Musical accompaniment: Whistles the Wind by Flogging Molly.

 

The Lavirotte Building at 29 Avenue Rapp in Paris is one of the best preserved examples of art nouveau architecture in the city.

The architect, Jules Lavirotte, won a prize for the most original facade that year.  The city took an interest in ensuring its streets and buildings were beautiful. The people were encouraged to produce and preserve extraordinarily beautiful things, and they were rewarded for doing so.

In the United States, our cities used to be notable for their cleanliness and beauty too. They never had the artistic beauty of Paris, perhaps, but the openness and clean lines of our public buildings were pleasing to the eye. Our streets were broad and the buildings didn’t exceed a certain height to allow for natural light. Laws about cleanliness of the streets were strictly enforced: there were no tents on the sidewalk, graffiti, and overflowing garbage cans. The city governments knew it was in the people’s interest for it to be so.

Kansas City is a good example. In 1906, it was one of the most beautiful mid-size cities west of Chicago.  This is the Board of Trade building on West Eighth Avenue. It’s obviously an industrial area, but the building is beautiful and suitable to its purpose. And it was made more appealing by its immediate surroundings: the broad streets, the cleanliness and lack of overcrowding.

The building was razed in the 1960s. I couldn’t determine the exact spot where it once stood, but here is a Google Map screenshot of the approximate area today.

 

Another view of Kansas City in 1906 at 12 Petticoat Lane. It’s busy, but because of the broadness of the streets, it still appears clean and open. I love the lunette windows of the buildings in the background, and you can faintly discern the steeple of a church in the distance.

Robbed of its charming architecture and broad streets, Petticoat Lane now has a distinctly claustrophobic feel to it.

 

I haven’t brought all of these contrasts up for the sake of dwelling on the decay.  It’s really more of a prologue for something I’ve been thinking about, which is how to contribute in some small way to restoring some beauty and loveliness back to our world.

I have a little idea I’m thinking through–maybe it’s more of a social experiment–regarding language. Does that sound interesting to you so far? I hope so. I’d like you all to join me in this experiment! I’ll be sharing more soon.  Good night for now.