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Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
Deejo
(108.246.120.---)
Date: August 08, 2013 03:47AM
Does anyone know why the north-south streets New England and Oak Park Avenue have weird jogs at about 5100 North? The streets essentially make 90-degree turns east into alleys for several yards, then make 90-degree turns north again and continue on. A block or so to the east, a one-block street named Busse does a similar thing, making a 90-degree turn east into an alley. But Busse does not continue north; the alley just leads to Rutherford, the next street east.
Re: Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
shekaago
(70.58.230.---)
Date: August 08, 2013 05:03PM
There were several mid-1950's annexations to the city around the old Big Oaks Golf Club area. I found a few Trib articles about the various annexations with their boundaries noted. This particular article, see link below, seems to include that area you are referring to although the question of why the streets don't line up isn't exactly addressed. Oak Park and New England line back up again south of Argyle. It could have been a survey error or more likely that little parcel of land had existing homes/structures on it before being annexed and the streets had to be re-routed around them.
[url=http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/6511823/4-block-annexation-and-big-oaks-golf-club-pdf-49k?da=y]Chicago Tribune - NW Side Annexations - February 13- 1956[/url]
[url=http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/6511823/4-block-annexation-and-big-oaks-golf-club-pdf-49k?da=y]Chicago Tribune - NW Side Annexations - February 13- 1956[/url]
Re: Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
PKDickman
(---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: August 08, 2013 07:56PM
On the plat map the section was annexed by the city in '56
The lots that face newland, new castle and busse were resubdivided about the same time into 50x100 parcels (typical city lot is 25x125). this seems to have been done with complete disregard to the existing city streets.
My guess is that when the golf course folded they split up the land amongst the partners along the original 1 acre lines. The guys who had land on newland, new castle, and busse got a narrow parcel because the loss of right of way.
Any how, the original acre lines did not line up with the streets and everyone just grabbed what he could.
The lots that face newland, new castle and busse were resubdivided about the same time into 50x100 parcels (typical city lot is 25x125). this seems to have been done with complete disregard to the existing city streets.
My guess is that when the golf course folded they split up the land amongst the partners along the original 1 acre lines. The guys who had land on newland, new castle, and busse got a narrow parcel because the loss of right of way.
Any how, the original acre lines did not line up with the streets and everyone just grabbed what he could.
Re: Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
PKDickman
(---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: August 08, 2013 08:58PM
The golf course ran clean to Harlem and was called "Big Oaks" According to the trib archives it's annexation and re-subdivision were quite contentious.
Apparently the residents out there were quite a bunch of rabble-rousers.
They said it was being developed by a bunch of different developers.
If you look at the plats its a mish mash of lot sizes and their lotlines don't line up. Some blocks don't have alleys.
They must have let each developer do whatever they wanted.
The jogged portions of New England and Oak Park show as easements dating to 1940 for access roads between two big 1 acre parcels that didn't line up with the road. The roads were originally only 34 ft wide.
Apparently the residents out there were quite a bunch of rabble-rousers.
They said it was being developed by a bunch of different developers.
If you look at the plats its a mish mash of lot sizes and their lotlines don't line up. Some blocks don't have alleys.
They must have let each developer do whatever they wanted.
The jogged portions of New England and Oak Park show as easements dating to 1940 for access roads between two big 1 acre parcels that didn't line up with the road. The roads were originally only 34 ft wide.
Re: Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
Jeff_Weiner
(---.sub-75-205-75.myvzw.com)
Date: August 08, 2013 10:28PM
PKDickman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> On the plat map the section was annexed by the
> city in '56
> The lots that face newland, new castle and busse
> were resubdivided about the same time into 50x100
> parcels (typical city lot is 25x125). this seems
> to have been done with complete disregard to the
> existing city streets.
>
> My guess is that when the golf course folded they
> split up the land amongst the partners along the
> original 1 acre lines. The guys who had land on
> newland, new castle, and busse got a narrow parcel
> because the loss of right of way.
