HISTORY ARTICLES

RADBURN IN “THE CITY:” SCENES OF THE PAST

By Rick Hampson and Stephen Taylor

The 1939 New York World’s Fair promised to show visitors “the World of Tomorrow.’’ One fair attraction that did so was a short documentary film called The City. And in addition to showing fairgoers what the future might look like, it shows us today what Radburn looked like.

The City contrasted the problems of the contemporary metropolis – congestion, noise, pollution – with the quality of life that could be enjoyed in a planned community.
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This community would be part throwback to a pre-industrial village and part leap forward to a new kind of city: self-sufficient, with shopping, schools and jobs within walking distance of homes; compact, but not crowded; and  surrounded by a green belt of open space.
The film’s narrator calls this new type of community ‘’The Green City.’’ It would be primarily connected to other such planned communities in its region, rather than one big central city, like New York.

If it sounds like the plan for Radburn, that’s no accident.

The City was the brainchild of Clarence Stein. the architect and planner who in the 1920s was the prime mover behind Radburn – “The Town for the Motor Age.’’ But after the Depression stopped construction of Radburn in its tracks, Stein focused on promoting what he called “the Radburn Idea.’’

For The City, Stein assembled an all-star cinematic  team to illustrate his concepts. It included Pare Lorentz, the decade’s greatest American documentary filmmaker; the social critic Lewis Mumford, who wrote the script; and Aaron Copeland, who composed the score.
Of special interest is the half minute of rare footage, broken into five discrete parts, that shows Radburn in the late 1938.
We see an aerial view of Radburn looking much like it does today, but with some important differences; boys in pads playing football in B Park; kids climbing on a playground jungle gym that today would be considered dangerous; children using The Tunnel; and horseback riders – trotting through R Park!

Here’s a breakdown of the Radburn scenes from the film:

1. Aerial view

We can see the nursery used by Radburn’s landscape architect. Marjorie Sewell Cautley, just north of the Plaza Building (where an apartment complex stands today). Brearly Crescent is undeveloped. The London plane trees lining Plaza Road are shorter. A barn stands at the intersection of Craig Road and High Street. A line of old farm trees marks the edge of what is now Tot Lot. The B Pool has a different orientation. There’s an empty lot at the end of Ballard Place -- #15 has not yet been built.

2 .      Jungle gym

This piece of equipment used to stand in the Big Toy playground.
The angle of the shot is typical of a documentary style made popular in Europe.

3.       B Park 

Various willow trees (including a weeping willow) planted by Marjorie Sewell Cautley shade the perimeter of the park.  Understory plantings provide rich layering. With the exception of two red pine specimens, all are now gone. The roofline of houses lining the park is different, because spaces above garages have since been filled in. Fourteen Berkeley Place is on the left and Bancroft Place houses are on the right. The football scene -- boys in pads being coached or supervised by an adult – is a reminder of Radburn's extensive recreation program. 

4.      The Tunnel

The classic scene of Radburn children is shot from B Park looking toward A park. Note the rose bushes designed to keep pedestrians on the path.  Some of these New Dawn cultivars are preserved in Radburn house gardens, but there are none left in the areas around the tunnel.  A car passes overhead on Howard Avenue.

5.          R Park

Note the entrance sign in the first frame; this was at the time a major approach to Radburn. The lamp post is original. Does the circular hedgerow at the bottom of the steps (a classic Cautley form) have a table inside? There are no houses visible on the west (Plaza Road) side of the park. The horse riders are a reminder of the fact that there was a stable in the area, and that there were only open fields in the general direction of Sanford Road. 

​Note the entrance sign in the first frame; this was at the time a major approach to Radburn. The lamp post is original. Does the circular hedgerow at the bottom of the steps (a classic Cautley form) have a table inside? There are no houses on the Plaza Road side of the park. The horse riders are a reminder of the fact that there was a stable in the area, and that there were only open fields in the general direction of Sanford Road.