Suburb

== History ==
The history of suburbia is part of the study of [[urban history]], which focuses on the origins, growth, diverse typologies, culture, and politics of suburbs, as well as on the gendered and family-oriented nature of suburban space.<ref name="cite crabgrass"/><ref>{{cite journal|author=Ruth McManus, and Philip J. Ethington|title=Suburbs in transition: new approaches to suburban history|journal=Urban History|year= 2007|volume=34 |issue= 2|pages= 317–337|doi=10.1017/S096392680700466X|s2cid=146703204}}</ref> Many people have assumed that early-20th-century suburbs were enclaves for middle-class whites, a concept that carries tremendous cultural influence yet is actually stereotypical. Some suburbs are based on a society of working-class and minority residents, many of whom want to own their own house. Meanwhile, other suburbs instituted "explicitly racist" policies to deter people deemed as "other", a practice most common in the United States in contrast to other countries around the world.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Adams|first=L. J.|date=1 September 2006|title=Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism|journal=Journal of American History|volume=93|issue=2|pages=601–602|doi=10.2307/4486372|jstor=4486372|issn=0021-8723}}</ref> Mary Corbin Sies argues that it is necessary to examine how "suburb" is defined as well as the distinction made between cities and suburbs, geography, economic circumstances, and the interaction of numerous factors that move research beyond acceptance of stereotyping and its influence on scholarly assumptions.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Mary Corbin Sies|title=North American Suburbs, 1880–1950|journal=Journal of Urban History|year= 2001|volume= 27 |issue =3|pages=313–46|doi=10.1177/009614420102700304 |s2cid=144947126}}</ref>

===Early history===
The earliest appearance of suburbs coincided with the spread of the first urban settlements. Large walled towns tended to be the focus around which smaller villages grew up in a symbiotic relationship with the [[market town]]. The word ''suburbani'' was first employed by the [[Rome|Roman]] statesman [[Cicero]] in reference to the large villas and estates built by the wealthy patricians of Rome on the city's outskirts.

Towards the end of the [[Eastern Han Dynasty]], until 190 AD, when [[Dong Zhuo]] razed the city, the capital [[Luoyang]] was mainly occupied by the emperor and important officials; the city's people mostly lived in small cities right outside Luoyang, which were suburbs in all but name.<ref>{{cite web|title=Luoyang and the Northern Army|url=http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23989|website=Scholars of Shen Zhou}}</ref>

As populations grew during the [[Early Modern Period]] in Europe, towns swelled with a steady influx of people from the [[countryside]]. In some places, nearby settlements were swallowed up as the main city expanded. The peripheral areas on the outskirts of the city were generally inhabited by the very poorest.<ref name="infoplease">{{cite web|url=http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/world/suburb-history-suburbs.html#ixzz2IqMC5s34|title=History of Suburbs|access-date=17 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200320105249/https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/arts/visual/architecture/suburb/history-of-suburbs#ixzz2IqMC5s34|archive-date=20 March 2020|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

===Origins of the modern suburb===
Due to the rapid migration of the rural poor to the industrializing cities of England in the late 18th century, a trend in the opposite direction began to develop, whereby newly rich members of the middle classes began to purchase estates and villas on the outskirts of London. This trend accelerated through the 19th century, especially in cities like London and [[Birmingham]] that were growing rapidly, and the first suburban districts sprung up around downtowns to accommodate those who wanted to escape the squalid conditions of the industrial towns. Initially, such growth came along rail lines in the form of [[ribbon development]]s, as suburban residents could commute via train to downtown for work. In Australia, where Melbourne would soon become the second-largest city in the British Empire,<ref>{{cite book
 |last1=Goodman |first1=Robin |last2=Buxton |first2=Michael
 |last3=Moloney |first3=Susie
 |chapter=The early development of Melbourne 
 |title=Planning Melbourne: Lessons for a Sustainable City
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z3-NDAAAQBAJ
 |quote=By 1890, Melbourne was the second-largest city in the British Empire and one of the world's richest.
 |publisher=CSIRO Publishing |date=2016 |access-date=16 June 2019 |isbn=9780643104747
}}
</ref>
the distinctively Australasian suburb, with its loosely aggregated [[quarter acre|quarter-acre]] sections, developed in the 1850s<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Gilbert
 | first1 = Alan
 | author-link1 = 
 | chapter = The Roots of Australian Anti-Suburbanism
 | title = Australian Cultural History
 | date = 25 July 1989
 | editor1-last = Goldberg
 | editor1-first = Samuels Louis
 | editor2-last = Smith
 | editor2-first = Francis Barrymore
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eQc5AAAAIAAJ
 | edition = reprint
 | location = Cambridge
 | publisher = CUP Archive
 | publication-date = 1988
 | page = 36
 | isbn = 9780521356510
 | access-date = 26 March 2021
| quote = [...] there has been surprising continuity since the infancy of Australian suburbia in the 1850s in the attitudes, values and motives underlying suburbanization.
}}
</ref> and eventually became a component of the [[Australian Dream]].
[[File:Metro-Land (1921).png|thumb|upright=1.1|The cover of the [[Metro-Land]] guide published in 1921|alt= A painting of a half-timbered house set behind a drive and flower garden. Below the painting the title "METRO-LAND" is in capitals and in smaller text is the price of twopence.]]

