The Rise of Suburbia
Suburban America in the 1950's
By Connor McGee Per.7
Suburbs in the 1950's
The American suburbs have become a staple within the history of our country. Although the concept of a suburb was popularized during the 1950's they had been around the 1920's. To define a suburb it is "An area that has economic ties to a nearby city but is outside of the city limits" (Judith S. Baughman). The main reason for the historic significance of Suburbia is due to how much it has impacted the modern world, this impact being how over 80% of all americans live within suburbia, or suburbic areas
Typical sidewalk within Levittown
Levittown Ad in 1957
General suburb within the 1950's
Levittown, The most popular suburb in the 1950's
The city of Levittown is arguably the most famous suburb in its time period. This suburb was based 30 miles outside of New York City. When the suburb was completed in November of 1951 contained over 17,000 homes as well as many schools, parks, store, and many other buildings. At the end of World War two there was a boom within the real-estate of selling housing, this would lead to the rapid success of suburbs such as Levittown
Young Familys
Within Levittown and most other suburbs in the country the houses were mainly owned and lived in by young families that had be started at the end of the war. The average age of an adult in Levittown during 1952 was 35 years of age. The average number of children per household had been around 2 children per house.
Segregation within Suburbs
The vast majority of people living in these suburbs were Young, White, Middle Class, Families. People who were Jewish, Hispanic, African American, Elderly, Single, or Un-Married were generally not accepted by the rest of the inhabitants of the suburbs.
The Impact of the Decade
Throughout the History of the USA people had always lived within the cities, this was the norm within america up until the mid of the 1950's. Due to the popularity of the suburban lifestyle the ideals of it have been past down from generation to generation, this can be seen with how prominent it is today.
Connections to Today and Solutions for the Future
There are many ways to connect 1950's suburbia to Today, but the main connection being how similar they are, this is because the majority of suburban areas built in the 50's are still in use to this day, and in the future most if not all of the suburban areas build today will still be in use.
Research Sources
Suburbia. (2001). In J. S. Baughman, V. Bondi, R. Layman, T. McConnell, & V. Tompkins (Eds.), American Decades (Vol. 6, pp. 276-277). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3468301966&v=2.1&u=park99813&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=45abffea38eb6db7156143d0e47203a9
Suburbia. (2001). In J. S. Baughman, V. Bondi, R. Layman, T. McConnell, & V. Tompkins (Eds.), American Decades (Vol. 6, pp. 160-161). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3468301873&v=2.1&u=park99813&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=18f5f3a39a800091f194e3470f426910
Homogenized Children of New Suburbia. (2004). In C. Rose (Ed.), American Decades Primary Sources (Vol. 6, pp. 346-349). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3490201137&v=2.1&u=park99813&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=ee8f8d94e9749a1284119ba451279a0f