The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-20
BY MILDRED REED.

Not when the legislature passed
law last winter making it possible, Or
when the city commission passed an
ordinance acting upon the powers
given in the state law was city pan
ming inaugurated in Topeka. sixty
seven years ago Topeka had city plan
ners, when a handful of men decided
that the beautiful rolling prairie spot
near the Kaw river W. to be caIieo
Topeka.
When Topeka was practically moth
ing, or Just a few log cabins. making
a lonesome looking settlement far
away from the civilization the foun-
dcrs OF the city had left. the towns
real city fathers worked together on
real city principles. They had vision
to the extent of laying out the city as
it now stands from Kansas avenue
west to Buchanan, east to Quincy and
from First to Eleventh street on the
north and south!
Yes. IL is rather startling and vastly
Interesting to look at the crinkled old
yellow map at the Kansas State His
torical society. a map that would have
fallen 70 pieces years ago if it had not
been rescued by having a piece of
canvas pasted to its back, n map-that
was the backbone of the Topeka of
today The map was made in 1856!
In the accompanying photograph of
the map. see for yourself how much
OF the city was visua1ized that many
y, ars ago! Wasn't that city plan
ming?
Not a New idea.
Is city planning n tangled"
s,5eDtical, can doubt the value of city
planning when he ga-es at that old
nd yellowed map that is such a
splendid lesson on the subject.
Down in the corner OF the much
revcred old map it is carefully noted
tsaI H..
all streets north and south 100 feet
wide; all streets east and west so feet
wide"-ond even alleys are providtNl
for, for the map specified that all al
leys should be thirty feet wide, What
is that il not-city planning?
II Topeka had lust grown" as many
cities have done. the main business
street probably would have been a
narrow lane that had come to be most
frcqucnted by the pioneers horses and
wagons: other streets would have
Vcered off in uneven widths and in
various directions not approved in the
best city building.
Avenues $50 Feet Wide.
The business avenues shall be 1870
feet wide. so that even tho the avenue
be occupied with building materials.
there is still room for passage of teams
and tho fire occur in closely built
parts OF the city there is ample room
for the firemen to operate and but
little danger of the fire heating and
catching upon the opposite side" reads
the first directory of Topeka, pub
lished in 1868. thirteen years after the
town was founded. Yes, that was real
city planning. That Original Topeka"
is indicated on the recent maps of the
city. and it is the best and most thoro-
~ planned part of Topeka. The addi-
tons to the city have not been Gre
ated with so much planning as was
that earliest Topeka.
In Thirty Years in Topeka" a his
tory of the first years of the city
which Is authentic because it was writ
ten by F. W. Giles, who was one of
the immortal nine" men who founded
Topeka, Giles writes that the city
founders had ambition to do work
in the new territory that should be
known and remembered in-the future"
and we who constitute those of the
future" for those city fathers should
be thankful for that ambition" which
they possessed. and gladly proclaim
that It has been realized.
Plan for the Future.
It was not easy for those immortal