October 30, 1907 – Wouldn’t it have been
interesting to be serving the coffee on this day as Mayor Fred Busse, First
Ward aldermen Michael Kenna and John Coughlin and a committee from the
Commercial Club meet in architect Daniel Burnham’s office atop the Railway
Exchange Building on Michigan Avenue.
Two days earlier the city council had passed an ordinance directing the
commissioner of public works to gather plans for connecting Beaubein Court on
the south side of the river with Pine Street on the north. The meeting in Burnham’s office is one more
step in a process of trying to unite the north and south side boulevard systems
that has been dragging on for over 15 years.
After the meeting Clyde M. Carr, chairman of the Commercial Club
committee, says, “We have acted and will continue to act as a clearing house
for ideas on this subject. We have not
given our support to any one plan, but are anxious to push the first worthy
plan that the authorities may decide upon as feasible. What we are striving to keep in mind is the
future – something that will give glory to Chicago for a hundred years to
come. We do not want a makeshift or a
compromise.” It will be another 13 years
before the lawsuits are settled, the property acquired, and the great bridge
leading Michigan Avenue across the river completed. Daniel Burnham is pictured above in his office atop the Railway Exchange Building.
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