Howard, Ebenezer

Ebenezer Howard (1850–1928) played a central role in the evolution of urban planning, beginning around the turn of the 20th century. Howard's significance goes beyond bringing many contemporary reform strands together into a coherent form in the garden city idea and shaping the garden city movement; in addition, his ideas provided a vehicle for individuals who developed formative modern planning notions. Howard's influence propelled professionals such as Raymond Unwin (1863–1940) and his partner Barry Parker (1867–1947) from provincial obscurity to father figures of the town planning movement in Britain. Furthermore, Howard acquired importance from his practical successes. Within 6 years of the publication of his book, Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898), a competition had been held and a plan had been selected for the first garden city at Letchworth, England, acknowledged as the first attempt to express 20th-century urban planning practices.

Born in London but educated in Suffolk, Howard had by the age of 21 emigrated from England to Nebraska to work on a family venture. Although this undertaking proved to be unsuccessful, it gave Howard a number of invaluable experiences. For example, in America, he acquired firsthand experience with rural living, and after moving from Nebraska, he lived in Chicago and was able to observe its development after the 1871 fire. Following his return to England in 1876, where he subsequently worked as a parliamentary reporter, Howard had a unique perspective on difficulties within the British political system and its lack of success in resolving urban problems (poverty, poor housing, labor problems, and so on). Such know-how was no doubt vital to his formulating the utopian garden city, a new type of settlement proposed as a means to end urban and rural problems in British society. Put into practice at Letchworth (beginning in 1904) and subsequently in numerous suburbs on the garden city model, Howard's town-country amalgam was a major success. Furthermore, the comprehensive nature of the garden city model proved to be of significance not only in Britain but also in other countries. Despite the intervention of World War I from 1914 to 1918, Howard continued to encourage the development of garden cities, and immediately after 1918, a new settlement, Welwyn Garden City, was planned. Howard is often mistakenly called an urban planner; it is more accurate to describe him as an urbanist or urban thinker, for it is widely known that during his lifetime, he never actually created a town plan as such, preferring instead to let professionals take up his ideas and put them into practice.