Mar. 27 The Suburban Revolution

Until the mid-nineteenth century, most middle-class urbanites lived in row or terrace houses. The shift from the attached house to the detached suburban villa after about 1850 was perhaps the most far-reaching change in the history of the city. Our illustration of the row house tradition is London, where an unusual system of land ownership resulted in a particularly consistent form of domestic architecture. It was in London, too, that the earliest efforts at suburban living were realized, at places like St. John's Wood and Regent's Park.

In both Europe and North America, the tradition of aristocratic country living persisted. In North America, a particularly influential style of house, known as the Shingle Style, came to represent a less formal living style, marked by an opening up of the plan of the house. Such houses were later appropriated as models for suburban housing.

As always, several architectural texts were also catalysts of change. The significant book for the move to the suburbs was Andrew Jackson Downing's The Architecture of Country Houses, published in 1850. Downing inspired a number of picturesque suburbs, including Llewellyn Park in New Jersey (1850s), planned by Alexander Jackson Davis, Riverside (1869), Illinois, planned by Frederick Law Olmsted, Oak Park (1873), Illinois, the site of many houses by Frank Lloyd Wright.

A related crusade to the suburban revolution was the Garden City Movement, led by Ebenezer Howard. The principles articulated in his Garden Cities of To-morrow (1902) were realized in the town of Letchworth, England.

Prof. Adams provides these slides immediately following each lecture as a courtesy to students for study purposes only. She takes no responsibility for their arrangement on this page or for any unintended use of the images.

1a) 1b)