting new streets
and widening old ones, by sweeping away unwholesome
rookeries and opening up great spaces to disengage monu-
ments of beauty and historic interest. He grouped the
railway stations about the center of the city, and opened up
fine avenues of approach to them. He cut new streets
wherever necessary, taking special care to create diagonal
thoroughfares to shorten distances for all traffic. Hauss-
man is acclaimed by all the world as the greatest city builder
of all time.
The Plan of Chicago is a striking duplicate in many of
its features of the lifework of Baron Haussmann. He
worked to overcome for the people the intolerable conditions
which arose from the rapid increase in population. The
Chicago Plan has the same general aim. When Haussmann
began, Paris had half a million population. He left Paris
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working under a complete plan by which the city may be
extended for a century without losing any of its convenience,
healthfulness or other great metropolitan qualities. Hauss-
mann's theory was that money thus spent made a better city,
and that a better city was a greater producer of wealth. Ex-
perience has proven his theory right.
LONDON — Now let us consider the experience of Lon-
don in proceeding, as Chicago has so far proceeded, with-
out any definite plan of growth. London, after the great
fire of 1666, had a greater opportunity to build a city of
convenience, economy and wealth-producing and conserv-
ing capacity than ever was presented to Paris. And the
occasion brought forth the man to bestow the great boon of
good order upon the British capital in the person of Sir
Christopher Wren, one of the world's greatest architects.
Sir Christopher's plans contemplated a city with streets
radiating from central points, with locations for public
buildings at the end of long and pleasing vistas. These
ideas, fixed on paper years before the French even con-
ceived the plan of orderly development of Paris, were cast
aside because of the perverse and stolid self-interest of some
of the then citizens of London. The rebuilt London grew,
haphazard, careless and contented, until the English peo-
ple awoke in the latter half of the last century to find them-
selves facing expenditures of hundreds of millions of dollars
to produce in their city the conditions necessary to the finan-
cial, physical and moral welfare of London's multitudes.
In 1855, under the spur of Baron Haussmann's activity in
Paris, the Londoners began to attempt to repair the errors
of their city's past. To secure a small part of that which
Paris had secured for nothing but exercise of foresight they
have undertaken project after project. Up to 1900 they spent
$100,000,000 on these public works. Various commissions
are at work on park and boulevard plans. London will
spend millions upon millions of money. Among the proj-
ects decided upon is that of cutting through two great thor-
oughfares at a cost of $125,000,000 for land damages alone.
London is creating a park system. The greatest experts
in the United Kingdom, considering the condition of the
82
people of London, gauging with truth the moral future of
London's people, considering scientifically their future
physical needs, hold it essential to the city's future that thus
she must relieve herself of the burden and pressure of her
increasing millions of population if the city's civilization
is to be maintained.
To create her parks London must acquire land which
has quadrupled in value within thirty years. London is
widening and straightening her streets. To do it she is ap-
propriating frontage that costs twice as much as it would
have cost a few years ago. London must do these things re-
gardless of the money cost, agree the learned men, the pub-
licists and the merchants of the world's greatest city, or by
congestion of her streets and building area be halted in her
growth and progress, and eventually forced to decay and
degeneracy.
WASHINGTON— In America the best example of a
well-planned city lies in our national capital — Washing-
ton. That city illustrates for us the success of wise provision
for the future of a city. Washington was planned and
founded as the capital of our nation, and it is of great sen-
timental interest to us today that the immortal Washington
himself had a large part in laying the plan which has made
Washington a city of surpassing convenience and beauty.
Under the direction of President Washington, and un-
der his supervision, Peter Charles L'Enfant, a young
French engineer, deliberately drew the plan of an entirely
new capital city designed to accommodate a population
one-third greater than that of Paris of that date. Upon a
rectilinear street system L'Enfant imposed a system of di-
agonal avenues of stately width converging upon focal
points designed as the location of important public build-
ings, statues or monuments commemorating historic events.
This magnificent plan, designed for an area which then
consisted of wide swamps and wooded hills, became the
laughing-stock alike of foreign traveler and American cit-
izen. But fortunately the plans were laid deep, the lands
necessary for avenues, streets and parks were donated, and
although the development of the city for three-quarters of
83
a century was slow, we have today as result of the planning
a stately and beautiful city instead of a straggling and ill-
kept one. Washington has outgrown its original plan, but
its spirit was maintained, and today works to cost nearly
$50,000,000 are in progress and strengthening the general
scheme of L'Enfant.
