50s neighborhood

Since the invention of the automobile in 1888, the rate of suburban population growth has consistently outpaced that of urban centers. But in 2011 - for the first time in a hundred years - the trend reversed.

Cleveland's Lee-Harvard neighborhood has a rich history of community pride and racial integration in a period when the suburbs were just beginning to settle.

POST-Apr 1960

© Original 35mm Kodachrome transparency

The suburban neighborhood is designed without considering a pedestrian or bicyclist. This is changing in many cities which have strict requirements for sidewalks and some even bike facilities, but in many areas it has not. Older neighborhoods encourage more healthy lifestyles and reduce health risks

Shown above is a black and white 1950's suburban street. This is used to represent the Finches' home. In their neighborhood, they grew up and matured. It is a tightly knit neighborhood, and they learn the secrets of their neighbors. Miss Stephanie Crawford is the town gossip, giving the town an opinion the same as her own. The Radleys isolate themselves and refuse to go with social norms.

50s Suburbia is an aesthetic that describes the culture of the American middle class in the 1950s. Due to a population boom following World War II, new neighborhoods were built in the areas surrounding large cities. These communities were known as suburbs, thus the term suburbia. The most famous example is Levittown, in New York state, which was the prototype for mass produced, mass-scale housing. The government led push for a return to normalcy (i.e., traditional gender roles) following…

Along with the housing market, that All-American suburban bubble of optimism has burst The suburbs were once the promised land; the American Dream made manifest . For over 65 years, home ownership …