Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1930 [PAGE 520]

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193°1

UNIVERSITY O F ILLINOIS

517

Avenue 3.8 feet at its East side and 1.9 feet at its West side throughout the width of the addition which is 5 J J.2 feet, according to the plat. This much of the platted area, therefore, is upon property which does not belong to Mr. Lyle H. Gallivan, who made the plat and offered the same for approval of your Council. Will you please notice therefore, that the University claims and intends to claim in full all its rights of ownership to all of the property referred to in this letter and particularly to that strip which trespasses upon Pennsylvania Avenue, sometimes and formerly known as Maple Avenue; and that from the fact that improvements have been made upon Pennsylvania Avenue, formerly known as Maple Avenue, no inference can be drawn that the University has surrendered any of its rights, title to or interest in any or all of the property referred to in this letter? Will your honorable City Council please take note of this letter in your Minutes so that their public records may show the same? Will the Mayor please acknowledge receipt of this communication? Very truly yours, SVEINBJORN JOHNSON Legal Counsel

On motion of Dr. Noble, these letters were received to be print in the minutes. OPENING OF MAIN OR WHITE STREETS THROUGH THE CAMPUS

(34) A recommendation that the following opinion of the Legal Counsel concerning the right of the City of Urbana to extend Main Street between Romine and Wright Streets across Illinois Field be printed in the minutes for record. June 18, 1919 OPINION CONCERNING LEGAL POWER OF URBANA TO OPEN MAIN STREET ACROSS ILLINOIS FIELD The Question The question on which the Trustees desire an opinion relates to the legal power of the City of Urbana to open and extend Main Street over and across Illinois Field, in what is known as Seminary Addition to the City. The Facts This street is and for many years has been open and improved from Romine Street, the eastern boundary of the Seminary Grounds, east to Lincoln Avenue; but from Romine Street west to Wright Street, and across Seminary Grounds north of Block 52, Main Street has never been opened or improved. Indeed, that portion of the street does not ever appear to have been in actual use either as a public or as a private way. For over forty years there has been a board or an iron fence around the grounds, enclosing the portion platted as a part of Main Street and which constitutes the plot over which the street, i now extended, would pass. f If the street be extended the effect would be to transect Illinois Field, necessitate the removal of the iron fence, and possibly the maple tree which stands near the line of the proposed extension. If there be legal power to extend Main Street as proposed, it becomes an open question whether a like power does not exist with respect to Stoughton Street on which the University has constructed valuable improvements, and has others in contemplation. In November 1863 a plat of Seminary Addition to Urbana was filed. It was prepared by the County Surveyor at the instance of J. C. Stoughton and J. E. Babcock, the owners of the platted land. The deed is recorded in Book Y at pages 208 and 209 in the Recorder's Office in Champaign County. This was a statutory plat and i in all respects in conformity with the statutes, was an offer to the public of the f streets and alleys marked thereon for use as public ways. The dedication of the designated streets when accepted by the city and duly opened for public use, could not be withdrawn or vacated by the original owners. O n this plat what is following section 13, 1896, the Main of Urbana approvedchange of name and fact of importance. on the platis now mayor StreetAvenue. as "White Street";inis awhat is Main n January appears: now University appears The an ordinance which the O Street