Crabgrass Frontier_The Suburbanization of the United States

559 Pages·1987·16.321 MB·English

by  Kenneth T. Jackson

CRABGRASS FRONTIER
CRABGRASS FRONTIER

The Suburbaniza�on
of the United States

Kenneth T. Jackson
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York Toronto
Delhi Bombay Calcu�a Madras Karachi
Petaling Jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo
Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town
Melbourne Auckland

and associated companies in
Beirut Berlin Ibadan Nicosia

Copyright © 1985 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
First published in 1985 by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016-4314

First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1987

Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publica�on may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmi�ed, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publica�on Data
Jackson, Kenneth T.
Crabgrass fron�er.
Bibliography: P.
Includes index.
1. Suburbs—United States—History. 2. Suburban life.
3. Housing—United States—History. 4. United States—Social condi�ons.
1. Title.
HT384.U5J33 1985 307.7ʹ4ʹ0973 85-4844
ISBN-13 978-0-19-503610-7

ISBN-13 978-0-19-504983-1 (pbk.)
prin�ng, last digit: 30 29 28

Printed in the United States of America
For Barbara
and
To the bright, enduring memory of our son,
Kenneth Gordon Jackson II
(1968–1984)
O my son Absalom,
my son, my son Absalom!
would God I had died for thee
2 Samuel 18
Acknowledgments

