Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000

by Dolores Hayden

A lively history of the contested landscapes where the majority of Americans now live, Building Suburbia chronicles two centuries in the birth and development of America’s metropolitan regions.

From rustic cottages reached by steamboat to big box stores at the exit ramps of eight-lane highways, Dolores Hayden defines seven eras of suburban development since 1820. An urban historian and architect, she portrays housewives and politicians as well as designers and builders making the decisions that have generated America’s diverse suburbs. Residents have sought home, nature, and community in suburbia. Developers have cherished different dreams, seeking profit from economies of scale and increased suburban densities, while lobbying local and federal government to reduce the risk of real estate speculation. Encompassing environmental controversies as well as the complexities of race, gender, and class, Hayden’s fascinating account will forever alter how we think about the communities we build and inhabit.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Urbanism, Urban Planning, Architecture, Cities, Urban

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting study of how our current suburban landscapes came to be. Main takeaway: real estate developers are crooks and con artists (no surprise there). I agree with her conclusions about how to foster sustainable development in the future, and I think she'd be glad to see that they have been increasingly implemented over the decade or so since the book came out.

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was ok. If you must read one book like this, I’d read Crabgrass Frontier instead.

Final chapter was about restoring existing suburbs and one of the two examples was Indianapolis!

[DW Rowlands · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a really interesting summary of a number of periods and movements in the history of American suburbanization, and I learned quite a lot from it, as well as being encouraged to think about implications I hadn't previously considered.

In particular, as someone who loves Boston's and many of DC's streetcar suburbs, it was helpful to read about some of the problems with streetcar-suburb development, and it was very interesting to learn more about the mail-order house movement: I hadn't realized nearly how dominant it had been during its heyday. While I was more familiar with much of the post-War history discussed, I still learned a bit about some of the shady techniques used by the developers of tract housing, such as building relatively dense suburban communities with septic tanks to avoid spending money on proper sewer systems.

I'll probably be buying a copy of this for my personal urban and transportation history library.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was intensely frustrating to read.  Indeed, this volume, which has about 250 pages of the author bloviating on topics related to the long history of suburban development in the United States, is all the evidence one would need to demonstrate how a misguided political worldview hinders one from obvious insights and basic knowledge about what the writer is writing about.  The author seems to think that "conservative" is a pejorative expression, and it is one she uses often in an ad hominem fashion, as if to be right-of-center politically is to mean that one's behavior is automatically bad for the ordinary people that the author claims to support.  After reading this book, I was convinced that the world would likely be a better place if the author were flattened and macadamized to make a road to some greenfield suburb so that she could stop writing terrible books like this one.  And as is so often the case in books that deal with property and development [1], the worldview error of the author is the central problem from which the book's failure flows.  Given the author's strident tone and call for activism among readers, it is unlikely that this error is soon to be improved.

This volume's contents are divided into three parts and eleven chapters.  The author begins with a preface and acknowledgements and then proceeds to write about the American metropolitan landscape (I) with a discussion about the shapes of suburbia (1) and the suburban city (2).  After that several chapters examine in a more or less chronological fashion some historic patterns of suburbs in the landscape (II), moving from borderlands (3) to picturesque enclaves (4), to streetcar buildouts (5), to mail-order and self-built suburbs (6) to sitcom suburbs (7), to edge nodes (8) and finally to rural fringes (9).  After this comes a couple of chapters where the author pontificates on the future of suburbs (III) with a look at nostalgia and futurism (10) and attempts to encourage the smart development of older suburbs (11) in order to increase density and provide housing for all kinds of illegal immigrants.  Throughout the volume the author makes note of various thinkers who are like her, as if that is a good thing.

