Remnants of the Industrial Revolution: America’s Historic Grand Concourses as Heritage Attractions

Abstract

Entrepreneurs and elected officials used some of the wealth created during the industrial revolution to build grand concourses lined by palatial homes. This chapter examines these roadways to determine if they have remained places for the wealthy and healthy people, or if they have become similar to their surrounding cities, or perhaps even become avenues surrounded by great poverty and marked by contamination and poor public health. The research finds that almost every grand concourse has healthier and wealthier people than their host cities. Ward Parkway in Kansas City and New York’s Fifth Avenue have continued to be grand concourses. Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., Richmond’s Monument Avenue, St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, and Los Angeles’s Wilshire Boulevard are national and regional symbols of political power, culture and entertainment, although several are challenged by their identification with serious racial injustice. Among Midwest industrial cities, the grand concourses of Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, and St. Louis have been trying to use medical care, higher education, and entertainment to rebirth their once pre-eminent roles. Among these, the northern part of Chicago’s Prairie Avenue birthplace appears to be the most successful. New York City’s Grand Concourse located in the Bronx was to be middle class version of a grand avenue but has not fared well compared to New York City as a whole.