1809 French Urban Planning Letter from the Conseil d’Etat About Public Transportation

On offer is a personal communication to a member of one France’s highest court in the early years of Napoleon’s reign.

The letter is from a Section or Department of the Conseil d’Etat (Council of State), the French governmental body that acts both as legal adviser of the executive branch and as the supreme court for administrative justice. It was established in 1799 by Napoleon. The letter advises one of the Counsellors that a file relating to urban transport has been forwarded to the appropriate Minister. An excerpt follows:

Monsieur…Le Secretaire de la Section des Traveaux publics de l'Agriculture du Commerce de l'industrie et des Postes et Telegraphs a l'honneur d'informer Monsieur Dufour que les dossiers relativs a l'etablissements de 20 nouvelles lignes de tramways dans Paris et sa banlieue ont ete [] au Ministre des Travaux Publies

[Translation: Sir…The Secretary of the Section of Public Works of Agriculture, Commerce, Industry and Post and Telegraphs has the honour to inform Mr. Dufour that the files relating to the establishment of 20 new tramway lines in Paris and its suburbs have been sent to the Minister of Public Works]

From our informal research, the recipient was Louis François Eugène Dufour de Neuville, a member of the Conseil d’Etat. 

Since the Middle Ages, European cities had been centres of government, culture, and large-scale commerce. Cities were also crowded, dirty, and unhealthy. The challenge of urban growth was felt first and most acutely in Britain. But problems were brewing in Paris as well. People worried about the condition of their cities. Rapid urbanization without any public transportation worsened already poor living conditions in cities in the nineteenth century. Paris had witnessed first hand the social unrest that came from cramped and crowed slums in the centre of their city In Paris and other European cities, urban planners demolished buildings and medieval walls to create wide boulevards and public parks. Mass public transport, including electric streetcars, enabled city dwellers to live further from the city centre, relieving overcrowding. This letter touches on this massive undertaking which is still going on to this day.

For an urban historian or urban planner, this small confirmation letter is a direct connection to one of the great efforts in urban and social planning.

This small 4-page document measures 8.25 inches by 5.25 inches. It is a single sheet folded to make 4 pages. The text covers only the front page. The note is partially printed with a formal salutation from the government department and then space for handwritten details to be added following. The paper is in very good condition and very legible. On the back page is an address block with three cancelled stamps.