Post Card Depicting Rogers Park That Never Was

Benjamin Woodard wrote about this strange map for his Rogers Park News outfit before signing up with the big leagues (DNAinfo.com). That article is entitled The Rogers Park That Could've Been. Now this hard to find postcard of the proposed layout as envisioned by the Rogers Park Town Planning Association is on the auction block (E-bay). Starting bid 75 bucks.

The seller Chicagoan45 provides ample background for this bizarre map. "Controversy over planning in Rogers Park on Chicago’s North Side is nothing new. Rogers Park residents thrive on it."

Please continue reading for more pictures and words

This map is from Rogers Park News article

But this postcard from about 1913, bears the map of a plan for Rogers Park that would have revolutionized the terms of today’s debates.

The postcard -- referred to in the 2012 summer issue of “The Historian,” the publication of the Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Association -- depicts a development plan for the area from Kedzie on the west to Lake Michigan,  and from Howard on the north to Devon sponsored by the now-forgotten Rogers Park Town Planning Association. 

Most astonishing is a proposed grand boulevard, “Indian Boundary Road,”  running about six miles from the southwest to the northeast, leading to a gateway east of Sheridan into a complex of parkland, islands and lagoons stretching along the lake at least as far south as Devon. Access to this nature wonderland also would be provided through what is today Touhy (called Kenilworth Road when the plan was drawn), Pratt Avenue and Devon. 

Among other provocative ideas: a park with a large lake would be created on what is now the Winston Towers complex; three round-abouts on Indian Boundary Road at Pratt, Kenilworth (intersecting with Ridge)  and Howard; and a vastly expanded Ashland Blvd.

The postcard is in excellent shape protected inside a stiff-plastic envelope. No blemishes, bends or markings. 

No reserve.