Maria Bowling

Dr. Van Noy

English 680

September 13, 2000

Skirting the Border

The suburb of today is a much maligned phenomenon. The very word brings to mind strip malls, stop lights, fast food restaurants, and street after street of unremarkable and often run-down housing. The suburbs of a major city are usually characterized in terms such as “urban sprawl” and “uncontrolled growth.” Of course, this has not always been the case. As attention has periodically refocused on this area, connotations of the word suburb have swayed back and forth from a place of deserved space, crucial to a sound spirit, to an artificial Mecca, barely concealing questionable roots. While concentrating on the former, both characterizations are evidenced by John Stilgoe in his 1988 documentary Borderland: Origins of the American Suburb, 1820-1939.

From the start of his book, Stilgoe denies any attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of the “great forces, economic, technological, religious, and otherwise” that have impacted the development of the suburb as we know it today (xii). Instead he likens his book to a chronological series of snapshots of the development of the suburbs which “probes and pokes at visual things” and sets them within a context of historical developments and trends.

In his introduction Stilgoe traces the origins of the word “suburb” and outlines other critical terms such as “borderland” and “commuter.” Stilgoe explains that the word suburb began with a negative connotation. The first suburbs were the territories surrounding walled-in medieval villages, which were usually located on hilltops. Thus, the suburb was literally below the city. To live inside the town was to know security from attacking armies; to live outside was to live a marginal existence at best. In contrast, Stilgoe points out, the suburbs today fuel our economy, sway elections, and set the standards by which success is often measured, while cities suffer from a shrinking tax base and resultant decay. For the purposes of his analysis, Stilgoe defines “borderlands” as that area somewhat beyond our concept of suburbia where lots are large enough to accommodate large, backyard gardens, neighborhoods do not follow the grid-like pattern of rubber-stamp similarity, and residences enjoy borders of mature trees and pastoral landscapes. The last concept redefined in the introduction is that of “commuter,” which for Stilgoe denotes more than just one who travels to and from work each day. For Stilgoe this term has the added meaning of one who “comes out of” the city (literally a “come-outer”) in search of surroundings amenable to a certain quality of life (5).

Having defined his terms, Stilgoe goes on to outline some of the social phenomena that framed the settlement of the borderlands. Among these is a suggested parallel between the attitudes of commuters taking refuge from the city and the mindset of the early European immigrants who chose to leave the problematic conditions of their native countries rather than strive to change them. Another pervasive theme that Stilgoe illustrates is the Walden-like belief that open spaces and contact with nature are necessary prerequisites for health, spirituality, and the development of a value system that we still recognize today with the term middle class values. Stilgoe makes no attempt to hide or critique the underlying elitism in the settling of the borderlands claiming that “the evolution of the borderland landscape throughout the nineteenth century illuminates [...] something of the relationship of educated Americans to the larger residential landscape” (5).

Stilgoe draws from a variety of sources to compose his chronology including nature books, sociological studies, art and landscape texts, and new historicist works. The most effective quotes and descriptions, however, come from the periodicals of the times, including country and suburban newspapers and horticultural magazines, which give an authentic flavor to Stilgoe’s sometimes dry prose. Quotes from these sources are interspersed liberally and complemented with reproductions of landscapes, photographs, posters, cartoons, and other period illustrations. These graphics make it easy for the reader to feel transmitted back to an earlier age.

Borderland is organized chronologically in six sections with sub-chapters, with each section describing not so much a distinct period of time, but an evolution of attitudes toward the borderlands. The first section “Intellectual and Practical Beginnings” describes how, in the mid-1800's, pastoral, outer-city borders became popular in landscape photography as foreground for views of the city. At this time writers such as Susan Cooper in The Home Book of the Picturesque were beginning to extol the beauty of “crafted” open space and create an aesthetic that valued “half-wild” settings (qtd. in Stilgoe 23). At this time cities were becoming more and more unhealthy, stifling, dirty, and prone to epidemics, creating a nostalgia for the countryside and a less capital-centered existence. In addition to the occasional plague, doctors blamed the city for the increase in nervous disorders. “Rural pleasures,” “purity of air,” and “rusticity” began to be the prescription for a healthy existence (42).

In the second section, “A New Sort of Space: A Proper Country Home,” the aesthetic of the new, prosperous borderland inhabitants takes hold. The trend for the cities of importing agricultural products from farther away and the encroachment of the country home on its agricultural neighbors created a problematic mix and drove many farmers out of business. The sloppy, run-down, weedy look of these farms clashed with the more orderly, crafted look sought by the new transplants. Indeed, much of the journalism of the time focused on the proper appearance and upkeep of the house and country garden. Ornamental gardening became popular, and a spirit of perfectionism extended from the back yard to notions of family and child-rearing. “Children raised with a love of trees and flowers are more likely to retain the integrity and virtue of childhood” claimed writer Zebulon Baker, who then went on to equate love of nature and love of country (qtd. in Stilgoe 98). Similarly, improving your grounds became equated with patriotism.

Part three, “Commuter Country,” focuses on the effects of advances in transportation on the borderlands. In the mid-1800's horse pulled omnibuses made it possible for even the working class to live further from the cities, and horse drawn streetcars that ran on tracks extended this range. This effect was multiplied as railroad building increased the purchasing and subdividing of parcels of land further from the cities. Using Chicago as an example, Stilgoe describes the development of the northern “highland” areas where the wealthy could enjoy a variety of scenery and panoramic views, while the poorer citizens were relegated to the flat, semi-industrial sprawl that occurred on the marshy south side. So, while the wealthy enjoyed the fruits of what was beginning to define the American Dream, the less wealthy took refuge in the rectangular gridded residential areas which sprouted up closer to the city and began being characterized by their closeness and uniformity as “barnacles” (151).

