Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1952-04-03

gomery County Planning Commits
sion, the purpose of the series
being to develop the history and
value of planning as a function Of
government
The initial article of this series
traced, very briefly, the origins of
planning in our Western Civiliza-
ton and the early days of planning
u Europe. We turn, now, to a con-
sideration Of the growth of plan
ming in the United States.
Although most cities in America
either sprang up over night as
boom towns or grew slowly by I'M
planned accretion. m e of the
early towns, founded in the period
when expansion westward was
closely restricted, present exam
pies of rather successful planned
development on the part of our
Founding Fathers: New England
settlers laid out their towns in a
simple and informal manner around
central open space = the Village
Common. Many of the Colonial
towns of the South were construct
ed with broad streets, spacious
parks and a well-integrated archi-
tectural style.
Philadelphia, Detroit and New
York = to name only three of
today's larger cities were ac-
corded considerable tudy at an
early date in their existence but
have since far outgrown their ORR
Anal plans. However, the b e t
Xhown plan for an American city
was that which French-trained
M ajor Pierre L'Enfant was en-
couraged by Washington and JEFF
ferson to design for our Nations
Capital. His plan was both inspira-
tional and comprehensive, and it is
unfortunate t h a later planners
either ignored it altogether or fail
ed to I'd a pit it to requirements
which arose as Washington grew
larger and more congested.
During most of the nineteenth
century, when new communities
were being founded by the scores
as our nation surged westward and
population was crowding into our
already-established eastern urban
centers to take advantage of en-
ployment opportunities offered by
the mushrooming of industry there
almost no planning of any sort
was done. Toward the end of this
era conditions in our cities, princi-
pally in the living quarters of the
lower income groups, became so in
tolerable that a number of more
enlightened individuals banded to.
ether to endeavor to remedy the
situation. They were only partially
successful after a long and bitter
struggle, but they did kindle a
small flame under the conscience
of the country. 1t is to them, there.
fore, that should go the real credit
for the birth of planning in Amer.
lea.
In 1893 came the Chicagc
Worlds Fair and, for almost the
first time in the United States, mer
and women from all over the coun.
try saw the esthetic and utilitariar
possibilities of an orderly arrange
m ent of monumental buildings
roads and grounds. They compared
what they saw with what existed
in their drab, congested, slum-rid
den home towns and determined tt
do something about them. Within
very short time the "City Beauti
fur movement was in full swing
This stage in the growth of plan
ming had its greatest success il
Chicago, but it also left its mari
elsewhere in the country in thu
form of monumental civic centeI
Nans, street planting, artistic LAM
posts and community park systems
To certain degree this elemen
OF beauty still persists in planning
but it was soon recognized tina
consideration of esthetics provide,
only part of the answer to tn,
problems that existed - the frost
ing on the cake, as it were. TIL,
City Practical" aspect thereupol
took over the reins, and in the frs
two decades of this present cen
fury we saw the introduction O
such partial solutions as stree
planning, coming, high-class sub
urban residential areas and Ian,
subdivision regulations.
Early in the 1920's there devel
oped a general recognition of tn
fact that any feature of a city can
not be adequately planned TO
alone, but each must be planned il
relation to all the others. At thi
point planning became "compre
hensive" in scope - at least inso
far as the physical elements of tn
city were concerned. People awak
ened to the fact that it is not rea
sonable to have one group of mel
plan the highways of the city, an
ether the park system, another tn