Over and over again, the author makes snarky comments about conservative people, and posits a false dilemma between the desire of Americans to escape living in the city and avoid the high-density sort of housing that the author endorses and the businesses that provide for that through property speculation and development.  Far from being the villains of the American story, as the author appears to believe, property speculators have always been among the heroes of the efforts to provide a wide base of Americans with property to develop for their own economic and political independence, efforts which the author denigrates at every possible opportunity.  The author appears to think that the United States should be like Europe, the sign of moral and political bankruptcy as far as someone's worldview is concerned.  Unable to appreciate and enjoy the United States and its development as it is, and comment that the gigantism in terms of politics and business is a serious problem that leads to a great deal of the sprawl that we find, the author consistently urges a desire for high-density construction (even having nice words to say about massive socialistic housing projects) and intrusive neighbors, and disregards the consistent American preference for low-density construction that provides a sense of distance between personal life and the problems of the city that we wish so strenuously to avoid.  The author's political worldview makes her tone deaf to the fact that people genuinely like living in suburb and exurbs and do not want to live in the city unless they are corrupt Eurotrash hipsters like she is.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

[Elizabeth Higginbotham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000 by Delores Hayden is a book that has been on my shelf for years. Written in 2003, it tells an important story. In this nation, most Americans now live in suburbs, but there were seven stages of suburban development. Like many urban sociologists, I read Street Car Suburbs by Sam Bass Warner which covers one period of time and looks at the Boston area. I probably taught that book, since I was teaching in Boston. However, Hayden lets us see the push to the borders begins earlier and there are distinct actors as consumers, transportation issues, and builders in the many stages of suburban development.

I learned much, particularly how the groundwork for the post World War II suburban development was laid decades before the events, with laws that favored larger developers, banks and other key actors—as people were right there to build the interstate and other highways to link these communities. Corporation were also right there to sell the essential appliances that people were told they needed after the war. This Sitcom Suburbs are filled with problems, not just the racial segregation and opportunities for a few to build wealth. The developers built inexpensive housing and left much of the infrastructure development to these new communities, some of which were not even incorporated. Critical items like sewage, waste disposal, and other matters were not in the budget. They might have left land for school building, but the construction fell to the new taxpayers.

Earlier efforts like mail order and self-built suburbs differed and they are still on the landscape in communities. Yet, the movement to the borderlands was led by the people with wealth in an earlier era. Of course, most of the developments involved excluding some groups, especially racial and initially ethnic minorities, as well as single women. Yet, self-built communities did include new citizens, but there were significant distinctions.

Reading this book and coming out of the pandemic, I’m driving more to medical appointments and looking at how the sprawl continues. Edge nodes that taken on a life of their own. As I drive along highways, there are new developments, both housing and strip malls with huge anchor stores. All the new medical buildings are on the fringes where there is still undeveloped land next to them.
Planning that involves building inclusive communities, with day care, stores you can access by foot, as well as community spaces is necessary—as well as the ending the dependency on fossil fuels and infrastructure that no longer work. We also need more affordable housing, rather than build mansion for the wealthy. Hayden identifies some successful projects. That look at the history as much manufacturing has left the city and even the old suburbs. People have to be wise about renovating with a sense of keeping the history alive, but solving our current housing problems with an eye on what helps us to really become the nation we want to be.

[Isabella Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provided an in-depth history of America's suburbs - from the earliest iterations, to our current state. It started off really interesting, with stories about the first suburb-like projects, and context on what housing used to look like. But as the present day approached, it became more and more infuriating. How could we let a handful of people get away with their inefficient business models, and even subsidize it? While we have basically built a wasteland in the US, Hayden at least provides some solutions and hope for what our future suburbs could look like.

It was also interesting to read this almost 2 decades after it was originally published - it's amazing to see how much has changed, and yet how much has stayed the same.

[Brendan Dawe · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall good and informative read, particularly moving past the first chapter on 19th century rich people's houses.

Did you know that Levittown was built without septic tanks or sewers, but rather outdoor cess pits? Levittown's infrastructural defects required, according to the author, a substantial bailout from the state of New York

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am tempted to give this two stars- the only reason I don’t is because of the sheer amount of research that must’ve gone into it. I didn’t connect with the way she wrote; everything went in one eye and out the other. Maybe my attention span is just really shot, but it seemed like a list of examples with no coherent analysis. It felt so empty I don’t think I gained anything from reading it.