Over the protracted course of this inves�ga�on I have incurred more debts
than I could possibly acknowledge here. The Na�onal Endowment for the
Humani�es, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Founda�on, and the
American Council of Learned Socie�es provided senior fellowships and
freedom, while the 1982 Banneker Professorship at The George Washington
University enabled me to follow up many leads at the Department of
Housing and Urban Development and at the Na�onal Archives. Columbia
University’s Council for Research in the Social Sciences and the Department
of History’s Dunning Fund generously helped with typing expenses. My
research trips around the country were made more pleasant and more
useful because of the hospitality and lodging provided by Joyce Dalbey in
Houston; by Dale and Douglas Curry in New Orleans; by Sarah and Aus�n
Tothacer in Columbia, S.C.; by Patsy and Lewis Lanter in Atlanta; by Phyllis
and Roger Lotchin in Chapel Hill; by Darryl and Michael Ebner and by
Carolyn and Jan Benjamin in Chicago; by Juanita and Hiram Caroom in
Jacksonville; by Mark Haller in Philadelphia; by Estelle and Bob Crenshaw in
Dallas; by Wanda and Alan Goldstein in Dayton; by Anne and Thomas
Scheckells, by Thomas M. McNair, and by Patrick W. Murphy in Washington;
by Harry L. Davis in Denver; by Paula and Max Schouten, by Sally and John
Cunningham, and by Mary and John Heilner in Westchester; by Be�y and
Robert Hume in San Jose; by Gaither and Byron Smith in San Francisco; by
Kenneth M. Ba�novich and by Sue and Clelland Downs in Los Angeles; and
by Sally and Pete Finch in San Diego. Chris�ne and Val Sharp found me on
their doorsteps in Lake Forest, Greenwich, and Ladue on more than a dozen
occasions, and each �me they opened their homes and refrigerators and
proved to be the closest possible friends. In Memphis Carolyn and John
Parish have always treated me as the son they never had, while my mother,
Elizabeth Willins Jackson, has been so suppor�ve, kind, and though�ul over
the years that my friends o�en claim her as their own.
My dependence upon the work of other authors will be obvious to
anyone with a passing familiarity with the topic. I have tried to acknowledge
specific debts in the notes, but the extent of my borrowing will be evident
only to the individuals concerned. For numerous cri�cisms and sugges�ons,
I am grateful to Alan F. J. Ar�bise, John F. Bauman, Stanley Buder, Clara
Cardia, Michael Conzen, Leonard Dinnerstein, Michael Ebner, Roderick
French, David R. Goldfield, Susan S. Hallas, David Halle, Glen E. Holt,
Timothy Jacobson, Roger Lotchin, Michael McCarthy, Zane L. Miller, Jon A.
Peterson, Stanley K. Schultz, Allen Share, Bayrd S�ll, Joel A. Tarr, Sam Bass
Warner, Jr., Margaret Kurth Weinberg, and Olivier Zunz. Deborah S. Gardner,
Camilo J. Vergara, and Carol Willis shared their photographs with me, while
George Tremberger took �me from his backbreaking schedule to draw maps
and charts for this book. At American Heritage Publishing Company, Patrick
Bunyan located suitable prints in an enormous collec�on, as did Janet Parks
and Jay Hendrickx at Avery Architectural Library. At the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, Frederick J. Eggers, Mary A. Grey, William
A. Rolfe, and Joan Gilbert (now of Yale University) helped me through the
bureaucra�c tangle, while Joseph B. Howerton, Jerry N. Hess, and Charles
Gellert showed me where and how to roam in the Na�onal Archives. Ben H.
Graham, Wallace E. Johnson, and Mar�n Winter generously took �me from
their construc�on businesses to reminisce about the home-building
industry.
At Columbia University, where I have taught for the past seventeen years,
Stuart Bruchey, Ainslie Embree, Herbert J. Gans, John A. Garraty, Henry F.
Graff, Herbert S. Klein, Peter Marcuse, Robert A. McCaughey, Eric L.
McKitrick, Robert O. Paxton, Rosalind Rosenberg, Ellio� Sclar, James P.
Shenton, Alden T. Vaughan, and Gwendolyn Wright have been unselfish
scholars and deligh�ul colleagues. William E. Leuchtenburg was the first
person I met on Morningside Heights. He has since le� New York, but only
a�er encouraging and assis�ng me in every possible professional and
personal way. His careful, thorough scholarship con�nues to serve as my
model. Many former students, especially James Baughman, David Bensman,
Eugenie Ladner Birch, William N. Black, Kenneth Cobb, Estelle Freedman,
Deborah Gardner, Mark Gelfand, Timothy Gilfoyle, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall,
David Hammack, Cli�on Hood, Betsy W. Kearns, Thomas Kessner, Veronique
Marteau, Eleanora Schoenebaum, David Schuyler, Frank Vos, Ray Weisman,
and Carol Willis may recognize their own insights in the pages which follow.
My mentor, Richard C. Wade, coined the phrase “Crabgrass Fron�er” and
first excited me about urban history two decades ago at the University of
Chicago. He knows how important his ideas and his example have been to
me ever since.
At Oxford University Press, Sheldon Meyer has been a pa�ent and close
friend and a valued counselor, while Pamela Nicely has saved me from
dozens of careless mistakes. Whatever errors remain are my own.
Several parts of Crabgrass Fron�er have been previously published
elsewhere, and I wish to thank Princeton University Press, the Center for
Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Journal of Urban History,
Chicago History, the Columbia Historical Society, Sage Publica�ons,
Wadsworth Publishing Company, and Doubleday and Company for
permission to reprint por�ons of earlier essays.
The most important person in this effort has been my wife. I owe this
book, as well my two children and most of the other good things in my life,
to Barbara’s devo�on, sacrifice, and inspira�on. She enabled me to see
things I otherwise never would have no�ced, and she helped me to survive
in the face of heartbreaking tragedy. For be�er, and now for worse, she has
shared everything with me for twenty-three years, and I hope the
dedica�on conveys some sense of my apprecia�on and love.
Two weeks before this book was completed our sixteen-year-old son was
killed in an automobile accident a few miles from our home. Barbara and I
had each previously faced the loss of parents and friends, but no experience
in life prepared us for the policeman and the priest at our doorstep on an
otherwise ordinary Friday night. Kenneth Gordon Jackson II was too busy
with his brother, his friends, his drums, and his sports to be much
concerned with his father’s book, but he taught me to use the computer on
which this manuscript was typed, he set up my first word-processing
programs, he forma�ed and organized my discs, and he invariably helped
me when I lost my way. More importantly, he took me away from my desk
for thousands of ping-pong ba�les, dozens of ski trips and li�le league
games, and hundreds of hours of hoops, baseball, and frisbee. Although
each of us is unique in all the world, Gordon, as his good friend the
Reverend Edd Payne noted, was “more uniquer than most.” He was gi�ed in
a hundred wonderful ways, and his laugh, his smile, his quick wit, his love of
the outdoors, his affinity for animals of every descrip�on, his eagerness for
new experiences and challenges, his numerous and devoted friends, and his
disregard for conformity and conven�on set him apart. I will remember my
son with joy and love for the rest of my life, and he will be in my last
thoughts.
In the a�ermath of Gordon’s sudden and unexpected death, Barbara,
Kevan and I were surrounded by friends who cleaned our house, prepared
our meals, discouraged our guilt, and shared our grief. None of them read
this manuscript, and they know li�le about this book. But they have had
everything to do with our ability, however tortured and uneven, to cope
with the emp�ness and sadness that remain with us every day. We want to
thank all of them, and especially the Reverend Jack Silvey Miller, for helping
us to stand again and for loving us when we needed it the most.
K.T.J.

Columbia University
November 12, 1984