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Wacker’s manual o

f

the plan of Chicago.
Moody, Walter Dwight, 1874-1920.
[Chicago, Printed by Calumet publishing company] 1916.

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WACKER’S MANUAL
OF THE

PLAN OF CHICAGO

Municipal Economy

!
Especially Prepared for Study in the Schools of Chicago

Auspices of the

CHICAGO PLAN COMMISSION
HOTEL SHERMAN
CHICAGO

BY

WALT ER D . MO O DY
Managing Director, Chicago Plan Commission

SECOND EDITION

I 9 16

iii

70 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

CHAPTER XI

THE PLAN OF CHICAGO,
ITS PURPOSE AND
MEANING

The Plan of Chicago, to direct the future
growth of this city along proper lines, is
the greatest plan of any American city.

the past built according to a definite plan,
aimed to avoid the crowding of large

numbers of people into small areas. They

were planned for ease of movement o

f

merchandise and people from one part of
the city to another. We modern people,
owing to the advance in science during our
times, have still another aim. This is to
create and preserve conditions promoting

[….“*

CHICAGO. Plan of a Complete System of Street Circulation and System of Parks and Playgrounds,
Presenting the City as an Organism in which all the Functions are Related One to Another.

[Copyrighted by the Commercial Club.]

Modern people are realizingmore and more
each year that city planning is one of the
most important problems which our cities
must solve. This is true because the guid
ing of the physical growth of a city along
practical as well as beautiful lines is really

fundamental. City planning underlies all
commercial and social problems. Cities of tions.

public health. If a city is to continue to
exist, its people must be healthy and its
children robust.
Commercially, city planning has to do
with the regular arrangement of streets
within a city. Its aim is to save time and
effort in traffic between the various sec

Socially, city planning has to do

PURPOSE AND MEANING OF THE CHICAGO PLAN 71

with adequate provision for the public

health. This is gained through the best
location of parks and playgrounds and the
opening to light and air of crowded housing

districts. A proper city plan is the founda
tion for all social and commercial advance.

For people to continue healthy and happy,
they must have proper houses in which to
live. Adequate street facilities affect the
housing problem, as people must be able
to go quickly and easily to and from their
homes and places of business.
The Plan of Chicago solves our vital
problems of congestion, traffic and public

health. The completion of the plan will do
away with crowding in the city and its
streets and so promote the health and
happiness of all. Itwill make trafficmore
convenient and so make it easier and
cheaper to carry on business. Thus the
wealth of the city and its people will in
crease more rapidly than would otherwise
be possible. The plan will give Chicago

more and larger parks and playgrounds

and better and lighter streets. Hence the
whole people will be more healthy and
better able to carry on the work of our
great city.

All over the world today, cities are grow
ing as they never did before. Steam and
electric transportation have made it easy
to supply food for multitudes. Modern
manufacturing methods draw large num
bers of men together in cities to cheaply
produce clothing,machinery and the varied
supplies people need in their daily lives.
No country in the world has given rise
so rapidly to large cities as the United
States. At the beginning of the civil war,
only three per cent of the people of the
United States lived in cities. Forty-six per

cent of our people now live in large cities.
Twelve per cent live in the three cities of
New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Authorities, who have studied city
growth for years, tells us that thismove
ment of mankind towards cities has only

started. They say that it is sure to con
tinue with increasing force for many years
to come. At the same time other men of
science have devoted their lives to a study

of the effect of city life upon humanity.
They declare to us that the physical con
dition of city dwellers is rapidly declining

in comparison with that of those who live
in the country. Everyone realizes that
city life is more intense and nerve strain
ing than out-of-door country life. City
life saps the energy of men and makes
them less efficient. The remedy for this
lies in providing increased means of open
air recreation, better sanitation in city

houses and more light and air in city
Streets.

