Abstract

"'The Most Magnificent Driveways:' Money and Materiality in the Construction of Eastern Parkway and the Grand Concourse"

Rachel Eu, Princeton University (racheleu@princeton.edu)

For much of the 19th century, control over New York City streets rested in the hands of abutting property owners, who made decisions regarding local improvements and subsequently paid for the work themselves. However, in response to explosive mid-century growth, the city transitioned toward more centralized modes of planning and financing public works. This shift fundamentally altered the nature of street construction and, simultaneously, the dynamics of built environment co-creation—between property owners, engineers, planners, and city officials—that had previously shaped patterns of urban infrastructure development.

This paper traces this evolution in city planning and municipal finance by examining the design and construction of two major thoroughfares: Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Hailed as the “Champs-Élysées” of their respective boroughs, these parkways were designed by technical experts and developed to stimulate property values. However, these parkways also represent a shift in the traditional nature of property owner involvement in street design, and subsequently, the movement away from streets as vital social spaces. As the nature of streets as public spaces became more utilitarian, the materials used to build them also changed, with engineers increasingly moving away from cobblestones towards concrete and asphalt. By tracing the transition from piecemeal street construction and assessment-based financing to coordinated parkway development that relied on the city’s expanded fiscal resources, the paper aims to explore how this transition reshaped the meaning, function, and materiality of city streets.

A secondary goal of the paper is to uncover the material networks of city building. As I will show, parkway construction drew on building materials throughout the region, demonstrating how urban infrastructure was embedded in regional systems of supply and labor, with far-reaching environmental consequences.