November 17, 1908 – The Commercial Club of Chicago
offers a new plan for a connection between the north and south side to the
Board of Local Improvements. The plan
diverges from earlier plans in that it offers “a wider boulevard, 240 feet
north of Randolph street, a lower elevation at its highest point, access to the
roadway from the buildings along the elevated roadway … and a double street
with a double-decked bridge across the river.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, November 17, 1908]
The 90-foot wide bridge will be able to run at a right angle to the river,
connecting Beaubien Court on the south side of the river to Pine Street on the
north. The official statement of the
Commercial Club reads, “Congestion in the heart of Chicago could be relieved if
certain streets were much widened and improved.
It is clear, however, that none of the streets in the district bounded
by Van Buren street, Michigan avenue, and the river can ever be appreciably
broadened … Michigan avenue, already a wide street, and easily widened still more
in Grant park, must then be the great base of street circulation in Chicago,
the foundation of a system of encircling and bisecting highways … The
conclusion is plain: Michigan avenue is probably destined to carry the heaviest
movement of any street in the world. Any
boulevard connection in Michigan avenue which fails to recognize the basic
importance of Michigan avenue will be a waste of money.” The statement sets the
stage for the next big contribution that the Commercial Club will make to city
planning, the great Chicago Plan of 1909.
“A special investigation made under our direction,” the statement reads,
“discloses the fact that the people of Chicago have, during the last
twenty-five years, expended no less that $222,000,000 in permanent
improvements. It is estimated that not
less than 40 per cent of this vast sum has been wasted because specific
improvements were made without reference to a comprehensive city plan, and
were, therefore, found to be inadequate … This great improvement will come
because it is part of a plan which provides a basis of street circulation and
which will weld and unify the three detached sides of Chicago; because it
improves facilities for commercial traffic and at the same time preserves for
the people the uninterrupted use of their greatest and most attractive
highway.” Criticism arrives quickly as
the Michigan Avenue Improvement Association issues a statement saying in part,
“… we shall not regard any elevated structure as less than a monumental and
wasteful blunder.” The above photo shows Michigan Avenue as it appeared in 1902.
November 17, 1965 – McCormick Place celebrates its fifth birthday as the building’s general manager, Edward J. Lee, announces that 17,013,515 people have been through the facility since it first opened its doors. Events open to the public account for 41.8 per cent of the attendance while commercial, industrial, trade and professional shows account for 32.3 per cent. The exhibition hall’s Arie Crown Theater did not open until the spring of 1961, but it still drew 2,174,510 people. The largest attendance for any one event in the hall was for the Billy Graham Greater Chicago Crusade in 1962, which drew 44,840 people. Also notable was the first stockholders’ meeting ever held outside of New York City for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in April of 1961. On that occasion 18,458 stockholders attended the annual event, and each of them was served lunch. It would be only 14 months before two-thirds of the great convention hall on the lake would be destroyed in less than 45 minutes in a devastating fire.
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