The Plan of Chicago provides for com
plying with this imperative demand. It
forms the foundation upon which proper

recreation facilities may be supplied at the
most essential locations. Sufficient park

area in a great city is the thing most
necessary next to a convenient and orderly

street arrangement. Unless Chicago solves

the problems outlined in the Plan of Chi
cago, it cannot continue to grow and the
people continue to be healthy, happy and
prosperous. As the only means to avoid
civic disaster due to haphazard growth, our
city has entered upon the big constructive
task of carrying out the Plan of Chicago.

This general plan, with its two hundred
miles of street improvements, it

s park and
playground sites and its magnificent de
velopment o

f

the shore

o
f

Lake Michigan,

is fundamentally hygenic and humani
tarian.

The Plan o
f Chicago provides for the

easy movement o
f traffic, by widening and

extending existing streets, by cutting new

72 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

ones and by properly connecting a
ll Inland, it proposes a vast system o
f good

thoroughfares. It proposes also parks and roads encircling and radiating from the
playgrounds in each section o

f

the city. It city. These would give convenient access
suggests a superb system o

f

waterfront between the city and the magnificent

parks, lagoons, driveways, harbors, and system o
f

outer parks o
r

forest preserves
pleasure piers along the shore o

f

Lake now being created just outside the city
Michigan. Thesewould extend twenty-one limits on all sides.
miles from the Indiana State Line of the Two other questions o

f large public im
south to Wilmette o

n

the north. It con- portance are closely allied to the work of

tains provision for the improvement o
f

the the Chicago Plan Commission. One is-
CHICAGO. view looking West over the City, Showing the Proposed Civic Center, the Grand Axis,

Grant Park and the Harbor. Copyrighted by the Commercial Club.]

banks o
f

the Chicago River. It provides the question of proper houses for the people
for adequate transportation facilities, in- living in the congested districts. The Chi
cluding the proper location o

f freight and cago Plan Commission felt that the ques
passenger terminals, and for the location tion o

f housing was o
f

such great im

o
f

the west side postoffice and other public portance to the city that it deserved the
buildings. The Plan o

f Chicago con- exclusive attention o
f
a special organiza

templates the creation o
f
a five-mile course tion. It therefore suggested the creation

for rowing regattas, a course for inter- o
f

the Chicago Housing Board, and two o
f

national motor-boar races along the city’s its officers are members o
f

the Board o
f

shore line between Grant and Jackson | Directors thereof.

Parks and many large new bathing beaches. The other question is that o
f dividing

PURPOSE AND MEANING OF THE CHICAGO PLAN 73

the city into districts. In one kind of
district only residences would be allowed, in
another only factories and industries, and
in a third only commerce and business.
This is known as “zoning” or “districting”

the city. The Chicago Plan Commission,
in June, 1916, after months of study and
research, started a thorough investigation

into the city’s legal right to establish
such districts. It is a co-incidence that
almost at the same time a similar and
independent movement was begun in the
City Council. If the city does not have
the right to establish these districts, such
right will have to be secured through an
act of the State Legislature. If it does
have the right, however, then the way will
be clear for making a comprehensive survey

of the entire city so that such districts may

be properly located. On October 9, 1916,
a sub-committee of the City Council Com
mittee on Judiciary and State Legislation
began the consideration of a comprehensive
report on the entire question of zoning, to
the end that an adequate bill might be
introduced in the State Legislature to grant

the city the proper rights and powers.

All of the difficulties in the way of
carrying out the Plan of Chicago have been
weighed carefully. In the opinion of the
ablest men who have studied them, none
are of sufficient importance to deter or
delay us. To realize the plan, then, be
comes a question of public desire. Whether
the people of Chicago will determine to
give the world an example of magnificent
public spirit and public work may be well
judged from the past.
Chicago was little more than a village

when the first tremendous task to try the
spirit and character of her citizenship was
brought forward. In the early 50’s it
became apparent that itwould be necessary
to raise the level of all the streets within

the old city in order to secure proper
drainage and protect the health of the
city. To do the work was a tremendous
task. There was little machinery for such
labor in the city, and none at all such as is
used today in engineering work. Yet the
people went to work with a will to raise
the streets and most of the buildings within
the city. Everybody in the city worked,
including the boys and girls. Soon the

task the city had set itself to do was
completed. That work, in its period, was
a much more serious undertaking for the
few thousand people who did it, than the
rearrangement of streets according to the
Plan of Chicago will be to a city ofmillions
of people with modern machinery at their
command.

