Today’s post is by John LeGloahec, Archivist in the Electronic Records Division at the National Archives in College Park, MD.
It’s the American Dream to own a little white house with a picket fence, maybe a dog (or a cat) in the yard, with your 2 and a half kids on the swings in the back yard, in the American Suburbs. There are more than sixteen hundred references to “suburb” in the Records of the National Register, fifteen hundred entries that hit on “suburbs”, and eighty-six entries for “suburbia.”
In Reno, Nevada is the Patrick Ranch House (National Archives Identifier 63816759), “a charming, tum-of-the-century. Folk Victorian home with Queen Anne attributes. The house sits on a rough-hewn stone foundation and stem wall, and sports a 3-wrap-around porch on the northeast side of the facade. The stone foundation work resembles the work of stone masonry work found in homes of a similar age in Reno.”
“Reno was the first town in Nevada to develop suburbs, beginning in the early twentieth century, in response to the urban sprawl that extended outward from the city center. The center of the town stands along the banks of the Truckee River, and the broad valley that stretches outward from the town’s core encouraged the development of suburban areas. In the early 1900s, Senator Francis G. Newlands built the first home to be situated on a bluff overlooking the Truckee River, thus establishing the prestigious Newlands Heights neighborhood.”
Not far from the National Archives in College Park, Maryland is the planned community of Greenbelt, Maryland (National Archives Identifier 106775967) “built by the federal government along garden city principles . . . The community is one of three “greenbelt towns” built by the Resettlement Administration (RA) in 1935-38. Defense housing was added to the community by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1941-42. The plan of Greenbelt is a crescent-shaped layout of “superblocks.” Each superblock contains rows of frame and concrete-block, group and multi-family dwellings. All dwellings feature a garden and service side, and are linked to one another via foot paths. Underpasses connect the housing to a town common, which features the original commercial buildings and community center/school. A recreational area with a swimming pool and athletic facilities is located behind the town common, and a 27-acre man-made lake is just beyond. Allotment gardens maintained by local residents since the community’s origin are positioned at the edge of town. The architecture of Greenbelt clearly reflects a modernist approach, with straightforward housing and more stylistically conscious public buildings.”
“The 1935-46 development of Greenbelt, Maryland represents the first, government-sponsored, planned community in the United States built on “garden city” principles and embodies the regional planning principles and architectural ideals of the mid-1930s. In 1919, the Garden and Town Planning Association in England, in conjunction with Ebenezer Howard, adopted the following definition of the term “garden city: “A Garden City is a Town designed for healthy living and industry; of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life, but not larger; surrounded by a rural belt; the whole of the land being in public ownership or held in trust for the community.” Three “greenbelt towns” were built by Roosevelt’s New Deal government along garden city lines to respond to the Depression and a housing crisis in American cities. The town of Greenbelt, Maryland, the first, largest, and most complete of the three towns, was an attempt to build a large-scale, scientifically planned suburban community that would decentralize the population of Washington, D.C. The greenbelt towns were comprehensive in scope, featuring housing, commerce, schools, and recreation. Their architectural treatments varied depending on the town, but Greenbelt’s was functional and modern, with the community buildings receiving a more conscious stylistic treatment. Today, the greenbelt towns remain one of the boldest examples of public housing on a community scale ever undertaken in this country. Their influence, along with that of the Tennessee Valley Authority, has been felt world-wide. Greenbelt’s significance can be felt in the emergence of regional planning as a discipline; in the widespread construction of planned communities after the 1940s; in the “turning around” of the suburban house so that it features a service and garden side; and in the role of cooperatives in running communities across the country.”
In Kansas City, Missouri, there are nine residences (National Archives Identifier 63817545) “designed by Mary Rockwell Hook and constructed over a nineteen-year period – from 1908 to 1927. These residences constitute a major portion of Mrs. Hook’s architectural works and range in size from small to grandiose. The designs were very much in the mainstream of American architecture in the early Twentieth century. All around the country, before and after World War I, the automobile was stimulating the growth of garden suburbs and architects were constructing revivalist retreats to which the affluent escaped from the dirt, noise, and confusion of the industrialized central city. Mrs. Hook’s use of period elements in composing asymmetrical and picturesque buildings placed her in the same stylistic mode as the majority of her architectural contemporaries.”
“Stylistically, her designs cover a wide spectrum. Almost all are modeled on traditional prototypes and are characterized by an eclectic combination of historic influences. Without exception, each of the buildings is located on inclined terrain. Mrs. Hook’s proclivity for adapting dwellings to such settings becomes more apparent over the years. Such sites also allowed Mrs. Hook to compose buildings with asymmetrical facades and projecting extensions or wings. Her homes exemplify her enthusiasm for the penetration of light and air into a building and for the integration of indoor with outdoor living. Balconies and porches, both open and screened, were a favored feature and enabled the architect to capitalize on a hillside site by capturing any breezes which mitigated the impact of the midwestern summer sun. Multiple windows, often casements in metal frames, served the same purpose. Many doors at various levels allowed occupants of Mrs. Hook’s houses to move easily, during fine weather, to the gardens, patios, and swimming pools which were often integrated into the residential designs. Exterior building materials included shingles, stucco, brick, and limestone. The limestone was often quarried from or near the site of a building. Clay tile was a roofing preference, although shingles and slate were also used.”
