Committee on Finance City Council Meeting, February 13, 2013 Alderman Brendan Reilly, 42nd Ward Tribute Resolution
WHEREAS, Edward Paul Brennan was instrumental in establishing the grid based street numbering system in the City of Chicago with the intersection of State and Madison Streets as the baseline; and
WHEREAS, Because of rapid-fire annexations carried out in the late 1800s, the city's street system was no system at all but a crazy quilt of names and numbers that confused residents and mystified visitors; and
WHEREAS, In the late 1800s there were thirteen streets called Washington, thirteen called Center and fourteen called Park. There were nine Forest streets, nine Sheridan streets and ten Oak streets. Seven streets were called 40th, and eight were called 42nd; and
WHEREAS, In 1901, Edward Brennan was bill collector for Lyon & Healy Co. in the Loop. He held no city job or any public office, he had no special training or any financial incentive, but he had a vision of a Chicago where logic determined house addresses and where clarity decided the names of city streets; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Brennan outlined the plan in a letter and asked his cousin, Alderman Charles Byrne, to present the letter to the city council, and thus began a four-decade crusade that would change the face of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, The contributions of Mr. Brennan include: use odd and even numbers to indicate the side of a street on which a house is located, use a numbering system that would indicate how far a house address was from the baseline, creation of the system under which each "800" in an address indicates a mile, as well as, the City Council renaming more than 1,200 streets; and
WHEREAS, The Honorable Brendan Reilly, Alderman of the 42nd Ward, will establish the northwest corner of State and Madison as honorary "Edward Brennan Way"; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and members of the City of Chicago City Council, assembled this 13th day of February 2013 A.D.,...
Click here for full text