Toward the end of the century, with the development of public [[Public transport|transit]] systems such as the [[Rapid transit|underground railways]], trams and buses, it became possible for the majority of a city's population to reside outside the city and to commute into the center for work.<ref name="infoplease" />

By the mid-19th century, the first major suburban areas were springing up around London as the city (then the largest in the world) became more overcrowded and unsanitary. A major catalyst for suburban growth was the opening of the [[Metropolitan Railway]] in the 1860s. The line later joined the capital's financial heart in [[City of London|the City]] to what were to become the suburbs of [[Middlesex]].<ref>{{cite book|last1= Edwards|first1= Dennis|last2= Pigram|first2= Ron|year=1988|publisher= [[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]]|title= The Golden Years of the Metropolitan Railway and the Metro-land Dream|isbn= 1-870630-11-4|page= 32}}</ref> The line reached [[Harrow-on-the-Hill station|Harrow]] in 1880.

Unlike other railway companies, which were required to dispose of surplus land, London's Met was allowed to retain such land that it believed was necessary for future railway use.{{NoteTag|The Land Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 required railways to sell off surplus lands within ten years of the time given for completion of the work in the line's enabling Act.{{sfn|Jackson|1986|p= 134}}}} Initially, the surplus land was managed by the Land Committee,{{sfn|Jackson|1986|pp= 134, 137}} and, from the 1880s, the land was developed and sold to domestic buyers in places like Willesden Park Estate, Cecil Park, near [[Pinner]] and at Wembley Park.

In 1912 it was suggested that a specially formed company should take over from the Surplus Lands Committee and develop suburban estates near the railway.{{sfn|Jackson|1986|p= 240}} However, [[World War I]] (1914–1918) delayed these plans until 1919, when, with the expectation of a postwar housing-boom,{{sfn|Green|1987|p=43}} [[Metropolitan Railway Country Estates| Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited]] (MRCE) formed. MRCE went on to develop estates at [[Kingsbury, London|Kingsbury Garden Village]] near [[Neasden]], [[Wembley Park]], Cecil Park and Grange Estate at Pinner and the Cedars Estate at [[Rickmansworth]] and to found places such as [[Harrow Garden Village]].{{sfn|Green|1987|p= 43}}{{sfn|Jackson|1986|pp= 241–242}}

The Met's marketing department coined the term [[Metro-land]] in 1915 when the ''Guide to the Extension Line'' became the ''Metro-land'' guide, priced at 1[[£sd|d]]. This promoted the land served by the Met for the walker, visitor and later the house-hunter.{{sfn|Jackson|1986|p= 240}} Published annually until 1932 (the last full year of independence for the Met), the guide extolled the benefits of "The good air of the Chilterns", using language such as "Each lover of Metroland may well have his own favorite wood beech and coppice&nbsp;— all tremulous green loveliness in Spring and russet and gold in October".{{sfn|Rowley|2006|pp= 206, 207}} The dream as promoted involved a modern home in beautiful countryside with a fast railway-service to central London.{{sfn|Green|2004|loc= introduction}} By 1915 people from across London had flocked to live the new suburban dream in large newly built areas across north-west London.<ref>
{{cite web
|url= http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/history-of-london/rambles-in-metro-land.html
|title= History of London Metro-Land and London's Suburbs|website= History.co.uk
|access-date= 2 January 2018|url-status= dead
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130712113950/http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/history-of-london/rambles-in-metro-land.html
|archive-date= 12 July 2013
}}
</ref>

