The 1950s American Home

By Diane Boucher

Modern living began with the homes of the 1950s. Casting aside the privations of the Second World War, American architects embraced the must-have mod-cons: they wrapped fitted kitchens around fridges, washing machines, dishwashers and electric ovens, gave televisions pride of place in the living room, and built integrated garages for enormous space-age cars. So why was this change so radical? In what ways did life change for people moving into these swanky new homes, and why has the legacy of the 1950s home endured for so long? Diane Boucher answers these questions and more in this colorful introduction to the homes that embody the golden age of modern design.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jun 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9780747813835

Book preview

A CLEAN BREAK: ACHIEVING THE AMERICAN DREAM

IN 1950 Bernard Levey purchased a house in the new suburban community of Levittown – some 25 miles outside of New York City – for $7,950. For Mr. Levey, a veteran of World War II and a truck supervisor, this was to be his third home in Levittown. Together with his wife and three young children, he had rented a house in 1948 under the federal government’s Veteran Rental Project, to see if they liked it. In 1949, the Leveys bought their first home, a semi-modern, with the help of a generous loan from the US Department of Veteran Affairs. The family was now upgrading to the ’50s model, a ranch-style, which came with the latest innovations, including a carport and a built-in television.

America in the 1950s heralded a bright future for World War II veterans like Bernard Levey, following years of economic uncertainty during the Great Depression and the war. Ironically, it was the war itself that set the stage for the new age of prosperity. The United States had invested an unprecedented $300 billion in military spending during the war years. American industry had merely to retool the armament factories to produce cars and refrigerators rather than warplanes and battleships. This gave industrial production an immense stimulus and resulted in the world’s richest and most modern economy.

In 1944, the federal government introduced the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, popularly known as the GI bill, which provided a range of benefits to the sixteen million returning World War II veterans. It enabled 6.4 million newly demobilized soldiers to further their education, either at high school, on vocational courses or in college. In addition, the veterans had access to loans to start a new business or farm and they had recourse to the government’s mortgage program, which offered low-cost, zero-down home loans. Thanks to the GI bill, America began the postwar period with an educated and stable workforce with access to cheap home financing and business loans. The result was to fundamentally change the aspirations of the majority of the population, giving rise to a consumer society that could afford a way of life Americans could only have dreamt of during the years of economic depression and war.

According to Life magazine, which featured the Levey family posing in front of their three homes, Levittowners … could buy a new house every year as they would a new car and when the 51s come along, they may buy again.

Many of the newly returning soldiers, encouraged by a healthy job market and an optimistic sense of the future, were eager to date, marry, and start a family. Couples married in record numbers. In 1940, 31 percent of the population was single; by 1950 the number had fallen to 23 percent. They also married at a much younger age: during the 1950s, the median age of men when they married dropped from 24.3 years to 22.6 and for women, from 21.5 to 20.4 years. By 1959, 47 percent of all brides were married by the age of 19. Once married, most couples began their families almost immediately. The average family had 3.2 children, with the most educated women leading the new trend. This had enormous repercussions for the American birthrate: more children were born between 1948 and 1953 than had been born over the preceding thirty years, and 1954 saw the largest one-year population gain in US history. In 1950, the US population was 151.7 million; by 1960 it has risen to 180.7 million. The phenomenon became known as the baby boom, and Levittown was widely referred to as fertility valley or the Rabbit Hutch.

These growing families needed places to live, but in the immediate postwar period homes were in critically short supply. During the Depression and the war, housing starts had fallen drastically, creating a situation where young

Reviews for The 1950s American Home

[Tamara Treber · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As a Gen X, I am in the process of purchasing a mid-century modern home and plan to restore it to its original luster. This book was informative and historically accurate. I enjoyed reading the reasoning behind the design choices of the 1950's and early 60's. In addition, my husband has a background in city and county planning, so this was of interest to him as well.