In contrast to the somewhat depressing picture of growing segregation between the wealthy and working classes depicted in section three, section four, “Borderland Life and Popular Literature” takes on a lighter tone. As early as 1896, writers and essayists such as Henry Cuyler Bunner, himself a borderland resident, began poking fun at suburban etiquette and problems. Unlabeled seed packages, pigs in the garden, and the family horse trampling the prize rose bushes are some of the humorous mishaps encountered by fictional transplanted city folks. But along with the satire came more serious attacks on unimaginative, treeless residential districts that cropped up closer to the cities. A particular interest in trees emerged at this time as the effects of over-urbanization in the form of live wires, fence wires and using trees as hitching posts killed many older trees in the cities. As recognized earlier, city maladies continued to spread, and doctors continued to counsel their patients on the importance of nature in curing such ailments. As a result, camping, hunting, bird watching, and other forms of outdoor recreation were regularly prescribed and increased in popularity.

The demand for borderland space within commuting distance continued to grow into the early 1900's, and the advent of the automobile allowed new areas to become available for development. Close proximity to railroad stations was no longer a necessity. This change brought about the concept of the “Planned Residential Community,” which comprises the focus of the fifth section of Borderland. According to Stilgoe, at their best these communities provided a manicured space, gated and secure from the outside world, while at their worst, actual private space was severely limited, with families sharing open backyards and other common areas. In either case, the half-wild quality aspired to by the original borderland flight was largely lost. Even for automobile owners, commutes had become too long for real borderland living, and close proximity to the city continued to determine development because most services had not yet been decentralized. With less actual space in houses and smaller lot sizes, clever use of space and home improvement began to replace large family gardens as the proper spiritual pursuits of the homeowner. Do-it-yourself books became popular and were believed to foster an independent spirit, an appreciation for structure and space, and instill practical values in all members of the family. World War I then heightened the awareness of the need for practicality and the nesessity for women to be able to manage traditionally male household tasks.

Stilgoes’s last section, “Arrivals,” deals further with the effects of WWI on the city/suburb dichotomy. An anonymous article in a 1917 issue of Countryside entitled “Why is a City” provided a voice to the new fears of many Americans. Cities were characterized in the article as fundamentally flawed and dangerous, and vulnerable as targets for bombs and nerve gas attacks through a vivid dream sequence that depicted scenes of skyscrapers reduced to rubble. Reliance on mechanization and progress became suspect by association, and the physical destruction of the city became a metaphor for the general downfall of civilization (280). The solution, of course, was to flee to the safety of the country, where traditional values could flourish. The stock market crash of the thirties added to this disillusionment and spawned many nostalgic trends such as antique collecting, restoration projects, and designing new housing after historic designs. Popular writers condemned the capitalist business world, often invoking the “Lost Generation” terminology created by Gertrude Stein, and Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street and Babbitt fictionalized the growing sentiment that values were going askew in the economic world (285-87).

The nostalgia of this period generated an interest in preserving native species, and this notion of the danger of alien takeover was extended to the social arena. A real question began to be asked by those who valued the American Dream. Could immigrants (and their different value systems) overwhelm traditional American society? And if poor immigrants were concentrated in the evil city by their poverty, how could they be expected to develop the proper American values? These attitudes were summed up in an article in The American Mercury which stated, “the modern large city as an experiment in human association is turning out badly” (298).

Stilgoe ends his book by retreating somewhat blandly to his original position as a mere bystander offering snapshots of the development of borderland space. “The enduring power of borderland landscape between the early nineteenth century and the beginning of World War II suggests that many women and men understood more by commuting and country than train schedules and pastures, and hints also that the cities of the Republic failed to provide an urban fabric as joyous, as restorative as that found by borderers a few miles beyond,” he states in his conclusion (308). Thus he remains consistent in his strategy of staying at the surface level of these housing and social trends and categorizing their effects on the borderlands without delving into their deeper and more profound implications.

This decision not to go beyond an objective reporting stance leaves the reader of Borderland with several hints and allusions to the important social issues underlying the development of borderland space without any discussion of what these trends say about our values as a society. From the earliest settlement of the borderlands, the city and the capitalism that fed it became associated with a certain moral decay. The flip side of this characterization was the attribution of cleanliness, healthfulness and spiritual conduciveness to the borderlands as settled by the educated middle class (not in their original natural state or as inhabited by the marginal family farm). The Thoreau-like connection between nature and spirituality was treated as a given from the start. Likewise, a set of values became associated with being able to afford borderland space, the same set of values that has come to be known today as traditional, family values. It is interesting to note that from the beginning these traditional values were seen as most easily available to those who could afford to live outside the city, the further out, the better. Thus possessing money and being of good character began an associative relationship that still exists strongly today. Other city/country dichotomies are touched on in Borderland, but the effect on of this migration on the environment is not confronted as a major theme.

Borderland easily achieves its stated objective to introduce “a landscape over time” (xii) and to focus “on the visual elements of the borderlands” (11). To get a more in depth analysis or to draw conclusions about how our presence in the borderlands has impacted both the territories themselves and our views as a society requires much reading between the lines, if not a search past this book to authors concerned with tackling thornier issues.

Works Consulted

Stilgoe, John R. Borderland: Origins of the American Suburb, 1820-1939. New Haven: Yale U P, 1988.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Ed. J. Lyndon Shanley. 1971. Princeton: Princeton U P, 1989.

Westling, Louise H. The Green Breast of the New World: Landscape, Gender and American Fiction. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1996.