Downtown: Its Rise and Fall, 1880-1950Written by one of this country's foremost urban historians, Downtown is the first history of what was once viewed as the heart of the American city. It tells the fascinating story of how downtown--and the way Americans thought about downtown--changed over time. By showing how businessmen and property owners worked to promote the well-being of downtown, even at the expense of other parts of the city, it also gives a riveting account of spatial politics in urban America. Drawing on a wide array of contemporary sources, Robert M. Fogelson brings downtown to life, first as the business district, then as the central business district, and finally as just another business district. His book vividly recreates the long-forgotten battles over subways and skyscrapers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. And it provides a fresh, often startling perspective on elevated highways, parking bans, urban redevelopment, and other controversial issues. This groundbreaking book will be a revelation to scholars, city planners, policymakers, and general readers interested in American cities and American history. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Downtown in the Late Nineteenth Century | 9 |
The Politics of Rapid Transit | 44 |
The Battle over Height Limits | 112 |
Downtown in the 1920s | 183 |
Downtown During the Great Depression and World War II | 218 |
Downtown and the Automotive Revolution | 249 |
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Common terms and phrases
American Architect American City Angeles April Architect and Building Association of Building Automobile Baltimore Sun blighted areas Boston Building Owners businessmen and property central business district century Chicago Loop Chicago Tribune City Planning city's Cleveland commercial Committee construction decentralization department stores Detroit downtown business interests downtown businessmen early elevated highways elevated railways engineer Ernest Flagg February federal freeways Harland Bartholomew height limits Homer Hoyt January Land Loop Louis Manhattan March McClintock metropolis Metropolitan million motorists neighborhoods off-street parking office buildings outlying business districts Owners and Managers parking ban percent periphery Philadelphia Pittsburgh property owners property values proposed public housing Rapid Transit Commission rapid transit system Real Estate Record Record and Builders Report residential residents retail skyscrapers slum clearance slums and blighted street railways Street Traffic streetcars suburbs subway tall buildings taxes tenement house tion traffic congestion traffic problem Transportation trict urban redevelopment wrote York City