| Chapter 1: | An American Ideology of Improvement |
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would serve as a guiding principle of the Progressive Era: improvement. “In the morning,” noted the Tribune, “the delegates discussed ‘Improvement by Private Initiative,’ while the afternoon session involved consideration of ‘Improvement Through Citizenship.’” The focus on improvement prompted the assembled reformers to pay particular attention to the physical landscape of Chicago. Indeed, “the most startling view given to the conference,” according to the Tribune, was the address on “municipal art” by architect Dwight Perkins, who presented his grand plan for making Chicago an “ideal city.”1
The vision of Chicago's landscape offered by Perkins was an early expression of the “City Beautiful” movement. Extending from 1900 to 1910, the City Beautiful movement comprised an attempt to enhance the aesthetics and order of entire cities through a commitment to monumental city planning and neoclassical architecture.2 Outlining his plan to “make Chicago beautiful,” Perkins explained that he would
The “spectacle of boulevards and river roadways” presented by Perkins reflected a developing liberal faith in the capacity for beautiful, highly ordered environments to shape morality, foster civic consciousness and social unity, and underwrite the progressive version of social progress. The conference also revealed an emerging belief among reform leaders and City Beautiful advocates affirming the vital role that new professionals such as Perkins would have in transforming society through the methodical, coordinated improvement of cities. “There must be a detailed plan,” demanded Perkins, “and it must be closely followed. Nothing can be accomplished without a plan, a systematic effort.”4 However, even as Perkins and other ascendant professional planners were formulating their citywide improvement schemes, thousands of grassroots improvers were transforming urban landscapes at a local level.