===Interwar suburban expansion in England===
[[File:Mentmore Cottages.gif|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Tudorbethan architecture|Mock Tudor]] semi-detached cottages, built {{circa|1870}}]]
Suburbanization in the interwar period was heavily influenced by the [[garden city movement]] of [[Ebenezer Howard]] and the creation of the first garden suburbs at the turn of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The suburban aspiration in England since 1919 | doi=10.1080/13619460008581576 | volume=14|journal=Contemporary British History|pages=151–174|year=2000 |last1=Clapson |first1=Mark | s2cid=143590157 }}</ref> The first garden suburb was developed through the efforts of [[social reform]]er [[Henrietta Barnett]] and her husband; inspired by Ebenezer Howard and the model housing development movement (then exemplified by [[Letchworth]] garden city), as well as the desire to protect part of [[Hampstead Heath]] from development, they established trusts in 1904 which bought 243 acres of land along the newly opened Northern line extension to [[Golders Green]] and created the [[Hampstead Garden Suburb]]. The suburb attracted the talents of architects including [[Raymond Unwin]] and Sir [[Edwin Lutyens]], and it ultimately grew to encompass over 800 acres.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hgstrust.org/the-suburb/history-of-the-suburb.shtml|title=The History of the Suburb|website=Hgstrust.org|access-date=2 January 2018|archive-date=3 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103072550/http://www.hgstrust.org/the-suburb/history-of-the-suburb.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref>

During World War I, the [[Tudor Walters Committee]] was commissioned to make recommendations for the post war reconstruction and housebuilding. In part, this was a response to the shocking lack of fitness amongst many recruits during World War One, attributed to poor living conditions; a belief summed up in a housing poster of the period "you cannot expect to get an A1 population out of C3 homes" – referring to military fitness classifications of the period.

The committee's report of 1917 was taken up by the government, which passed the [[Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919]], also known as the Addison Act after [[Christopher Addison]], the then Minister for Housing. The Act allowed for the building of large new housing estates in the suburbs after the [[First World War]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/hq/outcomes1_02.shtml|title=Outcomes of the War: Britain|website=Bbc.co.uk|access-date=2 January 2018}}</ref> and marked the start of a long 20th century tradition of state-owned housing, which would later evolve into [[council estate]]s.

The Report also legislated on the required, minimum standards necessary for further suburban construction; this included regulation on the maximum housing density and their arrangement, and it even made recommendations on the ideal number of bedrooms and other rooms per house. Although the [[semi-detached]] house was first designed by the [[John Shaw Sr.|Shaws]] (a father and son architectural partnership) in the 19th century, it was during the suburban housing boom of the interwar period that the design first proliferated as a suburban icon, being preferred by middle-class home owners to the smaller [[terraced house]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.5334/pia.404|journal=[[Papers from the Institute of Archaeology]] |title=The Development of English Semi-detached Dwellings During the Nineteenth Century|volume=22|year=2012 |pages=83–98 |author=Lofthouse, Pamela |doi-access=free }}</ref> The design of many of these houses, highly characteristic of the era, was heavily influenced by the [[Art Deco]] movement, taking influence from [[Tudor Revival architecture|Tudor Revival]], [[Swiss chalet style|chalet style]], and even ship design.

Within just a decade suburbs dramatically increased in size. [[Harrow Weald]] went from just 1,500 to over 10,000 while Pinner jumped from 3,000 to over 20,000. During the 1930s, over 4 million new suburban houses were built, the 'suburban revolution' had made England the most heavily suburbanized country in the world, by a considerable margin.<ref name="Hollow 2011" />