CLEVELAND was one of the first cities to feel the
effect of the new American impulse for city planning. A
few years ago that commercial city, taking advantage of
the fact that a new Federal building, city hall and public
library were to be built at the same time, prepared a group-
plan for the structures, with appropriate landscape settings.
Thus a work involving $14,000,000 for public purposes is
being done according to a carefully worked out plan, and
besides this, the railways are joining in the plan work for
an expenditure of from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 for stations
and appurtenances.
BOSTON has developed the most extensive park system
in America, at a cost of $33,000,000, and is creating on the
Charles River a tidal basin which bids fair to rival any
similar work in Europe. A state commission is working on
a means of relieving congestion in Boston.
NEW YORK is busy with many improvements.
BALTIMORE is using the opportunity presented by
a great fire to straighten her streets.
ST. LOUIS is struggling on a city plan involving the
grouping of her municipal buildings and the creation of an
outer and inner park system.
SAN FRANCISCO'S rebuilding after the earthquake
and fire of 1906 has been after a plan seeking to promote
convenience and good order.
PHILADELPHIA is cutting a great parkway from
Logan Square to Fairmount Park and planning the group-
ing of her public buildings.
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL are joining in a
great work of civic improvement and the creation of park-
ways.
84
MANILA — Even in the far away Philippines the
American city-planning activity is exerting itself in open-
ing up Manila to new conditions and in looking to creating
a new Washington on the hills of Baguio, where a new
summer capital is planned.
CHICAGO — In this great forward urge for orderly
development of American cities, therefore, it is not to be
expected that Chicago, with her proud record of achieve-
ment, will stand still in the presence T)f her opportunities.
The movement for better civic conditions is on throughout
the world. The stirrings of the new impulse will not die
out without accomplishment of the possibilities that lie be-
fore Chicago. The history of cities, both ancient and mod-
ern, has taught Chicago that its way to continued greatness
and increased prosperity lies in making the city convenient
and healthful for the ever-increasing numbers of its cit-
izens.
Chicago has learned that the orderly arrangement of
fine buildings and monuments brings wealth and fame to
the city. Chicago's problem then has become that of mak-
ing the best use of its central location and its resources
which have already served to draw together millions of
people, and are clearly destined, inasmuch as forty million
Americans now live within twenty hours of Chicago, to
make the city America's greatest center of trade and res-
idence. Chicago's greatest duty is to plan now for that
present development which promotes present content and
insures permanence to its future.
All social and charity workers, all philanthropists, all
those who extend a helping hand to the unfortunate ones to
elevate the downtrodden and to bring a ray of sunshine into
the homes of those whose lives are dark and dreary should
fall in line behind this plan and assist, in every way pos-
sible, to crystallize in its favor a public opinion so strong as
to force the authorities to act. For the following reasons:
First: The Chicago Plan is basic and is an indispen-
sable permanent foundation for an orderly arrangement of
85
the future growth of our city along lines dictated by the
natural conditions surrounding us.
Second : A scientifically and carefully worked out Plan
should not be changed in its essentials. It is obvious, that
hygienic measures must keep pace with advanced knowl-
edge resulting from scientific research, and upon this foun-
dation then we can build further by the adoption of such
hygienic and philanthropic measures as our changing con-
ditions may demand, from time to time, and as scientific re-
search along these lines and our constantly advancing knowl-
edge of human nature and human needs may prescribe.
Third: It is a plan for the whole people and partic-
ularly for those who cannot afford to go elsewhere in search
of recreation.
Fourth: It will reclaim for the people the shores of
our beautiful Lake Michigan, will give them more con-
venient and more direct transportation and will, in short,
make our city more healthful, more comfortable and more
attractive.
Fifth: This Plan concerns itself with the re-arrange-
ment of streets, arteries of traffic, where that is demanded
by intolerable conditions of congestion or inconvenience,
all important, because congested districts are the hotbeds
of vice, sickness and misery.
