Description
Book SynopsisDuring the 1920s, enterprising realtors, housing professionals, and builders developed the models that became the inspiration for the subdivision tract housing now commonplace in the U.S. Originally published in 2001. Suburban subdivisions of individual family homes are so familiar a part of the American landscape that it is hard to imagine a time when they were not common in the U. S. The shift to large-scale speculative subdivisions is usually attributed to the period after World War II. In Entrepreneurial Vernacular: Developers' Subdivisions in the 1920s, Carolyn S. Loeb shows that the precedents for this change in single-family home design were the result of concerted efforts by entrepreneurial realtors and other housing professionals during the 1920s. In her discussion of the historical and structural forces that propelled this change, Loeb focuses on three typical speculative subdivisions of the 1920s and on the realtors, architects, and building-craftsmen who designed and cons
Trade ReviewLoeb should be applauded for telling a complicated story. She successfully makes the realtors, architects, and building-craftsmen agents of physical growth. Loeb also uses careful case studies, but moves beyond them to try to tell a wider story.
—Ann Durkin Keating,
H-Net ReviewsLoeb's useful concept of entrepreneurial vernacular may encourage scholars to pay more attention to the builders and tradesmen whose activities were important in themselves and also constitute an important arena in which the histories of business, labor, and cities intersect.
—Richard Harris,
Journal of American HistoryLoeb's book helps us understand the roots of a significant trend in American housing after World War II . . . It is well organized and well written.
—Ellen Christensen,
Michigan Historical ReviewEntrepreneurial Vernacular is certainly the best and most comprehensive book I have read about the design and development of the modern, large-scale housing subdivision.
—Thomas C. Hubka,
Urban HistoryTable of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction. The Entrepreneurial Vernacular Subdivision
Part I. Three Subdivisions and Their Builders
Chapter 1: The Ford Homes: The Case of the Borrowed Builders
Chapter 2: Brightmoor: The Case of the Absent Architect
Chapter 3: Westwood Highlands: The Rise of the Realtor
Part II. Agency, From, and Meaning
Chapter 4: The Home-Ownership Network: Constructing Community
Chapter 5: Architectural Style: The Charm of Continuity
Conclusion. Architecture as Social Process
Notes
Bibliographical Note
Illustration Credits
Index
