Community Based Assignment 3 - Part 1 30s-90s

According to Jackson, before the 1930s, cars were still viewed much like a horse and wasn't necessary to keep close by as garages then remained at the rear of the property. Access to the garages were limited to an alleyway which was parallel to,the main street. However, in the 1930s, garages started emerging as an important part of homes as cars increasingly began being viewed as members of households, particularly after World War II. Car ports offered an inexpensive alternative to typical garages in mild climates for a relatively short period of time; however, the typical enclosed garages retook preference in the 1950s. Finally, by the 1960s, garages were designed to not only store automobiles but also other large household equipment and tools, which took up roughly a third of the house itself. Additionally, a key aspect of the evolution of garages was the easy, direct access to them to and became fully integrated parts of homes.

 

Prior to 1930s

This house is located near 5^th Street and Pearl Street. When we first saw this house, the bungalow style was undeniable. The house was made of red bricks and had a very boxy shape. The houses next to each other, and this one included had garages behind the unit itself that ran parallel to the street. The house had obviously been around for quite sometime because of the plant growth and the trees height. The style of the house also just looked very outdated.

Characteristics of houses built prior to the 30s:

-Smaller

-Concrete walls

-Sunbathing was popular, so many families built flat roots, pergolas, and balconies as suntraps

-Red brick, pebbledash and half timbering with red clay tile roofs

-Detached Garage

-Bungalow

-Bay windows

-Boxy shape

The garage itself was behind the boxy house. Jackson noted that, “small single purpose garages were sarceley larger than the vehicles themselves” (68). Even though this garage can accommadate up to two cars, it is very visible that there is a lot of space to the left and right that was probably used for storage. This garage looks like it can hold at least three vehicles and also be used as a storage unit.

Alleys in general during and prior to the thirties seemed to be very prominent. Almost every street on the Hill where the "older" houses are located, a alley almost seemed present, although they looked very old and unattended. 

1940s

All three of these houses had one main thing in common: a detached garage very close to the house itself with slight overhead coverage for maybe when the people travel between the two. The quality of the house was significantly nicer than the previous decade not only because of the easier access of the garage but the simplicity and larger front yards made the houses look more presentable. The houses were also a lot closer to each other than the previous decade and we start to kind of see tract homes.

            started to become a little more luxurious.

Characteristics of houses built in the 40s:

-Red brick

-Multiple unit homes increased in popularity

-Room size increased

-Size of lots decreased after the war to accomodate for more homes

-Attached garages

-Cape cod

-Ranch style

-Simplicity

-Rract home (cookie-cutter housing)

-Family lawn became the pride of ownership of house

1950s

Although it took the world quite some time to recover from the affects of World War II, the 1950s was a prosperious times than in the past. Vast improvements in housing were made during this time. Attached double garages, large front and rear covered porches were common features of a house built in the fifties. But the opposite was true for the houses that we found in Boulder. The houses we found didn’t have any garages, nor did they have large front and rear porches. The houses were ranch styles, which was very common during this decade and had this “ugly” feel to the house, which was common among the houses in the fifties. There wasn’t really anything that made these houses stand out from others and it honestly didn’t look like there was any vast improvements from the previous decade. It seems that the concentration during this decade wasn’t about the quality of the houses but the quantity.  

Characteristics of houses built in the 50s:

-More than half of the homes had attached garages

-Front porch declined in popularity

-Ranch style, ugly home

1960s

While driving on Gillispie Road, it seemed like the majority of the homes were all very common besides a very few. The two houses we found, were very interesting and unique. We start to notice in this decade, concrete driveways. There was space in the front and back of the houses for gardening, social entertainment, etc,. The green house had a very interesting wrap around porches that covered almost half the house.

Characteristics of houses built in the 60s:

-Unique as possible without violating building standards

-Concrete driveways

-Gardens

The 1970s

The 1970s were a period of time in which houses were essentially advanced versions of the 60s.  While still practical, the 1970s attempted to create house thats were futuristic in appearance, as well as conformable to the times.  With the growth of the automobile, so came the growth of the built in garage.  In these houses we can see the prominence of sheltering ones belongings.  

Here we can see the unique designs of the 1970s houses that surprisingly are making a comeback in todays market, for retro is now cool.  As with most 1970s houses, they are built out of wood panels, but as the 1960s transitioned to the 70s the demand for larger houses also began.  Here we can see similar styles to that of the 60s, but much larger with built in garages.  

While the average family had about 800 square feet of property in the 1950's, this nearly doubled by the 1970s due to the "affluent society of the 1960s" (http://www.enotes.com/1970-lifestyles-social-trends-american-decades/housing).  Although Jackson argues that it was during the 1960s that "huge 400 square foot garages" started to be constructed, the 1970s show this being taken to a much further extreme.  