Sixth : It lays down, along proper lines, a Plan for the
growth of the city, its park areas, small parks, playgrounds,
bathing beaches, recreation piers and boulevards.
Seventh: The Chicago Plan Commission believes, as
do all advanced social and charity workers, that the inau-
guration of hygienic measure or measures for the ameliora-
tion of living conditions of our people, should be left to
experts for study and recommendation and to the proper
authorities for execution.
Eighth: The Commission also believes that such meri-
torious questions as the proper regulation of tenements and
housing of the poor are, in themselves, important enough
86
to demand special consideration as separate and distinct
measures and that the adoption of a plan for the City of Chi-
cago, as outlined, will in no way conflict with such worthy
and necessary measures of relief. On the contrary the ex-
ecution of the Plan will mean more and better air, better
light and more breathing places and places of recreation,
all of which are so conducive to better health, better physical
development and a higher tone of morals, to the teeming
masses now congregated within the limits of Chicago.
MANAGING DIRECTOR.
87
Original Promoters of the Plan of Chicago
Merchants Club Committee
1906 - 1907
CHARLES D. NORTON, Chairman; CHARLES H. WACKEH, Vice-Chairman;
DAVID R. FORGAN, Treasurer; WALTER H. WILSON, Chairman Finance Com-
mittee; EDWARD B. BUTLER, FREDERIC A. DELANO; DANIEL H. BURNHAM,
Architect.
Commercial Club Plan Committees
1907 - 1908
CHARLES D. NORTON, Chairman; CHARLES H. WACKER, Vice-Chair man;
FREDERIC A. DELANO, Secretary; WALTER H. WILSON, Treasurer; ADOLPHUS
C. BARTLETT, EDWARD B. BUTLER, CLYDE M. CARR, JOHN V. FARWELL, JR., JOY
MORTON, CHARLES H. THORNE; DANIEL H. BURNHAM, Architect.
1908 - 1909
«
CHARLES D. NORTON, Chairman; CHARLES H. WACKER, Vice-Chairman;
FREDERIC A. DELANO, Secretary; WALTER H. WTILSON, Treasurer; ADOLPH%S
C. BARTLETT, EDWARD B. BUTLER, CLYDE M. CARR, JOHN V. FARWEIX, CHARLES
L. HUTCHINSON, ROLLIN A. KEYES, JOY MORTON, CHARLES H. THORNE; DANIEL
H. BURNHAM, Architect.
1909 - 1910
CHARLES H. WACKER, Chairman; JOHN V. FARWELL, V ice-Chairman;
FREDERIC A. DELANO, Secretary; WALTER H. WILSON, Treasurer; EDGAR A.
BANCROFT, ADOLPHUS C. BARTLETT, EDWARD B. BUTLER, CLYDE M. CARR, CHARLES
L. HUTCHINSON, JOY MORTON, THEODORE W. ROBINSON, CHARLES H. THORNE;
DANIEL H. BURNHAM, Architect.
EDWARD B. BUTLER, Chairman; JOHN W. SCOTT, Vice-Chairman; EMERSON
B. TUTTLE, Secretary ; CHARLES G. DA WES, HAROLD F. McCoRMicK, CHARLES H.
HULBURD; DANIEL H. BURNHAM, Architect.
1910 - 1911
EDWARD B. BUTLER, Chairman; JOHN W. SCOTT, V ice-Chairman; EMERSON
B. TUTTLE, Secretary; WALTER H. WILSON, Treasurer; CHARLES G. DA WES,
CHARLES H. HULBURD, A. A. MCCORMICK, HAROLD F. MCCORMICK, JULIUS
ROSENWALD; DANIEL H. BURNHAM, Architect.
88
The Chicago Plan Commission
ROSTER OF MEMBERS
AHEBN, THOS. J. ALD.,
214 S. Kedzie Av.
AHLSWEDE, ED.
2500 W. North Av.
AMBERG, WALTER ARNOLD,
513, 9 S. La Salle St.
ARMOUR, J. OGDEN
137 S. La Salle St.
ARMSTRONG, F. H.
Reid, Murdoch & Co.
AUSTRIAN, ALFRED S.
76 W. Monroe St.
BAMBAS, JAMES F.
2311 S. Trumbull Av.
BANCROFT, EDGAR A.
