Suburbs in the 1950’s

By: Kelsey Frampton

Freedom from Chaos

New Highway SystemNew Families

Work Citied

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 gave $25 billion to the new system in order to

make the 41 thousand miles that was planned for the

new roads. Not only did the highway help aid the military and civil defense operations but it also helped the people

living in the suburbs. Building these roads made

travel to the work place and back home more

unproblematic for the people who needed it. Since the

travel was less complex for the public it helped take

away the closeness of the cities. More people were

encouraged to move to the suburbs. They saw this as a

way to live the “American Dream.”

New Highway System

FREEDOM FROM CHAOTIC CITY

The people who moved from the congested city to the spacious and laid back suburbs got freedom.

Meaning they didn’t have to worry as much about the cost of living since it was less in the suburbs.

Freedom from the over crowdedness of the city. As well as depending on

other people for their homes or apartments. They were free to

make choices that they other wise wouldn’t have had the ability to do if

they still resided in the city.

New FamiliesMany couple were

getting married and starting their own

family. That’s when they found out that it

would be easier if they would move into the

suburbs right outside of the city. One of the

reason this was better for them was because

the cost of living in the suburbs was less then

the cost for living in the city. The families who

lived in the suburbs still lived close enough to the city to get to the

shops that were in the city.

BABY BOOMWhen the soldiers came home from fighting in the war, they

were getting married and starting their own family. With the increase of the births of the

kids it resulted in the Baby Boom. The number of births

peeked to 4.2 million in 1957. The results of the boom

consisted of more roads being paved, higher demand for

consumer goods, automobiles and of course more suburban

homes being built.

The Levitt Family There were three Levitt’s who ran the company. Abraham Levitt, who was the father and financier, Alfred Levitt was the architect, and William Levitt was the salesman and production manager. The three of them worked for the United States building on the brink of 2,400 units for the Navy in Virginia. They were also the people who helped with the inhabited construction boom that housed an age bracket and in addition they aided the expansion of the suburbs during the 50’s. Families wanted to live in their own homes spaced out from the other people around them. That was part of the “American Dream.” One of the most well-known effects that the Levitt’s were involved with was Levittown. It was built outside of Trenton in 1951. The family used cheap materials and used few blueprints. After people saw the affects of this town, Benjamin Fairless, president of U.S. Steel, bought up acres of nearby farmland to develop into 4,000 houses in Falls Township, Pa.

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/building.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHnIjpndAnM

G.I. BillThe G.I. Bill was created in order to prevent a strain on the nation’s economy when the service men returned from fighting in the war. The Bill gave servicemen the ability to go back to school to get a better education, get low-interest loans to buy a house or start a business. Of the 13 million homes that were in the suburbs 11 million of them were financed with loans from the program. With the ability to buy their own home, many of them made the decision to move to the suburbs. With this, the suburbs expanded to make room for the new comers from the cities.

http://www.loti.com/fifties_history/The_GI_Bill.html

Bibliography• Consequences of 1950s White Flight. 1 Apr. 2009. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. <http://modern-us-

history.suite101.com/article.cfm/consequences_of_1950s_white_flight>.

• How Suburbs Changed the United States. 2002-2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. <http://www.helium.com/items/300194-how-suburbs-changed-the-united-states>.

•THE 1950s: POST-WAR AMERICA HITCHES UP AND heads for the 'burbs. Penton Media, Inc., 2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. <http://nreionline.com/mag/real_estate_postwar_america_hitches/>.

•The GI Bill. 14 July 2009. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. <http://www.loti.com/fifties_history/The_GI_Bill.html>.

•1951: American dream houses, all in a row. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. <http://www.capitalcentury.com/1951.html>.