===North America===
[[File:Pf006593-suburbs with cows.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|View of housing development in [[Richfield, Minnesota]], in 1954]]
[[File:NM 2.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|Suburban [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]]]]
[[File:Dallas skyline and suburbs.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Suburban [[Dallas]], Texas, seen in the foreground]]
[[Boston]] and [[New York City]] spawned the first major suburbs. The streetcar lines in Boston and the rail lines in Manhattan made daily commutes possible.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Ward David | year = 1964 | title = A Comparative Historical Geography of Streetcar Suburbs in Boston, Massachusetts and Leeds, England: 1850–1920 | journal = Annals of the Association of American Geographers | volume = 54 | issue = 4| pages = 477–489 | doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.1964.tb01779.x}}</ref> No metropolitan area in the world was as well served by railroad commuter lines at the turn of the twentieth century as New York, and it was the rail lines to Westchester from the Grand Central Terminal commuter hub that enabled its development. Westchester's true importance in the history of American suburbanization derives from the upper-middle class development of villages including [[Scarsdale, New York|Scarsdale]], [[New Rochelle, New York|New Rochelle]] and [[Rye, New York|Rye]] serving thousands of businessmen and executives from Manhattan.<ref>Roger G. Panetta, ''Westchester: the American suburb'' (2006)</ref>

==== Postwar suburban expansion ====
The suburban population in North America exploded during the [[post-World War II economic expansion]]. Returning veterans wishing to start a settled life moved in masses to the suburbs. [[Levittown, New York|Levittown]] developed as a major prototype of mass-produced housing. Due to the influx of people in these suburban areas, the amount of shopping centers began to increase as suburban America took shape. These malls helped supply goods and services to the growing urban population. Shopping for different goods and services in one central location without having to travel to multiple locations, helped to keep shopping centers a component of these newly designed suburbs which were booming in population. The television helped contribute to the rise of shopping centers by allowing for additional advertisement through the medium in addition to creating a desire among consumers to buy products that are shown being used in suburban life on various television programs. Another factor that led to the rise of these shopping centers was the building of many highways. The Highway Act of 1956 helped to fund the building of 64,000 kilometers across the nation by having 26 billion dollars on hand, which helped to link many more to these shopping centers with ease.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/outlines/history-1994/postwar-america/the-postwar-economy-1945-1960.php|title=The Postwar Economy: 1945–1960 < Postwar America < History 1994 < American History From Revolution To Reconstruction and beyond|website=Let.rug.nl|access-date=12 December 2021}}</ref> These newly built shopping centers, which were often large buildings full of multiple stores, and services, were being used for more than shopping, but as a place of leisure and a meeting point for those who lived within suburban America at this time. These centers thrived offering goods and services to the growing populations in suburban America. In 1957, 940 shopping centers were built and this number more than doubled by 1960 to keep up with the demand of these densely populated areas.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cohen|first=Lizabeth|title=A Consumer's Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America|publisher=Vintage Books|year=2003|pages=Chapter 6}}</ref>

==== Housing ====
[[File:Locust St Upper Darby.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Terraced house]]s in [[Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania]], an inner-ring suburb of [[Philadelphia]].]]
[[File:Suburbia by David Shankbone.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|A suburban neighborhood of [[tract housing]] in [[Colorado Springs, Colorado]], United States; [[Dead end (street)|culs-de-sac]] are hallmarks of suburban planning.]]
Very little housing had been built during the Great Depression and World War II, except for emergency quarters near war industries. Overcrowded and inadequate apartments was the common condition. Some suburbs had developed around large cities where there was rail transportation to the jobs downtown. However, the real growth in suburbia depended on the availability of automobiles, highways, and inexpensive housing. The population had grown, and the stock of family savings had accumulated the money for down payments, automobiles and appliances. The product was a great housing boom. Whereas an average of 316,000 new non-farm housing units were constructed from the 1930s through 1945, there were 1,450,000 constructed annually from 1946 through 1955.<ref>U.S. Bureau of the Census, ''Historical Statistics of the United States '' (1976) series H-156</ref> The [[G.I. Bill]] guaranteed low-cost loans for veterans, with very low down payments, and low interest rates. With 16 million eligible veterans, the opportunity to buy a house was suddenly at hand. In 1947 alone, 540,000 veterans bought one; their average price was $7300. The construction industry kept prices low by standardization—for example, standardizing sizes for kitchen cabinets, refrigerators and stoves allowed for mass production of kitchen furnishings. Developers purchased empty land just outside the city, installed tract houses based on a handful of designs, and provided streets and utilities, while local public officials raced to build schools.<ref>Joseph Goulden, ''The Best Years, 1945–1950'' (1976) pp 135–39.</ref> The most famous development was Levittown, in Long Island just east of New York City. It offered a new house for $1000 down and $70 a month; it featured three bedrooms, a fireplace, a gas range and gas furnace, and a landscaped lot of 75 by 100 feet, all for a total price of $10,000. Veterans could get one with a much lower down payment.<ref>Barbara Mae Kelly, ''Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding Levittown'' (SUNY Press, 1993).</ref>

