•August 8, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Illinois could sure use a couple of big thinkers and doers like Daniel Burnham and William Stratton. Based on what I see of political TV ads, we may have to wait another four years. But we can dream, can’t we?
Architect and city planner, Burnham was the driving force behind the creation of the fabulous “white city” that was the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, which put Chicago prominently on the world map.
Overcoming earlier false starts by others, a national economic panic, and almost impossibly tight deadlines, Burnham triumphed. The fair drew 27 million people to Chicago (the Illinois State Fair each year draws maybe half a million).
In 1906, Burnham went on to develop his namesake plan for Chicago—the glistening public lakefront, extensive park system and wide boulevards that symbolize the city today. He became famous for the line: “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood.”
In 1952 at age 39, Republican William G. Stratton was elected governor of Illinois. Over two terms, the slight-of-build state chief executive with the squeaky voice transformed the Prairie State.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.