Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870-1900 [Paperback]

Sam Bass Warner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1978 | ISBN-10: 0674842111 | ISBN-13: 978-0674842113 | Edition: 2nd

In the last third of the nineteenth century the American city grew from a crowded merchant town, in which neatly everybody walked to work, to the modern divided metropolis. The street railway created this division of the metropolis into an inner city of commerce and slums and an outer city of commuters' suburbs. This book tells who built the new city, and why, and how.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mr. Warner has given us a fine book, a lovely book, about the historic pattern of the housebuilding process in the suburbs...He has put to brilliant use the research resources he was able to find and evaluate. And, by means of his legwork and photography, he has added a nearly three-dimensional quality to his book. (Journal of the American Institute of Planners )

With almost tender attention to detail and judicious selection of maps, charts, and especially photographs, Mr. Warner marks himself a "Boston-lover"...This volume helps to unfold further the layers of complexities that conceal in obscurity the development of the modern city...A masterly introduction to the subject. (American Historical Review )

About the Author

Sam B. Warner, Jr. is Visiting Professor of Urban History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; 2nd edition (January 1, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674842111
• ISBN-13: 978-0674842113
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #419,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sam Bass Warner, Jr. formerly of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a citizen scholar active in urban reform. In numerous books and articles about U.S. cities, suburbs, neighborhoods and metropolitan regions, he invites readers to address today's problems by summoning shared memories of our American urban experience. Showing how our social relationships, cultural values and economic choices have been expressed in actions ranging from land management and development to community gardens and government planning, Warner describes the process of city building and the social consequences it has produced. Here in "American Urban Form," Warner and his artist coauthor, Andrew Whittemore use an imagined city representing the past of major U.S. cities over 400 years, to reveal how cities have changed our landscapes, buildings, houses, the environment and the way we live.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Role of the Streetcar in Urban/Suburban Development, August 27, 2004

By 

S. Pactor "reader" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870-1900 (Paperback)

This book is straight forward: Warner describes the process of suburbanization between 1870-1900 in Boston, Mass. Warner is focusing on a period of time that most contemporary American's would not equate with the process of "suburbanization", but it is this very approach that makes "Street Car Suburbs" so interesting.

Warner shows that the street cars and suburbs were both linked to the increasing wealth in the Boston area after the civil war. Capital was looking for places to be invested and both the wealthy and middle class found it in their interest to lay the foundation for suburban growth. The wealthy developed street car lines. In response, many members of the middle class engaged in small scale suburban "developments". Perhaps it the small scale of the street car suburb that will most intrigue the modern reader.

For the most part, the builders of street cars didn't develop the housing market. One explanation for this seeming discepancy is that the mortgage market for residences was most primitive during this time period. Warner shows that most of the small scale "developers" carried the mortgages of the buyers of their newly developed properties! This is a far cry from our world of today!

Warner's photos of various homes are excellent, and they make a fine counterpoint to the text. This book is an interesting treatment of a little known period of American suburban development.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oldie but goodie, October 23, 2011

By 

C. Ackerman (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870-1900 (Paperback)

Streetcar Suburbs is a well-written book, for which there are only limited reasons to still read. It's not that this 1962 classic is dated -- though by today's standards it is oddly silent on issues of gender, a core concept of the newer histories of American suburbs -- but rather, many of its key ideas have become incorporated other works broader in scope, like Kenneth Jackson's Crabgrass Frontier, so the pay off is less than it would be if the book were read shortly after publication. (This is particularly true of Warner's observations of the effects of various nineteenth-century transportation improvements on the form of the city. One point, however, that Warner emphasizes that I don't recall reading elsewhere is the importance of crosstown streetcar lines in determining where growth occurred within suburbs and the nature it would take.)

People interested in the following points might still find this worth their time.

1. Those with a special interest in Boston. This book provides a very rich history, including many historical photographs of different styles of houses, of the outward spread of Boston across the second half of the nineteenth century. Occasionally, the detail is a bit hard to follow for those who are not familiar with Boston, but local history buffs will find this a goldmine.

2. Those interested in how cities grow and maintain order in the absence of zoning regulations. Much of the latter half of the book gives a very rich history of the suburbs grew in a way that was at once homogenous in smaller clumps but also very diverse but orderly from a God's eye view. Warner is able, in a small amount of space, to take into account class, transportation technology, economic risk, cultural values, architecture and geography to create a compelling account for the growth Boston experienced.

This book I could still see having a place in college history classes, either one on nineteenth-century US history or on the history of New England. I'm glad to see that there is a Kindle edition so that it won't go out of print.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The History of Dorchester, Roxbury and West Roxbury, August 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870-1900 (Paperback)

All ye people of the Parkways! Read all about the history of suburban Boston. It's all good! This is a scholarly study of the history of Roxbury, Dorchester, and West Roxbury (which includes Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Mattapan, and Hyde Park.) Have you ever wondered why Washington Street in Roslindale looks the way it does? Why one street has mansions and the next has turn of the century boarders? And why does the bus run down one street and not another? Find out in Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston. Cambridge tip: you can find cheapie copies of this book at the Harvard Press Bookstore. That's how I got mine.