Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1891-08-03
MONDAY, August 3. 1879
The street Commissioners.

Inc aCLlOu Oh buo Olb1 COuuCll III
resisting change for the mere sake
Of change in the city officers indi-
Gates hopeful regard to their obi
cations to the people at large. What
ever may be The decision of the
council as to the person selected as
long as the present want of system
prevails in the work OF our streets
little real progress can be expected.
Probably no city or town nearly
two hundred years old can be found,
as this is, without any established
system of grades or plan. Annap-
oils as laid out by lis founder Gov.
Nicholson, who also laid cut Will
lismsburg, Va, and seems to have
been a natural engineer and man of
broad views and forethought, was
adapted to its development as a city
and arranged with a view to the
convenieuce of all the people as
we'll as attractive by It's beauty.--most
streets radiatlng from centre and
terminating at the water. This ar
.rangement insured easy communi-
tasion between all parts of the city
and made the water front accessible
and attractive. Every departure
from this plan has been mistake
aud has tended to destroy our des-
tiny as a city and to divide the town
into isolated quarters.
l. r..tka of "a
oils Of to-day compared with TWEEN
ty years ago shows decided progress
aud development both in popula.
ton, activity, and a diffusion of
comfort among our people-and
there is every indication of a con
tinuancs of this movement.
1t is high time we should give up
the improyident and in the end ex-
pensive manner of doing our street
work which, no matter what the
ability of the commissioner, is pur-
sued in blind way as long as no
established system of grades and
plan is adopted to guide him and
fix ths detiaItive limits of property
as to grade and street lines.
It would be better to arrest all
street work until a Typographical
plat of the city can be made and
a general plan based upon it and
adopted with legal authority as the
plan OF the city, looking to Its ex-
tension and relation TO surrounding
developments.
While the salary of the commits
sioner is not unreasonable, the city
has been and will be obliged to pay
a much larger sum annually in rec
tifying the blunders incident to q
careless and unsystemmatic habit
of working bhndly aud without
reference to the city considered as
whole, or to its future growth or
needs. A Typographical plat would
establish the relative heights and
grades of streets, and then a plan
could he made which will deter.
mine the limits of improvements
and their direction. As represent
ing nearly two hundred years of a
city's life We have nething to relieve
the desolate baroness of our council
chamber but one map, copy of 80
ancient survey, interesting as curl
osity but valueless as 70 our present
or future. No map of the State,
county, or any coast survey chart,
showing our position or possibilities
as TO expansion or commerce. There
is apparently no deposltary of re-
cords Of this description, as plats
and plans made at different times,
involving the laying out of our
streets and other improvements.
We hope that such records of Coun-
Gil proceedings as exist, illustrating
the city's history for two centuries,
are properly cared for. OF all the
Mayors OF Annapolis for this time
not q portrait or photograph graces
the bare hall where their successors
sit. As our donble-eentennial will
take place in q year or so, our his
tory should and something to deco
rate the council room if it be only =
map OF Annapolis - it was and as
it il to be.