historian, "Johnson was a superb municipal technician. He grasped not only the ethics but the mathematics of government." The new administration paved hundreds of miles of streets and expanded the city's park system, building a large number of playgrounds, ball fields and other facilities. To popular acclaim, the mayor tore up all the 'Keep off the Grass' signs in the city parks, a symbol of his belief in changing parklands' role from passive to active recreation. Rubbish collection, then in private hands, had been a big campaign issue. Johnson eliminated the haulers' franchises and replace them with a municipal department; he hired back all the men who had lost their jobs, and demonstrated how a public service could provide better performance at lower cost. In keeping with the administration's focus on public health, a street cleaning force was started, and the city's Water Department was depoliticized and vastly improved. Public bathhouses were built in the poorest neighborhoods; some of these impressive buildings survive today. Johnson also began work on the monumental West Side Market, one of Cleveland's best-known landmarks. To improve housing conditions, the administration established the country's first comprehensive modern building code in 1904; the code became a model for many U.S. cities. As Director of Charities and Correction, Johnson appointed his own pastor, Harris R. Cooley. Under Cooley, the city purchased a huge tract of farmland in Warrensville Township, where a new City Workhouse was established on humanitarian principles, along with cottages for the indigent elderly and a sanatorium. Johnson was fortunate in finding talented men to staff his administration. Police Chief Fred Kohler, a stubborn, incorruptible martinet, gained national renown for cleaning up and professionalizing the force, and clamping down on vice. While laws were strictly enforced, Kohler made sure his men went easy on young first offenders and honest citizens in trouble. City Solicitor Newton D. Baker led the successful fight for 'Home Rule', working to give Cleveland a charter that would allow it greater independence from state oversight; Baker's efforts would pay off in 1912, when he wrote the amendment to the state constitution that brought full Home Rule to all Ohio's cities. Both Baker and Kohler would become mayors in their own right, continuing Johnson's policies, and Baker later served as Secretary of War under Woodrow Wilson. The physical symbol of Johnson's revolution in government is Cleveland's civic center, a spacious park surrounded by