
09130A | 3B2F45 | 4D5B64 | 6F1926 | 80B1EC | 836DAD | 999A92 | EFF3F6 |
Riverside is arguably the first planned suburb (as opposed to a stand-alone community) in the United States, designed in 1869 by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. The village was incorporated in 1875. The Riverside Landscape Architecture District, an area bounded by 26th Street, Harlem and Ogden Avenues, the Des Plaines River, and Golf Road, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. In 1863 the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was built heading southwest from downtown Chicago to Quincy, Illinois, passing through what is now the Near West Suburban area of Chicago in a western-southwestern direction. This new access to transportation and commerce brought about a significant housing and construction boom in what was once farmland far from the bustle of the city of Chicago.
In 1868, an eastern businessman named Emery E. Childs formed the Riverside Improvement Company, and purchased a 1,600-acre tract of property along the Des Plaines River and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad line. The site was highly desirable due to its natural oak-hickory forest and its proximity to Chicago. The company commissioned well-known landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and his partner, Calvert Vaux, to design a rural bedroom community. The town's plan, which was completed in 1869, called for curvilinear streets, following the land's contours and the winding Des Plaines River. The plan also accorded for a central village square (seen here), located at the main railroad station, and a Grand Park system that uses several large parks as a foundation, with 41 smaller triangular parks and plazas located at intersections throughout town to provide for additional green spaces.
Weekly prompt: Postcard
Photo captured May 28, 2023.
New photos posted on most Mondays through Thursdays.
All photos are copyrighted and may not be reproduced or distributed without my expressed, written consent.
@Ginnie Hart: Not really the first suburb, but the first "planned suburb" where Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted actually laid out the community like architects design buildings. Nothing was built until the streets were laid out, village square and park land were identified.