134 S. La Salle St.
BARDONSKI, V.
1256 Noble St.
BARTLETT, A. C.
State St. Bridge.
BARTZEN, PETER
Pres. Board of County Com-
missioners, County Bldg.
BASCH, JOSEPH.
Care Siegel, Cooper & Co.
BAUER, FRANK
1137 W. 14th PI.
BEIDLER, FRANCIS
72 W. Adams St.
BEIDLER, GEORGE
649 Washington Bl.
BEILFUSS, ALBERT W. ALD.,
778 Milwaukee Av.
BENNETT, FRANK I.
69 W. Washington St.
BERLIN, ROBERT C.
19 S. La Salle St.
BIGELOW, NELSON P.
309 Tacoma Bldg.
BILLINGS, DR. FRANK
335 E. 22d St.
BINYON, LEWIS D.
304 Chamber of Commerce
Bldg.
BLOCK, EUGENE ALD.,
9311 Evans Av.
BOEHM, JOHN J.
1901 S. Halsted St.
BOND, WILLIAM A.
25 N. Dearborn St.
BOWEN, JOSEPH T.
1430 Astor St.
BRADLEY, JOHN J.
4709 Halsted St.
BRADY, C. G.
642 Belden Av.
BRENNAN, JOHN J. ALD.,
Room 4. 716 W. Madison St.
BRITTEN, FRED A. ALD.,
1010 Hartford Bldg.
BROOKS, ROBERT E. L.
9904 Ewing Av.
BROWN, EVERETT C.
57-59 Exchange Bldg.
BROWN, WM. L.
1740 Coml. Natl. Bank Bldg.
BUDINGER, JOHN
2449 Wentworth Av.
BUDLONG, JOSEPH J.
Care L. A. Budlong Co.
BURNHAM, D. H.
Railway Exchange Bldg.
BUTLER, EDWARD B.
Randolph Bridge.
CAMPBELL, DANIEL A.
Postmaster, 358 Federal
Bldg.
CAPITAIN, HENRY D. ALD.,
418 Chamber of Commerce
Bldg.
CARPENTER, BENJAMIN
182 W. South Water St.
CARR, CLYDE M.
16th and Rockwell Sts.
CARR, PATRICK J. ALD.,
3521 S. Western Av.
CARRY, EDWARD F.
419 Railway Exchange Bldg.
CERMAK, A. J. ALD.,
2532 S. Trumbull Av.
CERVENKA, JOHN A.
26th St. and Albany Av.
CHAMBERLIN, HENRY BARRETT
312 Record-Herald Bldg.
CHAP, IGNATIUS
555 W. 31st St.
CHRISTENSEN, E. C.
1105 W. Erie St.
CLARKSON, RALPH
410 S. Michigan Av.
CLETTENBERG, BERNARD F. ALD.,
15 S. La Salle St.
CLOIDT, FRANK X.
29 S. La Salle St.
CLOW, WILLIAM E.
Harrison and Franklin Sts.
COBE, IRA M.
69 W. Washington St.
COHEN, EDWARD
9206 Commercial Av.
COLLINS, M. J.
1027 Railway Exchange Bid.
CONOVER, CHARLES H.
State St. Bridge
CONNERY, J. T.
505 Old Colony Bldg.
CONROY, JOHN J.
5511 Center Av.
CONWAY, EDWIN S.
304 S. Wabash Av.
COONLEY, HENRY E.
82 W. Washington St.
COUGHLIN, JOHN J. ALD.,
17 N. La Salle St.
CRIMMINS, D. J. REV.
3210 Union Av.
CROWE, ALBERT J.
513 Chamber of Commerce.
CULLEBTON, EDWARD F. ALD.,
510 Keaper Block.
CUNEO, LAWRENCE
1350 La Salle Av.
DASSO, PAUL
222 N. State St.
DAVIS, ABEL
Court House.
DAWES, CHARLES G.
125 W. Monroe St.
DEFREES, JOSEPH H.
Hotel Windermere.
DELANO, FREDERIC A.
515 Western Union Bldg.
DERING, JACKSON K.
835 Old Colony Bldg.
DERPA, JOHN S. ALD.,
9050 Commercial Av.
DE STEFANO, G. S.
