Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000

“Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth: 1820-2000,” by Dolores Hayden, Random House, 2003. This 318-page paperback tells the story of the suburbs. The book is for the general reader but focuses on architecture and the urban landscape. Hayden is a professor at Yale.The book notes that urban space expanded in working class, middle class, and upper class neighborhoods, influenced by restrictive covenants and racial segregation, but tended to follow seven suburban patterns.Borderlands. In the 1840s city dwellers began to escape the noise, odors, disease, filth and congestion of the city for greener environs. Books described the ideal cottage for conversion of farmland. Designs were primitive. Isolation and loneliness were not considered. The place would be reached by rail or steamboat. Economics limited those who could participate. One was built in the Hudson Valley near Newburg, NY.Picturesque Enclaves. In the 1830s, rural cemeteries became popular in part for fear of disease in urban areas. They featured attractive landscaping including trees, steams, ponds, and winding roads. Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, established in 1838 was one of the first. People walked the grounds to enjoy the landscaping. City parks grew from this experience.Agricultural utopias came on the scene in the 1840s. They stressed community living in an agricultural environment often in communes. There were several, but Charles Fourier’s Phalanx system was most numerous. Dozens may have attempted to organize, but the best known were built in Red Bank, NJ (actually in Freehold), and Roxbury, MA. All failed by the mid-1850s. The Shakers were a religious commutarian agricultural group. They established over 20 communities in the US including New Lebanon, NY, Hancock, MA, and Shaker Heights, OH. Some prospered until turn of the century.Llewellyn Park, in West Orange, NJ was one of the first suburban developments. It was built as a park with views of meadows, imported trees, a brook, and a lake. In 1870, the sponsor envisioned about 100 families on 750 acres on lots of one to 20 acres. Eventually that included industrialists Edison, Pullman and Otis. It still exists as a gated community emphasizing security and privacy.A second was Riverside, near Brookfield, IL, nine miles from downtown Chicago. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, America’s leading landscape architect, best known for designing New York’s Central Park (and much more). It had a railroad station, a business district, and 2250 half acre lots with trees and setback from the street. Olmsted’s office designed similar projects in other cities. His ideas were copied by others. One was Rochelle Park in Westchester Co., NY. Others mentioned include Tuxedo Park, NY and Country Club District in Kansas City, MO. They were for the rich.Streetcar suburbs. Business centered on the waterfront in most cities from the days when everything moved by water. Travel times meant employees had to live within about three miles of the wharf. High population density contributed to the concerns of city living: congestion, noise, odors, disease, sanitation, etc.That changed with the arrival of first cable cars (1880) and then electric streetcars (1890). They traveled at 10 to 12 mph vs 4 mph for omnibuses or horsecars making streetcar suburbs practical. Narrow lots on a grid of streets within walking distance of street rail lines were most common. Streetcar companies extended their lines and sold lots. Or bribery could get a line extended. Streetcar lines also built end of line amusement parks to generate off peak riders. Streetcars made downtown department stores possible. Profitability peaked in about 1910. Line extensions became less successful as commuter time increased.. Corruption charges reduced public support. They faded with the arrival of the automobile. General Motors, Firestone Rubber, Mack Truck, and Chevron bought streetcar companies and converted them to buses.Mail Order Kit Homes. With the arrival of the automobile, kit homes became popular. Sears Roebuck was a major supplier. From 1907 to 1934, Sears sold 110,000 homes. They ranged from a single room shack to four bedroom colonials. Sears bought a lumbermill in Louisiana, a lumber yard in Cairo, IL, and a millwork plant in Norwood, OH. In 1911, they offered financing. Others participated including Aladdin and on the west coast, Pacific Ready Cut.In this era, self built homes were also popular. During hard times, some were built in stages as funds became available. During the Great Depression, the Hoover Administration endorsed new home construction. The Federal Home Bank offered mortgage support to lenders, but lenders failed to respond. In 1934 FHA provided loans to modernize existing homes or purchase electric appliances. Funds were advanced to developers. But these programs re-enforced red lining by denying loans to people of color.Hayden names the post World War II Levittown developments “sitcom suburbs.” These were mass produced houses intended to address shortages and provide homes for returning veterans. The best known is the development on Long Island, NY. It consisted of 800 sf Cape Cod style homes with two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a driveway but no garage. An electric range, washer, and TV were included. They had cesspools and no sewers. The houses were virtually identical with minor variations. They were built assembly line style by specialized construction crews. Levitt also built in Bucks Co, PA (1951), Willingsboro, NJ (1960s), and later in Puerto Rico and France. Copycats spread across the country. One was Lakewood near Long Beach, CA, begun in 1949. Another was Park Forest, IL, 30 miles south of Chicago, begun in 1947.Next came edge nodes. As population moved to the suburbs, retail followed. Commercial developments were often near major highways. Other businesses located nearby creating nodes. The book cites Tyson Corners, VA as an example. Joel Garreau described edge cities as over 5MM sf of office space and over 600k sf retail space with more jobs than bedrooms. He found more than 100 such communities in the US. They exemplify urban sprawl. They are dominated by the auto and lack a city center. They stretch resources to provide roads, utilities and services over distances. People don’t want to live there, but prefer to commute. Hayden cites the 1954 Internal Revenue code that allowed 7 year depreciation rather than the traditional 40 years. That encouraged over building of commercial buildings, often of low quality. It is the reason much retail space is now vacant.Residential developments have moved to rural fringes. In 1999, the average new house was up to 2250 sf. A two-car garage added 400 sf sometimes resulting in a “snout house” with the garage in front of the house. Some include a home office of 300 to 600 sf, sometimes with a first floor master bedroom that can be used as an office. These are the McMansions of today. There are also “starter castles” which might be as large as 20,000 sf. Building in rural areas gives access to scenery, wildlife, and larger space for family living. But it also leaves communities isolated from city services. Residents are dependent on the auto. Working moms create increased need for maids and nannies, fast food, and “taxi moms” driving kids to their activities. Walkable neighborhoods and public transportation are often cited as wants. Some states enacted comprehensive land use planning laws. One of those is the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Act of 1973, which provided for statewide planning especially for sewers, water, schools, and public transportation.A final section predicts the future. Hayden encourages a return to the picturesque enclave and cites Seaside, FL, built in 1981, as a modern example. It is a high density, seaside resort designed to encourage walking and bicycling. The project includes a city center with retail space as well as parks and walking paths. It was the location for the movie Truman Show. Disney’s Town of Celebration in Florida is covered, but is more theme park than enclave. Smart home technology is discussed but so far is more theoretical than practical. Sustainable houses have potential especially in energy efficient designs. Technology developed earlier has been little used.The author labels federal tax deductions for mortgage interest and property tax a “mansion subsidy” for the wealthy. (The new tax law capping deductions at $10K addressed this issue.) She prefers that subsidies be directed at rebuilding the inner city where city services and public transportation are already established. The Burnham Building in Irvington, Westchester Co., NY is given as an example. In 1998, an abandoned factory was renovated to include the public library and 22 units of much needed affordable housing in this wealthy community.The Concord Village project in Indianapolis is also described. It’s a federal HOPE IV project, which built 220 mixed income units using locally trained builders. The homes were of a classical neighborhood style–intended to fit in.The problems of urban sprawl become more apparent especially as distances increase. This book urges alternatives to sprawl.Hayden’s book is a thorough overview of the history of suburbia and the many styles involved. The book ends with the decline of retail in malls caused by big box stores, but before the recent declines from online competition. This volume does not address current efforts to re-purpose malls and retail space. Also missing is the millennials, who seem to have gotten the message. They prefer walkable communities in the inner city. Photos, bibliography, references, index.

