In our century

The first article in the first edition of The American City, September 1909, was an account of the city plan for the District of Columbia, which “was the first city planned primarily for beauty,” according to author Henry Macfarland, president of the district’s commissioners. He wrote that the district had developed somewhat according to the city’s original plan prepared under George Washington’s direction by the French engineer Pierre Charles L’Enfant and the American engineer Andrew Ellicott. However, that plan left some room for interpretation, which allowed slums to develop by 1900, prompting corrective action by the U.S. Senate. A senate committee appointed a commission, which included Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., to prepare a guide for extending the city’s beauty and placing additional buildings and memorials.

D.C.’s activities inspired many other cities to evaluate their own growth, and that first article set a precedent for the earliest editions of the magazine, most of which included digests about the development of cities of all sizes, including Chicago; Boston; Cincinnati; Los Angeles; Denver; Albany, N.Y.; and Altus, Okla. The writers extolled the virtues of their communities and the many elements they considered in designing perfectly crafted public spaces, including parks, streets, trees, light fixtures, public art and buildings. As the city planning profession grew, so did the view that cities’ ability to compete for business and industry depended in large part on the appearance of their communities.

Previous “In our century” Stories

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  Cities develop methods, mechanisms and regulations for residential solid waste collection and disposal.
• In our century – November 1909
  Occupancy laws and social workers emerge in the early 1900s to clean up inner-city neighborhoods.
• The way we were
  Publisher’s son remembers American City & County‘s roots.