640 S. Clark St.
DIBELKA, JAMES B.
2022 S. 40th Av.
DIXON, GEORGE W.
425 S. 5th Av.
DONNELLEY, THOMAS E.
731 Plymouth Court
DOWNEY, JOSEPH
30 N. La Salle St.
DUNBAR, THOMAS
820 Pullman Bldg.
DUNNE, EDWARD F.
3127 Beacon St.
DWEN, ROBERT G.
3730 Ellis Av.
ECKIIART, BERNARD A.
1308-lb33 Carroll Av.
ECKIIART, JOHN W.
311 Carpenter St.
EGAN, DENNIS J. ALD.,
G54 W. 18th St.
ERICSON, JOHN E.
City Engineer,
City Hall.
EWEN, JOHN M.
525 Rookery Bldg.
FARLEY, EDWARD P.
1220 Michigan Av.
FARR, MARVIN A.
849 Marquette Bldg.
FARWELL, JOHN V.
102 S. Market St.
FIELD, E. C.
Republic Bldg.
FIELD, STANLEY
219 W. Adams St.
FINN, JOHN C.
94G4 Cottage Grove Av.
FINUCANE, THOMAS J.
2912 Loomis St.
FITZMORRIS, CHARLES C.
Private Secretary to the
Mayor, City Hall
FISHER, ALBERT J. ALD.,
219 W. 72nd St.
FISHER, WALTER L.
55-35 N. Dearborn St.
FOELL, CHARLES M. ALD.,
803 Straus Bldg.
FOREMAN, EDWIN G.
30 N. La Salle St.
FOREMAN, HENRY G.
President Board of South Park
Commissioners, 402-42 N.
Dearborn St.
FORGAN, DAVID R.
Care National City Bank.
FORGAN, JAMES B.
First National Bank.
FORSBERG, CHARLES J. ALD.,
4944 W. Huron St.
FOWLER, W. A.
343 S. Dearborn St.
FREEMAN, THEO.
527 Barry Av.
FREUND, Louis P.
1G56 Garfleld Bl.
GALLAGHER, THOMAS
921 W. Madison St.
GARIBALDI, JOHN G.
1 W. South Water St.
GEIGER, ELLIS, ALD.,
Ill E. Ohio St.
GETZ, GEO. F.
15(30 Old Colony Bldg.
GILLIAN, JOHN C. REV.
2542 Wallace St.
GLACKIN, EDWARD J.
618 S. Morgan St.
GLESSNER, J. J.
606 S. Michigan Av.
GOETZ, FRITZ
Clybourn Av. and Willow.
GORDON, FRANCIS REV.
1813 N. Wood St.
GRAHAM, ANDREW J.
661 W. Madison St.
GRAY, W. A.
430 Orleans St.
GRIESEMER, CHARLES J.
Care J. V. Farwell Co.,
102 S. Market St.
GRUND, CHARLES H.
3511 Archer Av.
GUNTHER, DR. FRANK E.
1801 35th St.
HAFER, HENRY
423 W. 24th St.
HAGEY, DR. HARRY H.
4500 Emerald Av.
HALL, RICHARD C.
500 S. Franklin St.
HARDING, GEORGE F. JR., ALD.,
164 W. Washington
HARPER, DR. W. E.
3441 Michigan Av.
HARRISON, HON. CARTER H.
607 Rush St.
HARTKE, EMIL A.
301 W. 47th St.
HAUGAN, HENRY A.
State Bank of Chicago.
HEBEL, OSCAB
1102 Schiller Bldg.
90
HECHINGER, C. E.
1106 Frank St.
HEISER, A. C.
3535 Archer Av.
HERLIHY, DANIEL
2743 N. Albany Av.
HERTZ, HENRY L.
426 Federal Bldg.
HILL, FREDERICK A.
5640 W. Lake St., Austin Sta.
HILL, JOHN W.
1463 Monadnock Blk.
HINES, EDWARD
2431 S. Lincoln St.
HOLABIRD, WILLIAM
1618 Monadnock Blk.
HOLMES, MARSHALL F.
620 W stern Union Bldg.
HOLSLAG, EDWARD J.
1420 Michigan Av.
HOOKER, GEORGE E.