In the early 60’s Chicago undertook to
acquire and improve a chain of parks and
public grounds surrounding the city on
three sides. This was when the idea of
creating large city parks was new. A plan
was adopted in which all the people had
an interest and in which the city looked to
everybody to do his share to advance the
work. We all know how well this plan,

undertaken by only a fraction of the num
ber of people now living in Chicago, be
came a reality. Parks were created which
have served the city well and sufficiently

until recent years, and it never was a
burden upon the people to pay for them.
Next, between 1880 and 1890, came the
problem of Chicago’s water supply and of
disposal of the city’s sewage. The people
again rallied together. Conceiving the idea
of digging a drainage canal, they energetic
ally set about that formidable duty. They

worked for years and spent $60,000,000

before they completed the civic feat which
gives us of today the splendid benefits of
the sanitary waterway.

The joy of Chicago’speople in doing vast

74 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

public workswas not abated in the drainage celebration of the 400th anniversary of
canal construction. Before that big work America’s discovery by Columbus was a
was completed, in fact, the people entered thrilling civic feat. Nothing like it had ever
upon another
enter p r is e
which g ave
the i r c i t y
worldwide fame
—the World’s
Columbian Ex
position, out of
which came the
idea of the Plan

of Chicago. The
people joined
hands through
a committee of
citizens. In a
short time$20,
000,000 W as
raised to spend
– – – –

CHICAGO. Clark Street in 1857, showing street level being111buildings and
raised. [Original Owned by Chicago Historical Society.]

grounds. The
before been
given thought

as possible in
any city.
These four
tasks are the
principal ones
up on which
Chicago’s fame
as a city of
great public
spirit a n d
loyalty of citi
Zen ship has
been founded.
Thus, through
out the entire

Chicago Drainage Canal. history of the
city has been

raising of that huge sum ofmoney for the proven the readiness of the people of
purpose of a public entertainment in Chicago to take up large plans for public

PURPOSE AND MEANING OF THE CHICAGO PLAN 75

improvements. Thus has been proven the
faith of all the people of Chicago in their
city’s future and power. Truly Chicago’s
history is such as to indicate that its
people will not let slip an opportunity to
achieve such necessary improvements and
greatness for their city as lies within the
Plan of Chicago.

The crowning necessity for the adoption

of the Plan of Chicago by the city is
shown in the fact that in the twenty-five
years between 1880 and 1905 the people
of Chicago expended $225,000.000 for ex
traordinary public improvements with
nothing to show for this vast sum but a city
grown by chance and without order. Tur
ing that time the people of Chicago
actually spent for improvements but $35,
000,000 less than the city of Paris expended
upon its plan for the rebuilding of the
entire city which has made it the most
beautiful and attractive city in the world.
A still stronger reason than comes to
us from our history indicates that the Plan
of Chicago will be the next public enter
prise which the citizens will undertake.
That reason is the growing love of good
order, due to advance in education. We

all know that we would not allow today
in our cities such conditions as we are told

were usual in the days of our fathers. We
may well believe, then, that the people of
the future will not tolerate such conditions
as surround us today.

We are learning new lessons in municipal
economy, in hygiene, and in city govern
ment. We are learning that means and
methods of time, labor and health saving

are valuable to a city. We are learning

that attractive surroundings encourage
good morals. We are learning more and
more every day the things that are neces
sary to promote good conditions within
our city. We are every day making

greater and greater demands upon the
city, and we realize that our responsi
bilities and duties as citizens grow greater

and greater every day.
Nearly two hundred American cities
today are engaged upon some feature of
city planning effort. Credit, however, be
longs to Chicago for having the first com
plete plan for an entire city. For the
accomplishment of its plan Chicago has
a citizenship which has never shrunk from
big tasks for the common good. Chicago’s
people, awake and alive to their oppor
tunities, are preparing for Chicago’s des
tiny. They are marching forward,

shoulder to shoulder, toward the prosperity

that unquestionably will come to the city
through the development of the Plan of
Chicago. –

1. What are the purposes of city planning?
Why are the populations of cities
growing so rapidly, and what percent

of our people now live in cities?
State briefly in your own words what the
Plan of Chicago provides for the city.