[Pat McDermott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding history of the waves of suburbanization in the United States, with a concluding chapter that looks at how historic suburbs can be modified for the future. Great notes & bibliography for lots of future reading about the subject.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional history of American suburban development—couldn't be more straightforward.

[Jas]

sped-read a bit, read while mostly in the airport, not completely finished but the book is due. i am leaving with more than i left with which is all i asked of the book. no rating.

[Bryson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on the history of the suburbanization of America. Felt like it was unnecessarily long of a read for such.

[Naomi Kern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Focuses on the economic side. Dope ass vibe. Suburbia sucks in a lot more ways than I realized. Also so does the fed government

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dolores Hayden’s Building Suburbia: Greenfields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000 chronicles “180 years of metropolitan development in the United States” that addresses “the general reader…from the perspective of an urban landscape historian” (xi). Although the book is well documented with endnotes—many of which cite secondary sources such as Warner, Longstreth, Stilgoe, etc.—the overall synthetic presentation is lucid enough to appeal to more than just the scholar of suburban landscapes. Hayden successfully demonstrates how such a commonly used word like “suburb” can be categorized over different periods of history to reveal the nuanced changes in its use and development. In organizing her book primarily around explaining the seven different eras and types of suburban development, Hayden continually refers back to the common suburban theme of conflict between residents seeking “the triple dream of home, nature, and community” and entrepreneurs seeking “profits through the development of greenfield sites” (xi). In many ways, this conflict parallels the theme of negotiation between company town managers and employees that Alison K. Hoagland explored in Mine Towns, but Hayden’s Building Suburbia does so at a larger scale and a broader scope.

Throughout the explanation of suburban developments in different eras of American history, Hayden consistently points out “inequalities of gender, class, and race…embedded in material form” (245). Whether it be socioeconomic exclusion in 19th century streetcar suburbs; redlining, racial covenants, or physical walls used to exclude African-Americans from the mid-century sitcom suburbs, or imbalance tax codes that leave single women out of home ownership in the edge node developments of the 1980s, Hayden does not shy away from exposing inequalities espoused by both corporations and government agencies throughout American history. On the other hand, Hayden also demonstrates environments of negotiation: where the economic bottom line of companies and lifestyle preferences of employees seek a balance. As in Hoagland’s Mine Towns, those in power sought to maximize the use of their residential buildings as evidenced by the practice of “hot-bedding:” where the day shift and night shift workers shared a bed—that was thus never “cold”—at alternating times. Similarly, Hayden points out that during the 1990s, employers saved on operating costs by “hot-desking:” constructing “telecenters” where employees share desks on alternating days when they are not telecommuting (187).

Hayden’s seven suburban types—Borderlands, Picturesque Enclaves, Streetcar Buildouts, Mail-Order and Self-Built Suburbs, Sitcom Suburbs, Edge Nodes, and Rural Fringes—are not only well organized and explained, but she also provides evidences for how they may still be read and potentially preserved in the landscape. After a chapter devoted to “Nostalgia and Futurism,” which explore a range of 1980s and 1990s variations on new urbanism, Hayden concludes with a preservationist appeal and a call to political consensus to change the thrust of further expansion of suburban sprawl. But unlike other academic and journalistic works, she suggests that the past suburbs are themselves the alternative solution to the problem of sprawl. She argues that to “preserve, renovate, and infill the suburban neighborhoods of the past can make the suburban city more egalitarian and sustainable” (245). Although this idea is not fully flushed out here in the conclusion of the book, it does demonstrate a more constructive view of addressing the American paradox of largely condemning but also preferring suburban housing.

