Timeline of American Planning History (1785-2000) Flashcards
Provided for the rectangular land survey of the Old Northwest. The rectangular survey has been called “the largest single act of national planning in our history and … the most significant in terms of continuing impact on the body politic”
Ordinance of 1785, Daniel Elazar
Argues for protective tariffs for manufacturing industry as a means of promoting industrial development in the young republic.
Report on Manufactures, Alexander Hamilton, 1791
Allocate federal funds to promote the development of the national economy by combining tariffs with internal improvements, such as roads, canals and other waterways
The American System, Henry Clay, 1818
This artificial waterway connected the northeastern states with the newly settled areas of what was then the West, facilitating the economic development of both regions.
Erie Canal, 1825
Terminates in Vandalia, Illinois. Begun in 1811 in Cumberland, Maryland, it helps open the Ohio Valley to settlers.
The National Road, 1839
This multi-unit residential building first built in Manhattan.
Model Tenement, 1855
Opened the lands of the Public Domain to settlers for a nominal fee and five years residence.
Homestead Act, 1862
Congress authorizes land grants from the Public Domain to the states. Proceeds from the sale were to be used to found colleges offering instruction in agriculture, engineering, and other practical arts.
Morill Act, 1862
This group mounts a campaign to raise housing and sanitary standards.
New York Council of Hygiene of the Citizens Association, 1864
A planned suburban community stressing rural as opposed to urban amenities.
Riverside, IL, Frederick Law Olmsted & Calvert Vaux, 1868
The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads meet at Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10.
First transcontinental railroad, 1869
This publication includes a proposed regional plan that would both foster settlement of the arid west and conserve scarce water resources.
Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, John Wesley Powell, 1878
This influential book presents an argument for diminishing extremes of national wealth and poverty by means of a single tax (on land) that would capture the “unearned increment” of national development for public uses.
Progress and Poverty, Henry George, 1879
A form of multifamily housing widely built in New York until the end of the century and notorious for the poor living conditions it imposed on its denizens (lack of light, air, space)
Dumbbell Tenement, 1879
Group created to to survey and classify all Public Domain lands.
U.S. Geological Survey, 1879
Model industrial town.
Pullman, IL, George Pullman, 1880-84
Book demonstrating a powerful stimulus to housing and neighborhood reform.
How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis, 1890
This gave President power to create forest preserves by proclamation.
General Land Law Revision Act, 1891
This group founded to promote the protection and preservation of the natural environment. A Scottish-American naturalist, and a major figure in the history of American environmentalism, was the leading founder
Sierra Club, John Muir, 1892
This commemorated the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World. A source of the City Beautiful Movement and of the urban planning profession.
World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893
The first significant legal case concerning historic preservation. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the acquisition of the national battlefield at Gettysburg served a valid public purpose.
United States v. Gettysburg Electric Railway Co., 1896
Authorized some control by the Secretary of the Interior over the use and occupancy of the forest preserves.
Forest Management Act, 1897
A source of the Garden City Movement. Reissued in 1902 as Garden Cities of Tomorrow.
Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, by Ebenezer Howard, 1898
This person becomes Chief Forester of the United States in the Department of Agriculture. From this position he publicizes the cause of forest conservation.
Gifford Pinchot, 1898