What was the big public task under
taken by the citizens of Chicago in
the early 50’s?

What task did they accomplish in the
early 60’s, and how do the children

of today benefit from it?
. How did the people of Chicago solve our
problem of water supply and sewage
disposal?

• .

What great civic feat was accomplished

by our fathers and mothers between
1880-90?

Why will the Plan of Chicago probably

be the next public work undertaken
by the people of Chicago?
Why may we be sure that our citizens
will accomplish the beneficial improve
ments suggested in the Plan of
Chicago?

REALIZING THE PLAN OF CHICAGO 123

CHAPTER XVIII. citizens who are proud
of Chicago and

anxious to see their home city grow in- power, importance and good order.
REALIZING THE PLAN We have seen, though, that in the earnest

desire to make the future Chicago the
OF CHICAGO ideal great city of the world, some of the

most far-sighted and able citizens of our
There have been presented in the previ- city have labored together for a long

our chapters only some of the larger and time, and as a result of their labor we
more important facts bearing upon the have been given the Plan of Chicago. The

CHICAGO. Suggested improvement of Michigan Avenue, view looking North from a Point East of the
Public Library. [Copyrighted by the Commercial Club.]

Plan of Chicago. No idea can be given men interested in the production of this
in this volume of the immense amount of plan do not say it is perfect in every de
study and labor involved in producing the tail. They believe, however, it is as near
plan, and of the infinite pains and pa- perfection as architectural skill makes
tience required to work out all the details | possible, considering the physical condi
and fit them together perfectly. No idea, tions within the city. They are giving us
either, can be given in a sketch of the plan this design for a future city in confident
so brief as this one, of the amounts of belief that it points the way for us to very
money and the many days and hours of greatly improve our magnificent Chicago.

time devoted to the Plan of Chicago by | When it is worked out in any of its details,

124 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

they say, we will have a better and more
convenient city, and when it is completed
in all its details Chicago will stand alone
among all the world’s great cities in pub
lic health, good order, attractiveness and
civic economy.

The men who have produced and given

to us the Plan of Chicago have not done
their work blindly. They realized, when
they undertook their task, that Chicagowas
a city of great accomplishments. They

knew that the plan, when completed, was

|

CHICAGO. Twelfth Street.

to be given into the care of a people who
never have failed or faltered in their

devotion to their city. They knew
that no task, however great, has ever
proven too great a task for the people of
Chicago to undertake, and that when
Chicago’s men and women start out to do
anything nothing can keep them from
SU1(*GeSS.

It is realized, in giving the people of
Chicago this plan for a complete, beautiful
and unified city, that they are being asked

to carry out a great work, and one which
will occupy them for many years.

It is probable that in carrying out the
plan some changes will have to be made
in our laws. It is clear that we can have
these changes whenever the people desire

them. One of these changes that might be
desirable is to have a law passed by

which the city could take over from the
owners all the property along a street,

widen the street as much as necessary, and
then resell the remaining property. Where

Typical scene of building removal for the 42 foot widening, 1916.

ever streets have been widened in Chicago

it has been found that land values upon
them have increased immediately in sums
large enough to more than repay the cost
of widening. If the city had been the
owner and could have secured the profits
resulting from the increase, the widening

would not only have cost nothing, but
would have been a source of profit. Under
the law as it is today the city can take over
for purposes of improvement only such
property as is actually needed for the im