[bookblogjourney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dolores Hayden’s excellent collection of essays Building Suburbia has been on my desk since my sophomore year of college. From the time it was assigned by Becky Nicolaides in an (sub)urban history seminar at Pitzer College, it has been a handy reference for sound content, shrewd analysis, and a clear-eyed perspective on how detached housing has (mal)functioned as a matter of design, planning, and policy in this country.
Hayden’s chapters on the “Mail Order,” “Self-Built Suburbs,” and “Sitcom Suburbs” incisively chronicle the emergence of building types, construction methods, policy choices, financing tools, and consumer expectations that persist today. Her willingness to critique these systems, not only for what they represented at the time but also for what legacies they have imparted, is inspiring: the mark of excellent scholarship and teaching.
Building Suburbia is about more than just the suburbs. It is about the expansion of detached single houses in both size and sprawl.
Yet I have often thought it was missing a chapter at the end about returning to the urban center and “right-sizing” the dwelling unit. Sometimes I fantasize that she penned another chapter which would tell the story of civic-minded organizations like One Roof Community Housing and Lagom Modular that are delivering small format infill houses, renewing housing stock, and repairing urban fabric. It would tell the story of non-profit housing developers, municipal housing authorities, and community boosters that are marshaling resources to reinvest in their communities despite really bad math. Hayden would celebrate these achievements as models of self-reliance, mutual aid, and creative development.
From Hayden: “These [places] are an essential part of American life. Their fabric could be preserved by sympathetic practitioners, skilled developers, architects, planners, and public historians who mend and reweave landscapes while adding new housing, services, and amenities. This would demand both political insight and cultural understanding (17 Hayden).” This chapter would also tell the story of the subsidy-industrial complex that buoys a drowned system. It would examine the mind-numbing bureaucratic barriers that are geared for process rather than product. It would tell the story of the Great Inversion: how houses came to cost more to construct than they are worth when they’re completed. It would highlight how free market economics failed to ensure adequate housing stock as soon as houses became unprofitable. And in true Hayden fashion, all of this would be followed with a well-studied, well-considered, and well-intentional critique about how these systems were designed to fail.
As Dolores would say we can do better.

[NOLaBookish aka blue-collared mind · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could give you some excellent examples of my suburban cred-I'll give you two:
I would ride my bike to y tiny side or back yard, and just leave it laying there til i wanted to ride it again.
I had no idea how to take a bus until I was a teenager and then still got confused.

Lucky for me, my urban mother moved me to the city when I was a teenager and I escaped its grown-up clutches. Maybe because of that, I go back to that suburb and find sweet things to muse about almost every time.

Suburbia has its many detractors. It has few supporters. I won't say this author is in either camp entirely. She does seem to understand them, which of course is the first step to changing them.

7 vernacular patterns of suburbia? I had no idea. But now I do. I can roam the old cities I see and find the patterns from "borderlands" (Ohio City in Cleveland to the Garden District in New Orleans), "picturesque enclaves" (oh my Lakewood for sure) to "streetcar suburbs" (my current neighborhood of MidCity New Orleans) and so on.

Builders (not necessarily developers in every case) were the main actors, we all know that but not always for the reasons you would think, is her argument. The communitarian movement, women needing to find paid work and so on.

Another round of applause for how she incorporates what has been written before. How can you write about suburbs and not mention the brilliant "Crabgrass Frontier"? Don't worry-She does.

Well worth it. Useful. Well designed. Just like some suburbs.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Building Suburbia is a capable synthesis of historical and recent scholarship on the development of the suburbs in America. Hayden, a professor of architecture and urbanism and professor of American Studies at Yale, knows what she is talking about. It was clear to me that this book is written for a general, rather then specialized audience.
Hayden's writting style is easy to understand, and she provides multiple in text illustrations and photographs to illuminate the text. The book tracks the historical development of suburbs in time (the subtitle is "Green Fields and Urban Growth 1820-2000.) She starts with "Borderlands", then covers "Picturesque Enclaves", "Streetcar Buildouts", "Mail-Order and Self-Built Suburbs", "Sitcom Subrurbs", "Edge Nodes" and "Rural Fringes". This historical approach is book ended by an introduction with two chapters and a conclusion with two chapters.

Hayden includes excellent end notes and a selected bibliography that is worthwhile to have on your shelf. Since this book was written in 2003, the bibliography is chock full of RECENT books on urban studies that allow the student or casual reader to follow up in any number of directions.

Worth checking out.