City Club, 218 S. Clark St.
HOPKINS, TOHN P.
20 W. Jackson Bl.
HOTTINGEK, OTTO G.
801 Milwaukee Av.
HRODEJ, Jos. T.
1352 S. 40th Av.
HULBURD, CHARLES H.
10 S. Wabash Av.
HULTIN, N. H.
317 N. Clark St.
HUNTER, THOS. M.
City Hall
HUTCHINSON, CHARLES L.,
Corn Exchange Nat. Bank.
HYLDAHL, JENS N. ALD.,
2448 North Monticello Av.
JACKSON, GEORGE W.
754 Jackson Bl.
JANISZESKI, FRANK H.
179 W. Washington St.
JARECKI, EDMUND K. ALD.,
1956 Armitage Av.
JOHNSON, GEORGE E. Q.
89 W. Randolph St.
JOHNSON, NELS
4401 W. North Av.
JUDD, EDWARD S.
42 N. Dearborn St.
KASPAR, WILLIAM
1900 Blue Island Av.
KEARNS, JAMES A. ALD.,
5510 Lafayette Av.
KELLY, ED. A., REV.
5521 Wentworth Av.
KERFOOT, W. D.
54 W. Washington St.
KEYES, ROLLIN A.
194 N. Wabash Av.
KING, JOHN A.
215 S. 5th Av.
KLEIN, L.
Halsted and 14th Sts.
KOCH, FRANK J.
2603 S. Halsted St,
KOHLBECK, VAL., REV. O. S. B.
1637 Allport St.
KOHN, W. C., REV.
3650 Honore St.
KOLACEK, WILLIAM
President West Park Board,
1812 Blue Island Av.
KOWALEWSKI, B. F.
1259 W. 51st St.
KRABOL, O. O.
1740 N. Maplewood Av.
KRUEGER, WILLIAM F.
2176 Canalport Av.
KRULEWITCH, ERNEST
740 Maxwell St.
KRUMHOLZ, AUGUST ALD.,
1662 Fullerton Av.
KRUSE, FRED
1523 Fullerton Av.
KUNDE, ERNEST
3324 W. 22d St.
LA MARRE, JOSEPH V., REV.
3836 S. California Av.
LATHROP, BRYAN
407 S. Dearborn St.
LAUB, ALBERT
2839 Union Av.
LAWLEY, JAMES H. ALD.,
1925 W. Chicago Av.
LEGNER, WM. G.
916 N. Paulina St.
LEININGER, DR, GEO.
1856 W. North Av.
LE TOURNEUX, EDWARD D.
New Era Bldg., Suite 315.
LINCOLN, ROBERT T.
Pullman Bldg.
LIPPS, W. F. ALD.,
2180 Wilson Av.
LITTLER, H. E. ALD.,
2505 N. Washtenaw Av.
LITZINGER, EDWARD R.
316 Ashland Blk.
LONG, THEODORE K. ALD.,
4823 Kimbark Av.
LURYA, ISAAC
755 Old Colony Bldg.
LYNCH, JOHN A.
Care Nat. Bank of the Re-
public.
MAcCiiESNEY, NATHAN WILLIAM
30 N. La Salle St.
MACVEAGH, FRANKLIN
Treasury Department, Wash-
ington, D. C.
MAMEK, GEO.
1724 Centre Av.
MAMER, CHRISTOPHER
501 Throop St.
MANG, ALBERT G.
125 W. Monroe St.
MARK, CLAYTON
2610 W. 25th PI.
MARSON, Jos. C.
916 Milwaukee Av.
MAXWELL, DAVID G.
21st and Loomis Sts.
MAYER, LEVY
• 76 W. Monroe St.
MAYPOLE, WM. T.
2236 Washington Bl.
McCoRMiCK, HAROLD F.
606 S. Michigan Av.
MCFATBICH, DR. J. B.
President Board of Educa-
tion, 153 N. Michigan Av.
MCGANN, LAWRENCE E.
Commissioner of Public
Works, City Hall
MclNERNEY, MICHAEL ALD.,
4541 Lowe Av.
MCLAUGHLIN, JOHN J.
9 S. La Salle St.
MITCHELL, JNO. J.
Illinois Trust & Savings
Bank.