REALIZING THE PLAN OF CHICAGO 125

provement. Usually such property is se
cured only at high cost.
All of the difficulties in the way of car
rying out the Plan of Chicago have been
weighed carefully, and none of them are
of sufficient consequence, in the opinion of
the ablest men who have studied them, to
deter or delay us. To realize theplan then,
becomes a question of public desire, and
whether the people of Chicago will deter
mine to give the world an example ofmag
nificent public spirit and public work may

well be judged from the past. Throughout

the entire history of the city there has been
proven the readiness of the people of Chi
cago to take up large plans for public im
provements. Truly Chicago’s history is
such as to demonstrate that its people

will not let slip such an opportunity to
achieve such necessary improvements and
greatness for their city as lies within the
Plan of Chicago.

In crystalizing in our minds the various
aims of the Plan of Chicago, to decide for
ourselves, perhaps, what feature is the
most necessary to begin upon at once, we
naturally conclude there are four main ele–
ments in the plan. These are:
1. The systematic arrangement of the
streets and avenues within the city in or
der to save time and effort in the move
ment of people and merchandise between
the various parts of the city. This in
cludes the cutting of new streets where
necessary in and through the congested
parts of the city. It includes the widening
of many streets to care for increased traf
fic, to add to the city’s attractiveness and
to conserve our greatest asset—the health
of the people.

2. The centralization and improvement
of our railway terminals, the perfection of
harbors, and the creation of a proper sys
tem of transportation. This includes the

CHICAGO: Twelfth Street. Removing old buildings for the 42-foot widening, 1916.

126 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

building of a general dock system near
the mouth of Chicago river, and a coal and
grain dock system on the lake at South
Chicago, with a warehousing and freight

center for all through merchandise at a
point southwest of Chicago, the whole
connected by belt railways.

3. The acquirement and development of
an extended park system to supply the
needs of the city for all time to come. This
includes the building of islands along the
lake front, providing an enclosed lagoon
skirting the entire city shore; the secur
ing of a park a mile or more square upon
each of the three

sides of the city,
and their con
nection by a
majestic bow
shaped boule
vard and the ||
purchase of ex
tensive wood
lands lying in a
broad belt in
the suburban
territory, to be
held forever as
places forpicnics
and recreation of city dwellers.
4. The development of a civic center
so located as to give coherence and unity

to the city. This includes the securing of a
large area at West Congress and South
Halsted streets, at the convergence of
numerous new diagonal streets, and the
holding of this tract near the city’s geo
graphical center for gradual improvement.

In reporting the street plan the archi
tects of the Plan of Chicago admitted that
it involves a very considerable amount of
money. It was added in their report that
it will be found in Chicago, as in other
cities, that the opening of new thorough

CHICAGO: Canal Street. Old Union Station at Adams Street.
[Copyrighted by Chicago Plan Commission]

fares, although meaning a large expense to
initiate the work, creates a large increase
in values. This is due to increase in con
venience and the creation of large num
bers of new and very valuable building

sites adjoining the new streets. The cost
will amount to many millions of dollars,
but the result will be a continuous benefit
for all dwellers in Chicago.

The suggestions of the Plan of Chicago

in regard to the railroads and the har
bors are many and serious. The aim is to
produce results beneficial to all interests
—the manufacturers and shippers who

patronize the
railroads by im
proving service;
the railroads
themselves by
making their
service to the
public more ef
fe c tiv e a n d
therefore more
largely patroniz
ed. Over all
considerations,
however, is that

– of economy in
the handling of freight at Chicago as a
shipping center. The methods of the plan

will give to the manufacturers and shippers
all the advantages which naturally should
be theirs, and so mean constant operation

of factories and employment of the people.

The commercial prosperity of the com
munity is represented by the cost per ton of
handling freight into andout of the Chicago
territory. General changes in railroad con
ditions take years to accomplish, but the
public will not be compelled to pay for the
changes suggested in the plan. They will
be railroad enterprises, undertaken by the
railroads and carried out by the railroads.

