Ten Events That Shaped the 20Th Century American City
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FEATURE Ten Events That Shaped the 20th Century American City 1850 resulted in drastic reduction in the 1 1847: THE BEGINNING by Laurence Gerckens, AICP OF MASSIVE IMMIGRATIONS need for farm labor. Later immigrants, finding little security in farming, congre- Between 1865 and 1917 more than gated in cities, where the factory system 25 million people immigrated to the Editor’s Note: Over the years I’ve found that many citizen planners are quite interest- had created a demand for a large mass of United States. Starting in 1846-47, ed in broader issues concerning America’s relatively unskilled labor. By 1900, New American immigration increased land use and development pattern. I thought York City tenements housed 1,500,000 sharply, driven first by the Irish potato it might be beneficial to provide PCJ readers people. blight and subsequently by failed democ- with some historical perspective — to help racy movements in Europe. In the 1850s, see how we’ve gotten to where we are. Plan- 2,598,000 immigrated to America; the ning historian Larry Gerckens (who has pre- 1860s and ‘70s brought 5,127,000 more, viously contributed several articles to the while the 1880s and the ‘90s would bring PCJ) generously accepted the challenge of another 8,935,000. Even higher rates of trying to provide an overview of some of the immigration — over 8,000,000 new resi- key historical events that have shaped our dents per decade — followed until the cities. Obviously, it’s no easy task to sum up First World War. complex events in a few sentences. Neverthe- Early immigrants found homes on less, I think you’ll find that Gerckens ably met the farms, but the mechanization of the challenge. agriculture initiated by the mass manu- As a follow-up to this article, Gerckens is facture of the mechanical horse-drawn preparing two additional short articles for the Massive immigration, mechanization reaper by Cyrus Hall McCormick in PCJ: one examining the most significant fail- ures in 20th century American urbanism, the of the farms, and the factory system cre- other looking at key planning success stories. ated an urban complex consisting of I hope that by looking back, this series of arti- dense multi-storied factories in the city cles will help us better understand the forces center intermingled with rapidly and that have shaped — and in many ways con- often poorly constructed multi-storied tinue to shape — our cities and towns. tenements, the homes of millions of recently arrived Americans that became the focus of 20th century slum clearance and urban redevelopment programs. Above and below. Tenement interior layout and exterior view. From: Jacob Riis’ famous exposé, NATIONAL PARK SERVICES STATUE OF LIBERTY MONUMENT How the Other Half Lives. Immigrants being given a mental test at Ellis Island and a 1905 view of the Main Building of Ellis Island where millions of immigrants were processed before their entrance. into America. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PLANNING COMMISSIONERS JOURNAL / NUMBER 30 / SPRING 1998 12 3 1886: INVENTION OF THE ELECTRIC TROLLEY CAR In 1886, J. Van Depoele put the first successful electric trolley car into operation in Montgomery, Ala- bama. It did for the upper-middle class what the earlier steam locomotive did for the wealthy: it gave them ready access to the perimeter of the city, per- mitting them to remove themselves from the urban poor and the filth and ugliness of the urban-industrial environ- ment. The electric trolley car allowed for A yard water closet, photographed by the New Drawing of Clinton J. Warren’s Unity Building, the creation of higher income-class cor- York City Tenement Housing Department. Chicago, 1891, showing the iron and steel frame construction. From: Industrial Chicago (Good- ridors extending outward from the city Tenement Housing speed Publishing Co., 1891). center, removing from the city center all “The cleansing of the Augean stables but the lower-middle- and the lower- was a small task compared to the cleans- 2 1885: INTRODUCTION income. With this came development of ing of New York’s 82,000 tenement hous- OF THE STEEL-FRAMED new retail centers and services at trolley es, occupied by nearly three millions of stops beyond the city center — such as people, representing every nationality and “SKYSCRAPER” Shaker Square outside of Cleveland. every degree in the social scale.