MOODY, WALTER D.
Room 314, Hotel La Salle
MORAND, PAUL J.
818 S. May St.
MORTON, JOY
717 Railway Exchange Bldg.
MUELHOEFER, EDWARD
1325 Clybourn Av.
MTTELLER, MAT* A. ALD.,
5017 S. Wood St.
MUGLER, GEO. A.
Union Park.
NANCE, WILLIS O. ALD.,
5213 Hibbard Av.
NERING, JOHN
324 S. La Salle St.
NEWKIRK, CHAUNCEY F.
4313 N. Hermitage Av.
NlEDEREGGER, EUGENE
1811 Hammond St.
NIETERINK, HENRY
1835 W. 12th St. Bl.
NIMMONS, GEO. C.
1733 Marquette Bldg.
NORTON, CHARLES D.
First National Bank, 2 Wall
St., New York, N. Y.
O'BRIEN, PETER J.
314, 9 S. La Salle St.
OCHSNER, A. J., DR.
2106 Sedgwick St.
OEHMEN, JOHN S.
2247 Wentworth Av.
OSBORN, GRANT C.
448 Marquette Bldg.
OSTROWSKY, HENRY
1253 S. Halsted St.
OTT, HERMAN A.
3839 Milwaukee Av.
OTTENHEIMER, HENRY L.
105 W. Monroe St.
PAGE, WALTER
1603 Fisher Bldg.
PALMER, HONORE
1300 First National Bank
Bldg.
PALT, FRANK J.
3205 S. Morgan St.
PATTISON, JAMES WILLIAM
Art Institute.
PEABODY, F. S.
76 W. Monroe St.
PELIKAN, D.
1910 S. Halsted St.
PENDARVIS, ROBERT E.
58 Borden Blk.
PETERSON, WM. A.
1032, 30 N. La Salle St.
PETRU, FRANK J.
1441 W. 18th St.
PETTIBONE, AMOS
27-33 N. Desplaines St.
PFEIFFER, GEORGE L.
2345 W. 12th St.
PHELPS, CHARLES A.
1311 Hartford Bldg.
PLAMONDON, CHARLES A.
12-24 N. Clinton St.
PORTER, GEORGE F.
1730 Tribune Bldg.
POTTER, EDWIN A.
4832 Madison Av.
POWERS, JOHN ALD.,
21 N. Clark St.
PRETORIUS, HERMAN
3264-66 Lincoln Av.
PRIESS, ABRAHAM
1201-05 W. Taylor St.
RAWSON, F. H.
Union Trust Co.
REHM, WILLIAM H.
1900 W. 18th St.
REINBERG, PETER ALD.,
30 E. Randolph St.
REYNOLDS, GEO. M.
Continental National Bank.
REVELL, ALEXANDER H.
Wabash and Adams St.
RICHERT, JOHN A. ALD.,
2603 S. Halsted St.
RINBERG, FRANZ
507 Throop St.
ROBINSON, THEODORE W.
1524, 72 W. Adams St.
ROSENWALD, JULIUS
Care Sears, Roebuck & Co.
ROULSTON, ROBERT J.
President Library Board, 229 N.
State St.
ROUSSEAU, NECTAR, SR.
1228 Oregon Av.
RYAN, WM F. ALD.
504 Sherman St.
RYERSON, MARTIN A.
134 S. La Salle St.
SCHAFFNER, JOSEPH
Monroe and Franklin Sts.
SCHIAVONE, P.
Halsted and Taylor Sts.
SCHILLING, GEO. A.
President Board of Local Im-
provements, City Hall.
SCOTT, JOHN W.
300 W. Adams St.
SEIPP, W. C.
179 W. Washington St.
SEXTON, WILLIAM H.
Corporation Counsel, City
Hall
SHANAHAN, DAVID E.
115 S. Dearborn St.
SHANAHAN, D. S.
222 W. Madison St.
SIIEDD, JOHN G.
219 W. Adams St.
SHEPARD, FRANK L.
108 S. La Salle St.
SIEWERT, HENRY J.
3865 Milwaukee Av.
92
SIMMONS, FRANCIS T.
President Lincoln Park Board
327 W. Adams St.
SIMON, ROBERT M.