>
> Any how, the original acre lines did not line up
> with the streets and everyone just grabbed what he
> could.
Pretty close to the truth. What happened was that the centerlines of the roads
followed the section lines, which jogged from the errors induced by putting flat sections on the face of a rough spheroid.
-------------------------------------------------------
> On the plat map the section was annexed by the
> city in '56
> The lots that face newland, new castle and busse
> were resubdivided about the same time into 50x100
> parcels (typical city lot is 25x125). this seems
> to have been done with complete disregard to the
> existing city streets.
>
> My guess is that when the golf course folded they
> split up the land amongst the partners along the
> original 1 acre lines. The guys who had land on
> newland, new castle, and busse got a narrow parcel
> because the loss of right of way.
>
> Any how, the original acre lines did not line up
> with the streets and everyone just grabbed what he
> could.
Pretty close to the truth. What happened was that the centerlines of the roads
followed the section lines, which jogged from the errors induced by putting flat sections on the face of a rough spheroid.
Re: Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
PKDickman
(---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: August 08, 2013 11:36PM
Jeff_Weiner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pretty close to the truth. What happened was that
> the centerlines of the roads
> followed the section lines, which jogged from the
> errors induced by putting flat sections on the
> face of a rough spheroid.
That is possible, but several other streets line up.
It more likely that they laid out the acre by dividing a full section into 16 parcels by 40 parcels and tried to shoehorn short blocks into the 40 parcel side.
That means a standard short block would be 2.5 parcels wide.
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pretty close to the truth. What happened was that
> the centerlines of the roads
> followed the section lines, which jogged from the
> errors induced by putting flat sections on the
> face of a rough spheroid.
That is possible, but several other streets line up.
It more likely that they laid out the acre by dividing a full section into 16 parcels by 40 parcels and tried to shoehorn short blocks into the 40 parcel side.
That means a standard short block would be 2.5 parcels wide.
Re: Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
Deejo
(---.public.wayport.net)
Date: August 09, 2013 01:09AM
Thanks so much to everyone for the detailed posts. I should have just suspected poor/absent city planning.
Re: Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
jd
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: August 09, 2013 03:18AM
You can see this easily in farm areas, and still in the recently built up areas of DuPage County. The north/south roads are lined up along township boundaries, which are a six mile by six mile chunk of land. The roads follow the meridians heading north; so since we are west of the Greenwich meridian and north of the equator our roads jog slightly to the east every 6 miles, as we near the north pole.
Follow Lemont Rd. north from I55 and it becomes Main Street, then Highland Ave, then it ends in a housing development. It jogs and renames every 6 miles. The same for Cass / Midwest / Summit / Villa, or Fairview / Meters / Westmore / Addison Rd. etc.
The clearest example of this to the naked eye is along North Avenue from Austin to Harlem. Harlem was straightenwed to true N/S years ago, and they just realigned Oak Park Ave. a few years ago to get rid of that sharp bend because the Italian Beef place kept getting cars in their front window.
Follow Lemont Rd. north from I55 and it becomes Main Street, then Highland Ave, then it ends in a housing development. It jogs and renames every 6 miles. The same for Cass / Midwest / Summit / Villa, or Fairview / Meters / Westmore / Addison Rd. etc.
The clearest example of this to the naked eye is along North Avenue from Austin to Harlem. Harlem was straightenwed to true N/S years ago, and they just realigned Oak Park Ave. a few years ago to get rid of that sharp bend because the Italian Beef place kept getting cars in their front window.
Re: Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
Mr Downtown
(---.c3-0.drb-ubr1.chi-drb.il.cable.rcn.com)
Date: August 10, 2013 12:03AM
Your explanation is grounded in theory, but then you take it a bit too far.
The Public Land Survey System includes correction lines, but (in our area) every 24 miles, not every 6 miles. North Avenue does NOT appear to be one of these. The adjustments seen at the eastern end of the Will/Kankakee County line are a Chicago-area example of such correction lines.
