HIST 128 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: United States Numbered Highways, Federal Housing Administration, Physical Geography
Postwar Suburbia
Key words
Sunbelt
Federal Highway System
GI Bill
Federal Housing Administration
Restrictive Covenants
Manor Homes
Levittown
Lakewood
• Suburbs grow out of cities → not new to post war era but they explode in number after
WWII
1. Why Suburbs Grow
• The growth of suburbs altered physical landscape of America
• Cities contain considerable numbers of dense populations
• Steel frame architecture allowed to decompress at first
• After WWII builders started to build outward again instead of upward
• Suburbs allowed for more space with privacy
• Mass production techniques are applied to construction industry
• By mid 20th century, old farmlands occupied by suburbs → urban/suburban sprawl
ex) In 1949, 3 developers constrcuted 17,000 homes to accomidate 80,000 people
• coordinated , systematic construction effort
• Architectural monotony → using mass production techniques - simplified reduction fees
and expedited process
• The outward growth that distinguished city from suburbs:
• Expansion of defense industry:
• During WWII growing # of defense industries that begin to locate
facilities on periphery of cities → protecting masses of people who lived
in cities - built away incase it was
• Part of US war effort of becoming an arsenal of democracy
• Sunbelt = has its roots in the WWII strategy of building industry away
from cities on periphery. Construction of defense was in south (Texas,
California)
• Construction of federal highway system:
• During post war era Dwight Eisenhower launched a oublic works project
that encouraged development of suburbs and transform physical landscape
• 1956 - launched fed highway system of free highways from coast to coast
• Excelerated suburban growth and extend economic abilities of suburbs
from cities
*Mass production Techniquies
*growth of defense industry
*growth of federal Highway system
Government financing was important to the 3 “whys” → encouraged homebuying
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