Purchased for an Urban History class. Well-written and easy to understand the evolution of American suburbs. Lots of great images, too!

This is a readable and enlightening history of the American phenomena of suburbia, from the mid-1800s to the 1970s. It clearly shows how the government and communities subsidized builders and developers, who, in turn, left it up to taxpayers to support the cost of new streets, sewers, schools, and all the other infrastructure needed to support ever-expanding suburbs. The book could have done a more thorough job of explaining how the funds that went to suburbs ended up leaving cities impoverished, with the result that schools, security, and infrastructure suffered. Also, the author could have described the terrible environmental toll as thousands of square miles of McMansion ghettos devoured farms, deserts and forests. The housing orgy of the 2000-2007 era was an extreme manifestation of the trend that has been ongoing since the 1800s.

This was a fascinating read. Even if you're not as obsessed with suburbia as I currently find myself, give it a shot--it explains a lot about how modern American consumer society got to be the way it is. Hayden's writing is the best combination of academically rigorous and supremely readable that I've seen in a long time. Will definitely purchase more books by her (and probably reread this one five or six times as well). Good stuff.

Casual observers probably attribute the growth of suburbs in America after WW2 to random or mercurial "market forces," but nothing could be further from the truth. Suburbs began as a utopian experiment and thrived on the back of public policy and government assistance. This is not a thrilling history by any means, but it is an interesting exploration of how something we take for granted came into being.

Super easy read, even if you're not studying the history of American suburbanization. It's written for both a popular and academic audience, though it's not the most academic text I've read on the matter. Hayden draws some great conclusions at the end and pulls the narrative to present day American housing habits. Overall, it's a great text if you're building a body of work on housing, urbanization, and suburban culture.

Cheap and good.

one of the best introductions and explanations of the field.

I have spent the last 30 years running a UK based firm of architects planners and masterplanners that specialises in large scale residential urban extensions (in England) and was not sure if this book would have much relevance to what we do. What was fascinating to see was that although the final outcomes on either of the Atlantic have their obvious differences, the financial and political drivers that create these housing “solutions” are very closely aligned. Most of the key points made in this well researched and immensely readable book, are recognisable in how we deliver housing in the 21st century in England. I highly recommend to UK practitioners as well as those on the USA and students will find it a useful starting point for their studies in housing. Excellent.

This book gives a good and comprehensive outlook of the history of suburbia of the last two centuries. Many pages providing in depth information on housing types, their history, data, and effect that they've been having in the sprawl with much more on the urban issue of American cities. It is an accurate account of what's happening but it stops at the first half of the 2000s since it was published in 2004. If you are interested in urban design, sociology, architecture, this book will help you expand the understanding of the origins of suburbia and its growth.

Very good!