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The grid with two main axes intersecting, and the large public square at the intersection, were standard.

This plaza is the key to the entire settlement ; its size regulated the makeup[ of the grid. The blocks

immediately surrounding the plaza were divided into four equal sections (solares) and assigned to the

leading settlers. Sometimes the blocks were oriented with their corners facing the cardinal points at

such an angle that prevailing winds might not sweep the length of the town-as recommended by

virtuvius.

The laws of the indies did not affect two other types of settlement for Indians-the reduccionesd of the

Jesuits, the missions of the mendicant fathers-and the presidos or military establishments. These too,

however, followed a rectilinear plan more often than not. The distinction between the three types of

communities-pueblos, presidios, and indian towns-often disappeared in practice, especially after 1600.

The colonizing efforts of England in the new world also made use of the grid. In new England, which was

township-oriented from the start and where the land was surveyed and delimited ahead of settling, the

strict grid pattern is almost unknown. New havens crystalline plan of nine equal square blocks from

which issued an array of straight radial roads, with a tenth tail block linking up with the harbor, was an

exception. Tha plan-the town was settled in 1638-may have been made in advance in London, or in

boston where the company first landed. It might be explained by the ambition of the colony, which set

out to be an independent jurisdiction intent on controlling the whole of Long Island Sound. These

dreams collapsed in twenty years, and New Haven became a small farming community belonging to

Connecticut.

In the middle colonies, Panns Philadelphia for a Quaker population was famous. But further south, the

English colonies did not develop an urban structure in the 17th

century. Virginia and Maryland were

given a number of small unsophisticated grids, in accordance with the New Town Acts passed at the

direction of the Crown. These towns-Yorktown is an example-were intended to serve as ports of entry,

and as such they were resisted by planters and traders. With the introduction of west indian tobacco to

Virginia farms,, and the arrival of slave labor, the rural character of the region seemed sealed. The only

exceptions were Jamestown, Williamsburg where Virginias capital was transferred in 1699, and

Annapolis which became the capital of the colony of Maryland.