American suburbs took shape during the period from 1900 to 1930. Four characteristics have made suburbs in the United States unique compared to suburbs in other countries. The first distinguishing characteristic is a low population density, a settlement pattern that Americans sought in an effort to make their lives private. The second characteristic is the desire for homeownership; a greater percentage of Americans own their own homes than in any other country. The third defining characteristic is the socioeconomic distinction between the core city and the suburbs. Those living in the suburbs tend to be wealthier and better educated than residents living in core cities. The final characteristic is the length of the journey to work. As suburbs grew, Americans accepted ever-longer commutes to and from work. These four characteristics set America apart from the rest of the world. To understand why America’s suburbs have developed in this manner, one needs to look at the confluence of developments that created suburbs in the early 20th century.
The 20th-century suburb evolved through three stages determined by the dominant mode of transportation. During the late 19th century, the railroad served as the only way to reach the outer limits of a city and thus determined the settlement patterns of the suburbs. Early in the century, the electric streetcar revolutionized URBAN TRANSPORTATION and made it possible for a greater number of city residents to live outside the city center. Automobiles provided the next great change in suburbanization. Cars and the expansion of roads led to an explosion in suburban populations as the outer rings of metropolitan areas became more accessible. Transportation changes were not the only determinants of suburbanization, however. Cheaper construction methods, the availability of home mortgages, cultural changes, and public funding of transportation improvements also contributed to America’s flight to the suburbs.
Suburbs arose out of people’s desire to escape the city. At the turn of the century, escape was possible only for a few wealthy businessmen and their families. Due to the cost of rail transportation, which was prohibitive for most middle-class and working-class people, the rail suburbs consisted of the homes of wealthy businessmen—and workers who provided services such as gardening and domestic labor. The development of the electric streetcar profoundly affected labor. Fares were much lower on the streetcars than on the regular railroads, which made it possible for middle-class people to live in suburbs. The streetcar lines also reached more areas than the railroad, opening up new lands for housing development. In fact, urban transport companies used the streetcar lines to attract purchasers for land near to their lines.
Streetcar suburbs grew in a spoke-and-wheel pattern, with the city at the center of streetcar lines radiating out into the suburbs. This pattern of suburbanization was aided by public-funded city services. In the 1900s street-paving and other utilities such as sewers were paid for by a special assessment on those property owners living on the street being improved. In the early 20th century, influenced by the lobbying of property developers, city governments decided that paving streets would bolster commerce. Cities therefore began to tax all city residents for civic improvements. In effect, it taxed all residents for the benefit of those moving to the city’s edge.
Many other developments aided the creation of American suburbs during this period. As the streetcar companies extended their lines, cheaper property became available outside cities, which made the very cheapest housing opportunities available farther outside the cities. The development of the balloon-frame house also made single-family dwellings affordable. Before the development of balloonframing, heavy masonry columns and walls supported the weight of a house. This method of building was too expensive to use for large numbers of houses. Balloon-framing, in which a frame constructed of two-by-four boards supports the weight of the house, was much cheaper and made it economically possible for a wider section of American society to own a single-family home. Another development that aided suburban growth was the willingness of farmers to sell their land to property developers because agricultural prices had declined. It made economic sense for them to sell their land instead of continuing to farm.
New methods of financing home ownership also helped spread America’s suburbs. Building and loan associations emerged during the early 20th century. Members of these associations bought shares and in return the association granted loans for its members to buy homes. By spreading the cost of a home over a number of years, building and loan associations made houses affordable for many Americans who could not afford to buy a house outright. Finally, Americans underwent a cultural change that raised the value of privacy. Suburbs appealed to those seeking to escape the crowded environment of the city. A home of one’s own, set in the middle of a large yard, possibly with a hedge to screen the view from the road, provided the privacy that many sought.
The next step in the evolution of suburbs came with the rising popularity of the automobile in the 1920s. In 1905 there were 8,000 automobiles registered in the United States. By 1925 there were 17,481,001 autos registered. This tremendous increase in the number of Americans driving cars changed the suburbs. The turn to cars as the preferred mode of transportation encouraged the expansion of roads. The federal government aided local governments in expanding the road system. The 1916 Federal Aid Road Act offered matching funds to city governments that organized highway departments, and the 1921 Federal Road Act offered funds for the construction of roads. In an effort to relieve traffic congestion for commuters, state and municipal governments used these funds to pave and expand traffic arteries out of the cities and later to build “parkways.” These roads limited access in an effort to maintain constant traffic speeds and, as their name implies, were meant to provide a parklike environment for the drivers, with natural settings constructed along the roadway. America’s embrace of the automobile was accompanied by the decline of streetcar systems. By the 1920s streetcar systems had become unprofitable for a variety of reasons, a development that made automobile travel the preferred method of transportation.
Cars also reshaped suburban settlement patterns. By necessity, streetcar suburbs were concentrated within walking distance of streetcar lines. Automobile transportation and the expansion of roads made it possible for suburbs to grow anywhere. Thus, suburban settlement began to fill in the spaces between streetcar lines, altering the spoke-and-wheel settlement pattern. Because land was cheaper in the areas between streetcar lines, the inhabitants could afford larger pieces of property, which gave rise to the uniquely American pattern of a single-family home sitting in the middle of a large yard. It further deepened the disparity in population density between the cities and suburbs.
Trucks also played an important role in America’s suburbanization by making industrial suburbs possible. During the era of rail transportation, manufacturers concentrated within the central area of the city, close to rail lines, because the only way to transport large amounts of goods was by rail. The expansion of the road systems made it possible to use trucks to transport goods. Businesses jumped at the opportunity afforded by the truck, because land was cheaper in the suburbs than in the city. As industry moved out of the city, workers followed, which helped the dispersal of population to the suburbs.
By 1930, America’s suburbs had evolved into the pattern familiar today. It is important to remember that suburbanization occurred through the actions of many different interests. It was not accidental. Developers, automobile companies, street car companies, reformers, individual citizens, and government officials all acted to create the American suburb.
See also AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY; CITIES AND URBAN LIEE.
Further reading: Kenneth Jackson, Crabgrass Fron-tier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985); Becky M. Nicolaides, My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002).
—Michael Hartman
World History