At the same time, African Americans were [[Second Great Migration (African American)|rapidly moving north and west]] for better jobs and educational opportunities than were available to them in the segregated South. Their arrival in Northern and Western cities en masse, in addition to being followed by race riots in several large cities such as [[1964 Philadelphia race riot|Philadelphia]], [[Watts riots|Los Angeles]], [[1967 Detroit riot|Detroit]], [[1968 Chicago riots|Chicago]], and [[1968 Washington, D.C., riots|Washington, D.C.]], further stimulated white suburban migration. The growth of the suburbs was facilitated by the development of [[zoning]] laws, [[redlining]] and numerous innovations in transport. Redlining and other discriminatory measures built into federal housing policy furthered the racial segregation of postwar America–for example, by refusing to insure mortgages in and near African-American neighborhoods. The government's efforts were primarily designed to provide housing to White middle-class and lower-middle-class families. African Americans and other people of color largely remained concentrated within decaying cores of urban poverty creating a phenomenon known as [[white flight]].<ref name="Rothstein, Richard 2017">Rothstein, Richard: The Color of Law. A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, Liveright, 2017.</ref>

After World War II, the availability of [[FHA loan]]s stimulated a housing boom in American suburbs. In the older cities of the northeast U.S., [[streetcar suburb]]s originally developed along train or [[tram|trolley]] lines that could shuttle workers into and out of city centers where the jobs were located. This practice gave rise to the term "[[commuter town|bedroom community]]", meaning that most daytime business activity took place in the city, with the working population leaving the city at night for the purpose of going home to sleep.

Economic growth in the United States encouraged the suburbanization of American cities that required massive investments for the new infrastructure and homes. Consumer patterns were also shifting at this time, as purchasing power was becoming stronger and more accessible to a wider range of families. Suburban houses also brought about needs for products that were not needed in urban neighborhoods, such as lawnmowers and automobiles. During this time commercial shopping malls were being developed near suburbs to satisfy consumers' needs and their car–dependent lifestyle.<ref name="Beauregard, Robert A 2006">Beauregard, Robert A. When America Became Suburban. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.</ref>

Zoning laws also contributed to the location of residential areas outside of the city center by creating wide areas or "zones" where only residential buildings were permitted. These suburban residences are built on larger lots of land than in the central city. For example, the lot size for a residence in Chicago is usually {{convert|125|ft|m}} deep,<ref>{{cite web|title=Zoning Requirements for Standard Lot in RS3 District|url=http://chicago47.org/zoning-requirements-for-standard-lot-in-rs3-district/|website=47th Ward Public Service website|access-date=27 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814060758/http://chicago47.org/zoning-requirements-for-standard-lot-in-rs3-district/|archive-date=14 August 2014|language=en|url-status=dead}}</ref> while the width can vary from {{convert|14|ft|m}} wide for a row house to {{convert|45|ft|m}} wide for a large stand–alone house.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} In the suburbs, where stand–alone houses are the rule, lots may be {{convert|85|ft|m}} wide by {{convert|115|ft|m}} deep, as in the Chicago suburb of [[Naperville, Illinois|Naperville]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} Manufacturing and commercial buildings were segregated in other areas of the city.

Alongside suburbanization, many companies began locating their offices and other facilities in the outer areas of the cities, which resulted in the increased density of older suburbs and the growth of lower density suburbs even further from city centers. An alternative strategy is the deliberate design of "new towns" and the protection of [[green belt]]s around cities. Some social reformers attempted to combine the best of both concepts in the garden city movement.<ref>[http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/howard.htm Garden Cities of To-Morrow]. Library.cornell.edu. Retrieved on 22 November 2011.</ref>

In the U.S., 1950 was the first year that more people lived in suburbs than elsewhere.<ref>England, Robert E. and David R. Morgan.  ''Managing Urban America'', 1979.</ref> In the U.S., the development of the skyscraper and the sharp inflation of downtown real estate prices also led to downtowns being more fully dedicated to businesses, thus pushing residents outside the city center.