Blog

By Maurice Champagne, Docent Class of 2004

Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago called for changes in six major areas. Some were achieved almost completely (the development of Lake Shore Drive and the open lake front) while others (the expansion of Michigan Avenue over the river and the development of the civic center) were implemented only in part. Interestingly, the goal for what Burnham called the “Heart of the City” was achieved without explicitly following his Plan. The Plan of Chicago included extensive developments in transportation: new railroad terminals, new lake docks for shipping, new diagonal streets and the widening of others.

One mostly completed goal is “The improvement of railway terminals, and the development of a complete traction system for freight and passengers.” Daniel Burnham planned for two railroad terminals to replace the many that existed in 1909. “The two best available locations for permanent passenger stations for all [rail]roads are, first, between Canal and Clinton streets from Lake to Twelfth Street and on Twelfth Street widened as proposed.” (1)

Realization: The result was the consolidation of RR terminals that includes railroad yards south of Twelfth Street, Union Station, and the Northwestern Station (now Ogilvie Transportation Center) as well as an enormous freight system west of I-294. Twelfth Street (renamed Roosevelt Road in 1919) was widened and the bridge opened in 1930. (2)

However, Union Station was developed a mile and a quarter north of Twelfth Street and along Canal Street, but it ran from Jackson to Adams Streets. South of Roosevelt Road is a large RR yard that facilitates the rail traffic into Union Station. And many railroad companies maintained their own terminals into the 1970s. “The time has come to develop one common system for handling of freight – a traffic clearing house.” (3) Burnham wanted no freight in the center of the city. On the Plan’s LXIX map is a large railroad yard for the transfer of shipping to local rail lines.

Today there is one freight yard between 65th and 73rd Streets between Harlem and Pulaski Avenues. That yard is smaller than the one drawn on the LXIX map, but its location is approximately where the map shows it to be.(4) Burnham proposed new lakeside docks, one a little north of the mouth of the Chicago River (Plate LXXI, though his design was not used) completed in 1916 as Municipal Pier (renamed Navy Pier in1926) and one at the mouth of the Calumet River. Neither dock designs were the ones proposed in the Plan. Burnham must have known the historic plans for the Calumet: “As early as 1836, U.S. Army Engineers had identified this as an area that could be developed as a harbor. In 1869, the federal government appropriated funds to begin harbor improvements in the region.”(5)  The 1869 plans did not begin to be implemented until 1906, and the pier sketched (Plate LXXII) never materialized.

“The Indiana Harbor Canal connecting the Grand Calumet with Lake Michigan at East Chicago was completed in 1906, and industries moved to its banks.” (6)  In 1921 the Illinois legislature authorized the development of the deep-water Port of Chicago. (7) Calumet Harbor was built in the outlet of the Calumet River rather than where Burnham envisioned it. Today the Illinois International Port District, created in 1959, regulates almost 900,000 tons (equal to 36,000 truck-loads) of commercial traffic at the Port of Chicago harbor at the mouth of the Calumet River. (8 and 9) The goal of improvement of transportation was achieved but at locations different from Burnham’s proposal.

Burnham’s goal of “systematic arrangement of the streets and avenues within the city, in order to facilitate the movement to and from the business district” involved the development of streets that radiated out from the new center of the city, i.e. from the proposed new civic center. We can trace this idea to Burnham’s love of Paris and his understanding of Baron Haussman’s street layout. (10) Archer Avenue, Blue Island Avenue, Ogden Avenue, Clybourn Avenue, Milwaukee Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, and Clark Street are angled streets that lead southwest and northwest. However, they predate the 1909 Plan; these streets follow old Native American trails and cow paths. Burnham wanted more than those existing streets. Plate XC shows Burnham’s plan for new diagonal streets.

Throughout Chapter VI, Burnham details the importance, the routes, and the locations of the new diagonal streets. (11) The diagram Plates XCVII, XCVIII, C and XCIX show what Burnham labels the “theoretical” circular radiating street patterns of Paris, Moscow, London and Berlin. (12) Many other plates (LXXXII, LXXXV, LXXXVI, LXXXIX, XCI and CX) demonstrate Burnham’s desire for (obsession with?) the development of additional diagonal streets. He argues, “Thus it happens that no rectilinear city is perfect without the diagonal streets; and conversely, having the rectilinear system, the creation of diagonals produces greater convenience.” (13) These new streets, radiating from his proposed city civic center at Halsted and Congress, were never constructed.

Partial Realization: About 120 miles of streets were widened in the 1920s. But the only new diagonal street was the extension of Ogden Avenue from Union Park into Old Town. (14) Yet without new radiating streets, Burnham’s goal was achieved by Edward Brennan’s street renumbering proposal.

In 1901 Brennan, the chairman of the City Club of Chicago’s Committee on Street Names, had a different idea “to facilitate the movement to and from the business district.” He advocated a street numbering system with State and Madison as the North/South axis and East/West axis and street names continuing even when interrupted by parks or buildings. (15) The City Council on June 22, 1908 adopted the Brennan proposal as an ordinance to take effect on Sept. 1, 1909.

Obviously, Burnham must have known about the City Council’s new street numbering ordinance. Discussions had started in 1901. There is no evidence to show that this new street numbering system was part of Burnham’s stated goal. He makes no mention of Brennan’s proposal in the Plan of Chicago. But the result of the adoption of the Brennan plan into a city ordinance was “to facilitate the movement to and from the business district.” Brennan’s plan for renumbering the addresses (8 blocks per mile), eliminating duplicate street names, and maintaining the street name along the same parallel achieved the “systematic arrangement of streets and avenues” of Burnham’s goal.

While Burnham’s goal was partially realized, but didn’t include diagonal streets radiating from a new civic center. Credit Burnham for identifying the goal; credit Brennan for creating the numbering system that achieved the goal. Half credit to each?

CLICK HERE to read Part 1.  CLICK HERE to read Part 2.

Resources:

[1] Daniel H. Burnham and Edward H. Bennett, Plan of Chicago, Commercial Club of Chicago, 2008, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1993, p. 50.

[1] https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=illinois/roosevelt/

[2] Plan of Chicago, p. 61.

[3] Plan of Chicago, pp. 64-65

[4] http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/300044.html

[5] http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/203.html

[6] https://www.waterwaysjournal.net/2018/03/05/things-looking-up-at-illinois-international-port-district/

[7] http://www.iipd.com/about/overview

[8] http://www.iipd.com/operations/industry-comparison

[9] Plan of Chicago, pp. 17-18.

[19] Plan of Chicago, pp. 79-97.

[11] Plan of Chicago, pp. 90-91.

[12] Plan of Chicago, p. 89.

[13] http://burnhamplan100.lib.uchicago.edu/files/content/documents/Plan_of_Chicago_booklet.pdf

[14] http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1205.html

[1] http://livinghistoryofillinois.com/pdf_files/Chicago%20Street%20Renumbering%201909.pdf