Before the Magnificent Mile

For decades, Michigan Avenue in Chicago meant South Michigan Avenue-or more formally, Michigan Boulevard. Today’s North Michigan Avenue was Pine Street, a largely residential street. As part of a plan to shift much of the city’s business district north and east in the early nineteen-twenties, the city fathers had decided that Pine Street would first be widened and then linked with Michigan Boulevard by way of a double-decked bridge. The resulting stretch would be our North Michigan Avenue, above the bridge and South Michigan Avenue below it.

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