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

At times interesting history of the changing pattern of suburban and rural development in the United States punctuated by bloated diction and terribly misguided substories. In particular the hamhanded effort to paint much of urban development as a racist plot against minorities. That part is bad enough, but the sophomoric feminist rant against male driven family structures... allegedly perpetuated by modern suburbs... that is tactlessly slapped onto the text sends the book from the realm of being merely poorly edited into near unreadability.

Edge City: Life on the New Frontier Does a far better job of addressing the race question in regard to urban development... see the Atlanta chapter.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hayden does a good job of systematically describing the history of the suburb. Of particular value is her inclusion of periods prior to WWII, in contrast to many who see the beginning of the 'burbs in the post-war construction boom. Much of the discussion focuses on the stories of particular examples of the types of suburban pattern she describes. The examples make for interesting reading, but lack something in terms of generality.

Of course, the book almost deserves three stars for a single sentence: "[Tysons Corners] resembles...a model with all the building blocks for both suburb and city thrown on the ground by a two-year-old having a tantrum." Too true.

[Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books anywhere on anything. Then you take the fact that we all fascinated with where humans live and how we came to this odd suburban arrangement and you really see her strength. The intelligent time lines leading from the 1800s to modern mcmansion is impressive and her chapter on sitcom suburbs is brilliant including the communist red aspect of Levitttown. Hayden writes quick and crisp and lays out segments you'll want to quote later. Her closing chapters talk poignantly about how public history can help reconnect suburbs and honor the hard work creating community when those places were raw and new.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The academic writing style is not my favorite style. This is definitely written in that style. The book does do a good job of explaining the history of and development of the rural and suburban life style and I enjoyed those parts. I however couldn't get over the random feminist rants and odd ideas about race and the urban environments. I am obviously not the target audience for this book.

Reads more like a doctorate dissertation than a readable history book. I gave it two stars because the history part was sound and interesting and would of gave it more stars except for the obvious political bias that hit you over the head over and over again.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hayden. talks about the importance of preserving our existing built environment, understanding the history of suburbs, and realizing the socio-economic impacts of our actions. She acknowledges efforts to achieve these goals through planners, architects, historians, etc. but completely neglects the field of historic preservation (until the last 5 pages of the book) despite the fact that preservationists often approach the issues she discusses from the holistic approach she claims is sorely needed. This book was good, but short sighted and incomplete in many regards.

[Halle · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've ever been curious about how we've built this massive society and life around suburbs, this book is for you. It's a historical description of suburbs from their conception until now, including the author's thoughts on the future of the suburb.

I found this book fascinating and fun to read!

[Linda Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hayden explains the seven historical periods of suburbia. Her discussion of the cult of domesticity for women and the single-home ownership for men and the influences of Beecher on suburban "home missionaries" is fascinating. The historical roots of suburbia are helpful to understand the present configurations of suburban systems, particularly the gendering of suburban landscapes.

[Gisela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll write a review as it's unlikely I'll finish, not because the book is bad, but because I keep getting mad. It's a succinct history of the development of suburbia and the political and economic factors that created it. My complaint is that it's a little too brief for me, I would have enjoyed more detail.

[Gordon Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book that combines a concise history of suburbia in the U.S. and its different stages, leading to a last chapter with meaningful actions to take. Dolores Hayden is a former professor of mine from UCLA almost three decades ago, and her analysis of the built environment in the U.S. is the most complete and thoughtful that I have found.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very engaging, and a good companion piece/update to "Crabgrass Frontier." It covers much of the same ground but goes off in some additional directions and emphasizes the the cultural aspects of the suburbs (critiques and advertisements) a bit more than the legal/economic analysis that Kenneth Jackson provides.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

eh
she's right, taxes and politics need to be reformed for true suburban reform to occur. so once we solve this energy thing, and cut the demand for it's use in cars and move that demand to neighborhoods and houses and cities, we'll be cool.

[Jama · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I found the first few chapters disjointed, and I wished the author would lend her interpretations to the many many historical examples she gave, the book ended up being very informative and interesting.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting perspective on suburban sprawl, particularly because it makes the point that it is not a new phenomenon. Depressing to learn how manipulated the housing market has been since time immemorial. A little too much "tell" not "show" but decent nevertheless.