4136 Perry St.
SIMPSON, JAMES
219 W. Adams St.
SKALA, FRANK J.
96G-970 W. 18th St.
SKINNER, EDWARD M.
528 S. 5th Av.
SMITH, DEXTER A., M. D.
3850 N. 42d Av.
SMULSKI, JOHN F.
1154 Milwaukee Av.
.SMYTH, THOMAS A.
President Sanitary District,
1500 American Trust Bldg
SNOW, BERNARD W. ALD.,
1209 People's Gas Bldg.
SPETZ, ANDREW, REV.
1351 Ingraham St.
SPHAGUE, ALBERT A.
Care Sprague, Warner & Co.
SPROUL, ELLIOTT W.
203 S. Dearborn St.
STAVER, HARRY B.
76th and Wallace Sts.
STEWART, JOHN P. ALD.,
105 W. Adams St.
STILLWELL, HOMER A.
Randolph Bridge.
STROBEL, CHARLES L.
1744 Monadnock Bldg.
STROM, A. A.
725 Marquette Bldg.
STROOK, CHAS. L.
212 W. 24th PI.
STUBE, JOHN H.
Burr School.
STUCKART, HENRY
2519 Archer Av.
SULLIVAN, ROGER C.
r 25 N. Dearborn St.
SULTAN, GEORGE, DR.
1314 Halsted St.
SUNNY, BERNARD E.
230 W. Washington St.
SWAN, CHAS. F., M. D.
9139 Commercial Av.
SWIFT, EDWARD F.
Union Stock Yards.
SWIFT, GEO. B.
Security Bldg.
SZYMANSKI, WALENTY
1907 Blue Island Av.
TANANEVICZ, JOHN M.
3244 S. Morgan St.
TAYLOR, GRAHAM
955 Grand Av.
TEARNEY, ALBERT R. ALD.,
39 W. Adams St.
TEICH, MAX L.
328 S. Clark St.
TENINGA, HERMAN
11227 Michigan Av.
THEURER, JOSEPH
Canalport Av. and 18th St.
THOMPSON, JOHN R.
186 N. State St.
THORNE, CHARLES H.
Care Montgomery Ward &
Co.
TINSMAN, HOMER E.
118 N. La Salle St.
TITTLE, FRANK J.
1133 S. Jefferson St.
TOBIN, T. M.
9332 South Chicago Av.
UIHLEIN, EDWARD G.
Ohio and Union Sts.
UMBACII, FRANK L.
3418 Wallace St.
UPIIAM, FRED W.
1700, 7(i W. 'Monroe St.
VAVRICEK, FRANK J. ALD.,
1720 Loom is St.
VOPICKA, CHARLES J.
2107 Blue Island Av.
WACKER, CHARLES H.
134 S. La Salle St.
WALKOWIAK, S. S. ALD.,
803 Straus Bldg.
WASHBURN, EDWARD A.
4143 Elston Av.
WASHBURNE, HEMPSTEAD
79 W. Monroe St.
WASHINGTON, IRVING
4445 Perry St.
HARVEY T. WEEKS,
30 N. La Salle St.
WETTEN, EMIL C.
800, 108 S. La Salle St.
WHEELER, HARRY A.
Union Trust Co., Tribune
Bldg.
WlEBOLDT, W. A.
639 Deming PI.
WILDER JOHN E.
228 W. Lake St.
WILLIAMS, J. F., DR.
311 Centre St.
WILLIAMS, THOMAS
3940 N. Francisco Av.
WILSON, BENJAMIN S.
1012, 160 W. Jackson Bl.
WiLsdN, FRANK J. ALD.,
54-56 W. Indiana St.
WILSON, JOHN P.
1605 Marquette Bldg.
WILSON, WALTER H.
520 The Rookery.
WOLLNER, RUDOLPH H.
437, 30 N. La Salle St.
WOOD, WILLIAM G.
3620 W. Irving Park Av.
WOOLLEY, C. F.
2937 Archer Av.
YOUNG, E. C.
9215 Pleasant Av.
YOUNG, DR. GEORGE B.
Health Commissioner, City
Hall.
ZANDER, HENRY G.
143 N. Dearborn St.
ZIMMER, MICHAEL
2256 W. 21st PI.
93
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