Downtown America: A History of the Place and the People Who Made It (Historical Studies of Urban America)

461 Pages·2004·4.44 MB·English

by  Alison Isenberg

Downtown America
HISTORICAL STUDIES OF URBAN AMERICA
Edited by Kathleen N. Conzen, Timothy J. Gilfoyle, and James R. Grossman
Also in the series:
Parish Boundaries:
The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth-Century Urban North
by John T. McGreevy
Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era
by Gail Radford
Smoldering City: Chicagoans and the Great Fire, 1871–1874
by Karen Sawislak
Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940–1960
by Arnold R. Hirsch
Faces along the Bar: Lore and Order in the Workingman’s Saloon, 1870–1920
by Madelon Powers
Streets, Railroads, and the Great Strike of 1877
by David O. Stowell
The Creative Destruction of Manhattan, 1900–1940
by Max Page
Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews, and the Changing Face of the Ghetto
by Wendell Pritchett
My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the
Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920–1965
by Becky M. Nicolaides
In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863
by Leslie M. Harris
Building the South Side:
Urban Space and Civic Culture in Chicago, 1890–1919
by Robin F. Bachin
Places of Their Own:
African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century
by Andrew Wiese
A HISTORY OF THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT
Downtown
ALISON ISENBERG
America
The University of Chicago Press Chicago & London
Alison The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
Isenberg © 2004 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2004
is associate Printed in the United States of America
professor of 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 1 2 3 4 5
history at isbn:0-226-38507-8 (cloth)
Rutgers Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Isenberg, Alison.
University.
Downtown America : a history of the place and the people who
made it / Alison Isenberg.
p. cm. — (Historical studies of urban America)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
isbn0-226-38507-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Cities and towns—United States—History. 2. Central business
districts—United States—History. 3. City and town life—United
States—History. 4. Community life—United States—History.
5. Inner cities—United States—History. 6. Urban renewal—
United States—History. 7. City planning—United States—History.
I. Title. II. Series.
ht123.i74 2004
307.76(cid:2)0973—dc22 2003024058
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
For my parents
Marian Ellenbogen Isenberg
Lee E. Isenberg
in loving memory

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xv
introduction
Beyond Decline:
Assessing the Values of Urban Commercial Life in the
Twentieth Century 1
chapter 1
City Beautiful or Beautiful Mess?
The Gendered Origins of a Civic Ideal 13
chapter 2
Fixing an Image of Commercial Dignity:
Postcards and the Business of Planning Main Street 42
chapter 3
“Mrs.Consumer,” “Mrs.Brown America,” and “Mr.Chain Store Man”:
Economic Woman and the Laws of Retail 78
chapter 4
Main Street’s Interior Frontier:
Innovation amid Depression and War 124
chapter 5
“The Demolition of Our Outworn Past”:
Suburban Shoppers and the Logic of Urban Renewal 166
chapter 6
The Hollow Prize?
Black Buyers, Racial Violence, and the Riot Renaissance 203
chapter 7
Animated by Nostalgia:
Preservation and Vacancy since the 1960s 255
conclusion
“The Lights Are Much Brighter There” 312
List of Archival Collections 319
Notes 321
Index 421