“Entering the field of architecture in the first decades of the Twentieth century was a difficult accomplishment for women. Only five women architects were working in Kansas City from c. 1910 to 1930, and only Mary Rockwell Hook (who produced fewer works) gained any measure of public recognition. Bom into a wealthy and cosmopolitan family for whom education and travel were essentials of life, Mrs. Hook (1877-1978) found the incentive for her career in her schooling and trips abroad. However, she managed to meld the practice of architecture with marriage, motherhood, active participation in civic affairs, and a busy social life. As a woman and a practicing architect, Mary Rockwell Hook was a pioneer, opening a path for other woman to follow and thus making a significant contribution to the history of American architecture.”
In Dallas, Texas, the neighborhoods of East and South Dallas (National Archives Identifier 40968736), “can all be viewed as manifestations of Dallas’ early suburbanization due to their physical relationship to the central business district, their establishment along streetcar lines and the promotional techniques employed by their developers. Beyond these similarities the project area diverged into three distinct regions and corresponding spheres of study, by virtue of their physical location, fluctuating demographics, and perceived social and economic status. For the purposes of this nomination, as well as future planning efforts, it may be most useful to consider these three regions first as extensions of Dallas’ emergence as a major transportation and distribution center following the arrival of the first railroads in 1872 and then as separate regions identified as Colonial Hill, South Dallas, and East Dallas.”
“Nothing in Dallas’s early history foretold of its preeminence among Texas’ cities thirty years after its founding in 1841. Wresting the county seat away from Herd’s Ridge (present day Oak Cliff) in an 1850 election brought a degree of regional commercial and political prominence to Dallas, but until the railroad connected the town to eastern markets it proved of little practical benefit. It was the arrival of the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC) Railroad in 1872, and its intersection with the Texas and Pacific (T&P) Railroad a year later, that ushered in an era of growth that would make Dallas the premiere merchant city of the Southwest.”
“The suburban development of Colonial Hill, East Dallas and South Dallas, was made possible by the network of streetcar lines that allowed people to live farther away from the central city and their places of work. The force behind the success of these suburbs lay in the union of real estate developers with street railway promoters, who frequently were partners in each others’ enterprises. A typical collaboration involved the purchase and subdivision of inexpensive land far from the center of town, followed by the establishment of a park or other attraction, and the construction of a streetcar line to bring prospective buyers to the new subdivision. Though there are differences between the three areas in growth and development dynamics and in housing types and demographics, they each owe their existence to the street railroads.”
“Dallas’ suburban buildings built during the city’s rapid expansion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries reflect significant changes in architectural forms and development patterns. Much of this is the result of technological advances in construction and the production of building materials. New and expanding transportation systems and modes greatly stimulated the suburbanization process. The portions of East Dallas and South Dallas on which this property-type discussion focuses are fairly typical of the patterns of other Dallas suburbs and other Texas cities that experienced rapid growth from the 1880s to World War n. In East Dallas, sporadic, low-density development already existed as new neighborhoods were created on re-subdivided parcels around the tum of the century. The planning and development of South Dallas was more systematic, though the uneasy coexistence of European American and African-American communities ~ divided by a “color-line” ~ strongly affected die configuration, and later the transformation, of the neighborhood.”
In Alexandria, Virginia, is the Rosemont neighborhood (National Archives Identifier 41679436), “an early-twentieth-century residential subdivision northwest of the Old and Historic District of Alexandria, Virginia, a planned, well-landscaped, 84-acre area of middle-class houses constructed mostly between 1908 and 1940 . . . The district contains a number of well designed Arts and Crafts and Craftsman-style bungalows and houses, but the majority of buildings from the contributing period are in the Colonial Revival style. Although the houses represent the work of many different architects and builders, the district exhibits remarkable design cohesiveness and has remained essentially intact, with little loss of contributing buildings, street patterns, or landscaping.”
“The early part of the twentieth century was a period of rapid suburban growth for the area surrounding Washington, DC. In both Maryland and Virginia, the demand for suburban home sites surged, as automobiles and trolleys made escape from the city an attractive option for families of the working and middle classes. Maryland experienced a suburban building boom along the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, while in Virginia, Rosemont was one in a string of emerging communities clustered within commuting distance of the national capital along the Washington Alexandria & Mount Vernon trolley line and the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad.”
Also in Alexandria, Virginia is the home of Gerald Ford (National Archives Identifier 41679464), “at 514 Crown View Drive, Alexandria, Virginia, [where he and his family lived] from the time of the house’s construction until the Fords moved into the White House on August 19, 1974, ten days after Mr. Ford took the oath of office as President of the United States. During this period, Mr. Ford served as Representative of the 5th district of Michigan in the US Congress, as House Minority Leader, and as Vice President of the United States.”
“The Fords retained ownership of the Crown View house and rented it out, until they decided that upon leaving the White House they would settle in California, partly because they felt that Mrs. Ford’s arthritis would improve in a hot, dry climate. On January 13, 1977, eight days before President Jimmy Carter’s Inauguration, President Ford wrote to the next owner of 514 Crown View Drive: “I am happy to hear that you will soon be the new owner of our Alexandria home…. Betty, the children, and I had many wonderful years in that home.” Mrs. Ford reflected later about leaving their home of nineteen years:
“For me, leaving the White House wasn’t nearly so much of a wrench as leaving our house in Alexandria. After we decided we weren’t going to move back and put the house up for sale, I never went over there again. I didn’t want to. We had built the place, the children had grown up there, all of our neighbors were friends. We’d been to so many block parties and Fourth of July celebrations, we’d planted gardens and put in trees, and I knew if I saw it again it would upset me. I wanted to think of my new life, to look forward.”
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring records from the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and National Historic Landmarks Program Records, 2013 – 2017 (National Archives ID 20812721), a series within Record Group 79: Records of the National Park Service.