A sloppy street-numbering system might have been alright in a small town, but the 100 residents of Chicago in 1830 had increased to 300,000 by 1870. Chicago was annexing surrounding towns which had different names for streets that were also in Chicago.
A civic-minded person by the name of Edward P. Brennan started a movement to change the mess. He lobbied officials for seven years, wrote letters to the local newspapers, talked to groups about it.
Finally, in June 1908 the Chicago City Council approved the current grid system to go in effect 15 months later. State and Madison became the starting point and eight city blocks became a mile.
Just imagine what kind of a mess there'd be today if this wasn't done.
You Can't get there from Here. --Cooter
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