The 1980s

Mimicking the ranch style of house made popular in the 1950s-1970s with the low style roof, one can see that the garages location is often a product of the community.  In this spread out sprawl of a suburbia, houses have huge properties with large garages separate from the houses.  With the symbolic landscape yard of the 1980s, this area of Gunbarrel was vastly different from that of the 90s.  

House on Clay St.

In this area of Gunbarrel many of the garages were larger than that of the house which can be seen in this example.  Large properties of land such as this one, moved away from the facade of having the garage attached to the house.  With a detached garage, one is given more space to perhaps expand their kitchen, while building on top of a detached garage is much easier than building upon one that is connected.

Garage to House on Clay St.

Amongst this vastly different area of Colorado, we figured that these people wanted a neighborhood that allowed them to enjoy the outdoors.  With tons of space, this quiet area of Gun Barrel had many interesting houses such as the one below, but essentially every house had a detached garage.

Hidden House at end of block

The 1990s

Sheltered Community

            This area of Gunbarrel was not only a difficult spot to access, with only two exits off the highway, but was clearly built in the past 20 years.   While Jackson does not go into much detail of housing past the 1960s, we see here the linear progression of the garage, as well as the driveway.  

Mailboxes are together

            In this cul-de-sac sheltered suburb, the houses had both garages, and parking spots.  The house depicted at the front of the street embodies the characteristics that define the early homes of 90’s.  With a garage big enough to fit at least two cars, the spacious property is sheltered from the road by a fence as well as its large structure. 

parking spaces as well as drive ways and garages     

            Although it is hard to depict from the pictures above, the house was rather large, and all of the surrounding houses had prominent garages as well.  On this street we also see the combination of past housing styles; brick, stucco, as well as clapboard imitations.  This particular house built of brick as well as wood, embodies the eclectic nature of houses over time.  The windows are larger, and all though we weren’t able to get a picture of it (for fear of seeming creepy), the rooms were very large as well. 

view of the cup-de-sac from street

            All though the houses appear to be quite close together, this community represents an ideal suburb to raise children. From the front we do not get to see the magnitude of the house, or its back yard.  Many of these houses had extravagant back yards, and simple fronts with just a door and 2-3 car garages.  We gathered a lot of strange looks in this neighborhood taking pictures, and one could only expect that a sheltered community such as this would contain people who fear for their possessions as well as their kin.     

Redwood City, CA - Community Project 3 Part 2

1940:

·      No Data

1950:

·      No Data

1960:

·      Population: 5,740

o   96.8% White

o   1.8% Black

o   1.4% Other

·      Income ($):

o   25,000 +: 0.3%

o   15,000-25,000: 2%

o   10,000-15,000 – 21.3%

o   5,000-10,000 – 50%

o   Under 1,000: 3.7%

·      Race/Ethnicity Variables:

o   Income By Race

§  White: 97.6%

§  Non-white: 2.4%

o   Employment (Age 14+)

§  White: 95.8 %

§  Non-white: 4.2 %

1970:

·      Population: 6,545

o   White: 93 %

o   Black: 2.6 %

o   Other: 4.3 %

·      Income ($):

o   25,000-50,000: 1%

o   10,000-25,000: 45%

o   5,000-10,000: 35%

o   Under 1,000: 2.2%

·      Race/Ethnicity Variables:

o   Income By Race ($):

§  White:

·      25,000-50,000: 1.2%

·      10,000-25,000: 45%

·      5,000-10,000: 35%

§  Black:

·      15,000-50,000: 0%

·      10,000-15,000: 25%

·      4,000-10,000: 75%

§  Other:

·      25,000-50,000: 0%

·      10,000-25,000: 35%

·      5,000-10,000: 45%

o   Employment (Age 16 +)

§  White: 93.7%

§  Black: 1.8%

§  Other: 4.5%

1980:

·      Population: 7,169

o   White: 70%

o   Black: 5.5%

o   Other: 24.5%

·      Income ($):

o   50,000 +: 1.5%

o   25,000-50,000: 15%

o   10,000-25,000: 48%

o   5,000-10,000: 20%

·      Race/Ethnic Variables

o   Average Income By Race ($):

§  White: 18,166

§  Black: 11,662

§  Other: 18,110

o   Employment:

§  White: 58%

§  Black: 6%

§  Spanish: 25%

§  Other: 11%

1990:

·      Population: 10,007

o   White: 69%

o   Black: 8.5%

o   Other: 22.5%

·      Income:

o   50,000+: 9%

o   25,000-50,000: 48%

o   10,000-25,000: 36%

o   5,000-10,000:  5%

·      Race/Ethnic Variables:

o   Average Income By Race ($):

§  White: 29,237 (National Avg: 40,307)

§  Black: 29,857 (National Avg: 25,871)

§  Other: 28,153

o   Employment:

§  White: 46%

§  Black: 4%

§  Spanish: 37%

§  Other: 13%

2000:

·      Population: 5,966

o   White: 47.4%

o   Black: 3.1%

o   Other: 49.5%

·      Income ($):

o   100,000 +: 12%

o   50,000-100,000: 32%

o   25,000-5000: 29%

o   10,000-25,000: 17%

·      Race/Ethnicity Variables:

o   Average Income By Race ($):

§  White: 40,042

§  Black: 44,500

§  Hispanic:  42,204

§  Other: 48,333

o   Employment:

§  White: 29%

§  Black: 3%

§  Hispanic: 40%

§  Other: 28%

Redwood City is located in between the two major cities of San Francisco and San Jose, making it a satellite city.  The total population according to the 2010 Consensus is 76,815 people; however, for the purpose of our project we have focused on the specific district that Socialexplorer.com placed my previous home in.  When we first looked at Redwood City there was no information for the 1940’s and 1950’s; however, as the decades went on, Redwood City continued to grow in population.  With the first consensus report being available in 1960, Redwood City had a population of just fewer than 6,000 people.  A majority of the population (96.8%) was white and as the decades went on the white population began to decrease as the black and other ethnicities became more common in the area.  Throughout the decades, the black population slowly increased while the Hispanic population increased greatly.  This is partly due to the increase in business within the city, which enabled people to amass wealth throughout the decades. 

Redwood City developed a main downtown area along Broadway Boulevard.  As Warner notes, the more business that enters into the economy seems to create a new urban element, and therefore creates the modern downtown.  Redwood City soon began to foster business development within its borders and had sections that were specific for retail and corporate use.  These specific sections along a main road – Woodside Road – within the city consisted of office buildings, gas stations, and various other small businesses.  Warner also notes as the city and the new downtown developed, so did the multi-ethnic neighborhoods.  When my father moved to Redwood City in the early 70’s it was also a time when a lot of Hispanic people were also moving into Redwood City.  My father bought a home just on the outskirts of the city in a predominantly white area.  The Hispanic and Black populations typically inhabited the inner core of the city.    During the 70’s, the suburban areas of Redwood City began to develop.  When my father first moved to Redwood City, he told me that there was very little housing in the area because the roads up in the hills of Redwood City were all dirt.  However, with the introduction of the interstate highway, it brought many more jobs and also expanded the suburban residential areas of San Jose and San Francisco. The area (now known as Emerald Hills) became very developed and eventually completely packed full of housing. 

The housing in Redwood City was very typical for California, every house had a garage connected to it and nearly all houses had a driveway and front yard.  Jackson notes this in his essay and I have noticed it throughout all of Redwood City.  Jackson also notes of the importance of the drive in society.  Everywhere in Redwood City there are drive-in restaurants and large-scale grocery stores that had overtaken the small mom and pop stores.  Another staggering surprise was that Redwood City matched up with Jackson’s ideas about a Centerless City.  Between 1990 and 2000 we noticed a huge decrease in population due to the split in districts.   Jackson notes that this was most likely a sub-dividers dream.  It obviously took place a little later than the 70’s or 80’s, but nonetheless, it happened.  My parents eventually moved away from the outskirts of Redwood City and up into Emerald Hills in the early 1990’s.  My parents were able to amass wealth due to the wide variety of jobs that were available to the occupants of the San Francisco Peninsula area.  The decentralization of factories and offices, as well as the growth of the corporate industry, enabled my parents to live outside of Redwood City and commute to work. 

A further look at the stats that we were able to find had to do with the rise in ethnic populations in Redwood City.  The Hispanic migrants, as I have mentioned earlier, became a significant participant in the labor force in Redwood City.  The black population rose a little and the white population decreased significantly over 70 years.  One of the most interesting conclusions we were able to draw regarded the income levels of blacks in Redwood City.  The national average for a black laborer in 1990 was around 25,000; however, in Redwood City the average for a black laborer was over 29,000.  The white labor force income was far less than the national average, most likely due to the fact that a large majority of the white population was able to afford to move to the outskirts of Redwood City.  Incomes of all ethnic groups rose throughout the decades due to the influx of jobs available in the city as well as the creation of interstate highways that allowed residents of particular areas to travel greater distances to work.