Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 15, Number 2, Fall, 2003 Page: 34

                                
HARLAND BARTHOLOMEW
and the Planning of Modern Dallas
BY ROBERT B. FAIRBANKS

Qne of the most neglected figures in Dallas
history is Harland Bartholomew, whose
Bartholomew and Associates of St. Louis created
the only truly comprehensive physical plan
for Greater Dallas in the city's history.
Although the city never officially adopted the

Bartholomew plan, nor were
some important recommendations
ever followed, it not
only helped legitimize the
planning function in Dallas
government but also helped
validate the claims of the
Citizens Charter Association
and  the  Dallas  Citizens
Council that they were public-minded
organizations void
of selfish agendas and working
for the needs of the city as a
whole. Moreover, the plan
identified a number of metropolitan
problems and outlined

are clearly visible in Dallas today. But that 40page
report pales in comparison to the 500page,
  14-part   document    issued  by
Bartholomew and Associates between 1943
and 1945.This plan reflected the type of planning
popular in the United States between the

Dallas In The 1940s
*
On August 19, 1949, Dallas
city officials staged a gala
celebration to mark the opening
of the initial segment of
North Central Expressway,
the first modern, controlled
access freeway
in Dallas.

how many of

them should be addressed, although civic leaders
too often failed to follow up on these recommendations
for a variety of reasons. Had
Bartholomew's plan been successfully carried
out, it might well have made him one of the
most influential persons in the city's history.
Most histories of Dallas, if they discuss
planning at all, focus on the contributions of
the Kessler Plan, completed by George Kessler
in 1911, and published the following year. Its
recommendations for Turtle Creek Boulevard,
street alignment for downtown Dallas, and the
straightening and leveeing of the Trinity River

1920s and 1950s. It focused on
the physical planning of the
city for both public and private
land uses with special attention
on the placement and coordination
of roads, parks, utilities,
transportation facilities, civic
buildings, and general usage of
all land through zoning. What
made this plan somewhat different
than some plans of the
era was its close attention to
the city's housing problems and
its recommendations on how
to improve the quality of city

neighborhoods. Although     the  planning
emphasis of this era clearly focused on coordination
and order, it also reflected social theory
of the time that emphasized that where you
lived impacted your behavior. The plan, then,
promoted not only land use "harmoniously
inter-related," and so "efficiently disposed
that essential municipal services and facilities
can be provided at a minimum of cost," but
a city "with good residential neighborhoods
for everyone."'
Unlike Kessler, who had spent his early
childhood in Dallas, Bartholomew was a
Yankee born in Boston in 1899 and raised on

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