The Man Who Made Chicago Easy to Navigate

Writing for WBEZ, Chris Bentley profiles Edward Brennan, the proto-planner Chicagoans have to thank for "one of the simplest street systems of any big city in the world, with every address emanating out from a central origin point at the intersection of State & Madison Streets."

A one-time delivery boy and bill collector, Brennan balked at his city's address numbering system, or rather lack thereof. In the late 1800s, Chicago was a patchwork of smaller towns recently annexed by the expanding metropolis. Streets kept their old address systems, and in many places suffered from multiple and duplicate names.

"But Brennan wouldn't accept the status quo. Beginning in the 1890s he started a scrapbook, collecting newspaper articles about problems with city navigation or delays due to address confusion [...] Brennan lobbied business leaders and newspaper editors for decades [...]"

Brennan's efforts eventually gathered steam, and he drafted a plan to re-number the streets. "It included four big ideas: All addresses would be centered around a 0,0 point at State and Madison Streets; street names would include the direction; even-numbered addresses would always be on the west and north sides of any street, with odd numbers on the east and south sides; house numbers would increase by 800 (or 8 blocks) every mile, although Brennan had originally proposed 1000 addresses per mile. Brennan's plan would also involve renaming many streets in order to cut confusion caused by duplication and other problems."

In 1908, the City Council passed Brennan's proposal, which went into effect with some controversy the next year. Although his name isn't widely recognized, Brennan remains an excellent example of activist planning from a citizen who recognized a problem and fought to implement a solution.