REALIZING THE PLAN OF CHICAGO 127

As to the park plans, it is imperative
that extensive additions be made to our
public recreation grounds. The location
and arrangement of the parks and park
ways of Chicago today are entirely inade
quate to the future of the city. Fifty years
ago, before the population of the city was
large and densely crowded together, peo
ple could live in comfort and good order
without public parks, because of the ex
istence of large open spaces. We of today

can not do without parks. They are a vital

ing it five feet above the surface of water
fifteen feet deep. The park authorities,
then, would have only to furnish breakwa
ters and finish off the ground. The dirt to
be removed in the construction of subways

in the city, when that work is undertaken,

will go far to help redeem the lake front.
The creation there of an extremely beau
tiful and useful public recreation ground

will involve very little public expense.

The extensive woodlands proposed as
forests for the people, make an additional

CHICAGO. Canal Street. New Union Station at Jackson Boulevard, replacing the
old station at Adams Street.

necessity to the city. We regard the pro
motion of robust health of body and mind
as necessary to good citizenship, which is,

after all, the prime object of good city
planning.

The lake front improvement from Wil
mette to the Indiana line is an economic
necessity. We have noted before the enor
mous amount of waste material seeking
dumping ground on the lake shore because
it is the cheapest place to deposit it

. En
gineers say this material is sufficient to fill

in one hundred acres o
f

land per year, rais

park feature not usually designed for cit
ies in America, but almost invariably used

in Europe. The cost o
f

these wooded sites
will be considerable, and itmust be borne
by the public, but the people will gain from
the fifty thousand acres o

f forests, in

health and recreation, much more return
than money invested in any other security
so safe as that land could earn them.

These outer parks can be acquired and im
proved within ten years, and if the cost

is distributed over that period it will not
prove burdensome. The health and joy o

f

128 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

living of all the people will be increased,

and incidentally the value of all real estate
within and around the city will be in
creased.

The interurban highway system to link
the outer parks together can be realized
very cheaply. Ninety-five per cent of the
roads exist now. The remaining five per
cent can be acquired at small cost, which
will be widely distributed through many
townships, and will serve to connect and
complete the system. The cost of concrete
roadways and

its establishment can be created. Values

at that point are reasonable, but are sure
to advance. If the city were to take the
land today it could be cleared of buildings
and treated as park space for a time, and
the various buildings in the plan could be
erected as they are found necessary, all
being put up in accordance with a plan
adopted at the start. To adopt such a
scheme of purchase would save a very
large sum in the purchase of public build
ing sites in future, and also give stability

to real estate
tree planting to
provide shade
for travelers
upon them will
be only inciden
tal.
The WeSt
Side park has
already been
established. To
acquire the land
for the park
necessary for
the South Side
is a matter of
comparatively
small expense
now. The land

selected is almost entirely vacant, stretch
ing for hundreds of acres as farms and
truck gardens. The North Side tract
would prove much more costly. Since the
plan was drawnmuch of the territory pro
posed for the park in question has been cut
up into lots, and numerous substantial
buildings have been erected. The cost,
however, would not be prohibitive, even
if the park work there is to be delayed for
ten or twenty years.

The land necessary for the civic center
should be secured as soon as sentiment for

[Copyrig

|NOls’– *:

CHICAGO. Park Row. To be merged into new East Twelfth Street.
Old Illinois Central passenger station and adjacent buildings, 1916£ by Chicago Plan Commission]

values in the
vicinity. It
would be an ex
cellent thing for
the City to es
tablish the civic
center on the
West Side, as it
would give that
side of the city

the impetus
toward higher
standards in
construction of
which it is so
much in need.
The cost of the
civic center

should be paid by the whole community.
Summing up the subject of cost of
adopting the Plan of Chicago, it seems
probable that the plans for outer highways

and of all the lake front improvements will
come about naturally and without great
expense to the city. The railways will pay
most of the expense of their changes and
betterments, which leaves all the cost of
the civic center, of the parks and park
ways, and of the street development for
the general public to pay. The community
has ample financial ability to do this.

— – – NOBEY-
TREADS-

• Section 13 (Page 70)
• Section 20 (Page 123)