alternatehistory.com

One of the things hat really harmed the city beautiful movement is that it only had about 30-40 years to exist before the great depression stopped it. The City Beautiful movement had its routes in the Le' Enfant plan for Washington DC and the Chicago Worlds Fair of the late 1800's.

Could the movement have started earlier? How?

What I think is needed are two things: a major artistic inspiration like the worlds fair and a large financial backing for the grand plans of these cities. The gridiron that many cities are organized on would have to be abandoned in place of Le' Enfant style street patterns.
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