… With the construction of a nation- Finer homes and apartments lined trol- Some of the conditions which are found wide system of railroads focused on ley routes, which provided prestigious in these buildings surpass imagination. It Chicago as a central distribution locations that were both convenient to does not seem possible that human beings can actually live under them and transportation and highly visible. point and creation of an immense retain the least vestige of health. Many Land in the quadrants between the internal market for goods through cases have been found where the plumb- immigration, land prices in downtown branches of the trolley system (beyond a ing fixtures have been removed and the Chicago skyrocketed. In order to prof- four-to-eight block walking distance pipes left open, permitting sewer gas to itably utilize such expensive land, from the trolley lines) commonly find its way into the apartments and per- income from multi-floor rentals was remained undeveloped for residential meate the building. In some of the hous- needed. Architect William Le Baron use and was often used for foundries, es, where the owner has not employed a Jenny’s ten-story Home Insurance Build- slaughter houses, garbage dumps, and, responsible janitor or housekeeper, the ing, built in Chicago in 1885, was the in the 1920s, the first close-in airports. tenants have used the dumbwaiter shaft as a chute for the disposal of rubbish, first tall building constructed utilizing Many of the residential trolley corridors fecal matter, and garbage… In some of the principles of modern “skyscraper” of the early 1900s became strip commer- cial corridors when the private automo- these houses the water closets have been construction. The building had cast iron stopped up for weeks, the bowls over- bile replaced the station-stop focused and steel beams and girders supporting flowing and the floors covered.” trolley car. each floor that were fastened together continued on page 14 From: First Report of the Tenement House Depart- and bolted to cast iron and steel ment of the City of New columns, creating a cage-like metal York (New York: 1903) frame that acted as the main load-bear- 5-7. ing members of the building. This system of construction com- bined with a safe passenger elevator (a steam-driven elevator with a safety brake had been patented by Elisha Graves Otis in 1861) made the modern high-rise structure possible, resulting in Trolleys like this one from Rock Island, the familiar densely built cluster of busi- Illinois, could be found ness towers that constituted the skyline in cities across the of the American city throughout the U.S. at the turn of 20th century. AUGUSTANA COLLEGE LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS the century. PLANNING COMMISSIONERS JOURNAL / NUMBER 30 / SPRING 1998 13 Ten Events… continued from page 13 4 1893: THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION Over 27 million people attended Chicago’s Columbian Exposition, the great world’s fair of 1893. Visi- tors to the “The White City,” as the fair was often called, were stirred by the majestic grouping of public buildings and their associated open spaces and plazas — designed as a unity and planned both functionally and esthetical- ly for the benefit of the citizen-visitor. Brilliantly lit by Edison’s electric lights and kept immaculately clean, the all- white composition stood in marked con- trast to the sooty blackness and disorder of Chicago and other large American CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY cities. View across the west end of the Main Basin, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. Architect Daniel Hudson Burnham, soul-elevating public environment His Ford Motor Company, organized in of Burnham and Root, coordinated the embellished with reflecting pools, ter- 1903, focused on producing a simple and design and construction of the fair. He races, and sculpture. Millions came to inexpensive automobile. Following lim- provided for generous and attractive the fair and for the first time experienced ited success with his “Model N,” he public parks and plazas between the what an American city could be: beauti- introduced the “Model T” in 1908. This exhibit buildings, baby changing stations ful, clean, healthful, functional, efficient, sturdy black vehicle, with its 4-cylinder and other amenities to meet the needs of cultured, and people-centered. 20-horsepower gasoline engine, sold for visitors, efficient transportation both to Millions left the fair determined to $825. More than 10,000 were sold in its and within the fair, and an inspiring and realize some part of that potential in their first year of production. With sales own home town. Businessmen returned approaching 200,000 a year, Ford intro- to their commercial clubs to promote duced the moving mass assembly line Columbian Exposition “city plans” for the improvement of their system at his plant in Highland Park, communities and to promote state legis- Michigan in 1914. “It was indeed worth a journey of a lation that would permit their cities to thousand miles to stand on the north plan for the future. Based on this enthu- bridge of the great lagoon… here is such siasm for public improvement, Burnham, accord between the parts and the whole design that every column, every section, the “Father of American City Planning,” every angle is an object of grace and dig- would: guide the re-planning of Wash- nity… If any fault is to be found with this ington, D.C.; chair the development of a Columbian Exposition, it will be on civic-center plan for Cleveland; draft full account of the inability of the human city plans for Manila and San Francisco; mind to compass and appreciate it.” and prepare the first American metropol- — C.C.