The Chicago area was surveyed in three separate chunks, probably by lowest-bidder surveyors, and so the section lines do not align with each other. The area southeast of the old diagonal Indian Boundary Line from Lake Calumet along I-57 to Frankfort is in one survey. The area between the Wisconsin line and Central St (Evanston) is in another. The main Chicago area in between was done in yet another survey, which is 1.3 degrees off true north.
But the surveyors were surveying farmland for sale, not laying out a future city. They were instructed to make all the mile-square sections the same acreage wherever possible. The idea of putting roads on those section lines was still 30 years in the future, and the idea of driving faster than 8 mph was still 70 years in the future. City planners were a century in the future.
The mishmash of land parcels whose boundaries didn't align where the surveys collided didn't cause a problem as the area was divided into quarter-quarter sections and smaller aliquot divisions in the 19th century for truck farms and the like. But it became a serious issue as those little parcels were subdivided into house lots. There was no city planning office who could lay out the whole city's streets in advance, so each developer just built his two or four streets as evenly as he could within his parcel. So long as purchasers could reach his new houses, connections to the adjacent streets was someone else's problem.
The Public Land Survey System includes correction lines, but (in our area) every 24 miles, not every 6 miles. North Avenue does NOT appear to be one of these. The adjustments seen at the eastern end of the Will/Kankakee County line are a Chicago-area example of such correction lines.
The Chicago area was surveyed in three separate chunks, probably by lowest-bidder surveyors, and so the section lines do not align with each other. The area southeast of the old diagonal Indian Boundary Line from Lake Calumet along I-57 to Frankfort is in one survey. The area between the Wisconsin line and Central St (Evanston) is in another. The main Chicago area in between was done in yet another survey, which is 1.3 degrees off true north.
But the surveyors were surveying farmland for sale, not laying out a future city. They were instructed to make all the mile-square sections the same acreage wherever possible. The idea of putting roads on those section lines was still 30 years in the future, and the idea of driving faster than 8 mph was still 70 years in the future. City planners were a century in the future.
The mishmash of land parcels whose boundaries didn't align where the surveys collided didn't cause a problem as the area was divided into quarter-quarter sections and smaller aliquot divisions in the 19th century for truck farms and the like. But it became a serious issue as those little parcels were subdivided into house lots. There was no city planning office who could lay out the whole city's streets in advance, so each developer just built his two or four streets as evenly as he could within his parcel. So long as purchasers could reach his new houses, connections to the adjacent streets was someone else's problem.
Re: Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
tomcat630
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: August 10, 2013 02:20AM
From looking at it on Google Earth, it could have been a piece of unincorporated Cook Co built on its own, then annexed? Some of the houses look pre WW2, not the standard brick city homes
Parts of Norridge and Harwood Harwood Hts. have section with 1920's era homes in little clusters.
EDIT: Checked an old map from 1940 and the Golf Course is till there, but Argyle runs into it.
Still looks like an unincorp. area that was built outside city zoning, then got annexed. IL law allows 'forced' annexation if land less than certain acre amount, and this plot looks small enough.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2013 02:44AM by tomcat630.
Parts of Norridge and Harwood Harwood Hts. have section with 1920's era homes in little clusters.
EDIT: Checked an old map from 1940 and the Golf Course is till there, but Argyle runs into it.
Still looks like an unincorp. area that was built outside city zoning, then got annexed. IL law allows 'forced' annexation if land less than certain acre amount, and this plot looks small enough.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2013 02:44AM by tomcat630.
Re: Weird jogs in N-S streets @ 6800 W/5100 N
Posted by:
tomcat630
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: August 10, 2013 02:50AM
Per the 1956 Trib article, it was a tiny unincorporated piece of Cook Co. Only .4 square miles.
Funny part of article is 'city expected to grow more in future' meaning adding more land. Not by much, it turned out.
Funny part of article is 'city expected to grow more in future' meaning adding more land. Not by much, it turned out.
