Themes in American History

By 1900 Boston led the way in realizing a vast regional park system. Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago gave a further boost to the metropolitan and regional park concept by proposing a park system extending some thirty miles from the center of the city and a lakeside park system of over twenty miles that would establish the unique character of the Chicago lakefront. And in the 1920s, in New York, the Regional Plan of New York and Environs and the New York State Parks Council and the Long Island
State Parks Commission, led by Robert Moses, developed a model system of metropolitan parks and parkways that would shape the lives and recreational habits of millions of people for decades
to come.

Regional park systems were also flourishing in the West. Perhaps foremost was the establishment of California’s East Bay Regional Park District in 1934, based on Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.’s “California State Park Survey.” The East Bay Park District was the first American regional park district with consolidated authority and independent taxing powers. It established a national model for administrative and regional park quality.

Building on these successes, communities all across America developed metropolitan and regional park systems that preserved unique natural areas and provided needed recreational facilities.

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Electricity was not very wide spread by the early 20th century. As technology developed and there became more demand for household appliances, so did the demand for electrical wired housing. In 1920, city housing was only 10% total electrically wired, but in just 10 years it jumped up to 50%. However in rural parts of the country where farming was prominent, houses rarely had electricity. Because of this, many of the new innovations in washing machines, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and radios were primarily promoted to urban and suburban society rather than to rural society (Chudacoff 186). With the usage of these appliances many more women raised their own standards of cleanliness, by tending to choirs more often due to the convenience created by these appliances, which also resulted in demand for greater spread and supply of electricity. Although it is not a new invention, electricity has changed the developed world so much that it would be very challenging to live without it.

1920's Washer Machine

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New York in the 1920s had nearly 6 million residents and was a center of manufacturing and culture. Immigrants entering through the port fed the city’s thriving economy. As part of the great migration from the south to northern cities thousands of African Americans moved to New York between 1917 and 1925. In addition to the lure of jobs, many were drawn to the cultural life of Harlem, on the city’s East Side. NYC was known in the 1920’s for a little something called the Harlem Renaissance. This movement of African American culture was a thriving Jazz center of the United states. Boson on the other hand was known for their influence in baseball. Babe Ruth was one of the star players for the Boston Red sox.

Babe Ruth starting pitcher for the Red Sox.

Louis Armstrong known throughout the Harlem Renaissance.

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found via Google Images Search.

At the start of the twentieth century there were great innovation in transportation that changed the way in which people lived across the US. This was especially clear in major cities like New York City and Boston. Both cities were able to adapt the latest changes in transportation very quickly, which allowed each city to grow its population and size.

In New York new bridges and automobiles allowed people from outside of Manhattan to commute to the city very easily. While in Boston, there were 6 neighboring communities to Boston that were combined to make Greater Boston. In New York City many people enjoyed taking trains and other various forms of public transportation from the outer boroughs into the city. While in Boston people preferred to drive. In both cases many new houses were built as developers scrambled to meet demand. Many of these houses are still in existence today and can be seen all over the outer city areas.
Today, these changes have had profound effects on each city and have allowed them both to thrive and prosper.

NYC's 5 Boroughs

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This is an early 20th century postcard.

In the 1900s, Paris was full of wealthy people traveling in and out, artistic innovations, and jazzy music. Reflective of this freedom and movement of the city, architects built buildings with angular shapes that resembled new cruise ships. This movement was given the name, Art Deco. After World War II hit, the city adopted less flamboyant  styles with a mixture of the old and new styles. Paris experienced a housing boom where empty spaces were filled with government sponsored housing projects built of brick. The new housing was influenced by Art Deco with decorative brickworks. Paris mostly brought it’s bricks from its own limestone bedrock which is why most of their building carried the same color tone.
Similarly,  there was a residential boom in NYC in the early 1900s. The beautiful residential buildings on central park east and central park west were built then. The city also provided public housing which dramatically changed the city’s appearance. New high rise buildings were built in an effort for urban renewal. In many cases they were considered as failures due to the poor maintenance and high crime rates. One of the distinctive features of NYC that can still be seen today are the roof mounted water towers. These were built during the early 1900s with the high rise buildings that were over six floors because these buildings needed too much of a high water pressure to deliver water to the upper levels. Lastly, unlike Paris, NYC drew its stones from different quarries which allowed a variety of textures and hues of stone in the buildings.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GuDExkBmnU

Music reflects the time and social aspects of that period of time. There was a big development in twentieth century, because the need of leisure was in demand in the fast developing New York City. The Harlem Renaissance was a big cultural movement in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Harlem was the African-Americans’ neighborhood. African-Americans’ music, for example, the Jazz, was very popular at that time. Music changed the social status of African-Americans. They became more accepted and appreciated in the city. Also in that period, Blues, another type of African-American music was blooming in Chicago. More African-Americans moved from the southern states to the northern states, such as from Texas to Chicago. At the beginning, this kind of music was not popular and just for entertains African-Americans. However, after more and more people visited the city and listened to their performance. The music became popular. Music played an important role to African-Americans in the American society. It let people get to know more about African-Americans and accept them were also the citizens.

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NYC has most modern subway system. In 1904, first subway was built on a route from city hall to Bronx.  After that number of extensions occurred in following years. From 1913 onwards, city signed contracts with private companies for the growth of subway lines. In1940 city got independent subway system after acquiring BRT and IRT(private companies). It was the latest and most innovative subway development of that time. Chicago “L” subway system is the second longest rapid transit system in total track mileage in United States.  After 1911 the Chicago line came under the control of president of Chicago Edison electric utility. He knew that trains were the city largest consumer of electricity. He improved the whole system including free transfers and through routings. He also bought three other Chicago electric railroads and ran them via “L” tracks.    

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I asume most of the classmates use subway as their major transportation to either go to school, work, shopping, etc. It surelyapplies to most of the New Yorker today. In the 20th century, one of the many aspects that improved in the New York City was the transportation. In 1904, the subway system started to operate underground, managed by the private company Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT). The IRT was bought by the New York City in 1940, and the subway system was operated under the city’s operation. The subway system in Boston was also improving in the 20th century. The Tremont Street Subway was operated in 1901, the first actively operated subway in the United States. Because of the additional capacity and methods of the transportation, the both subway systems improved the transportation speed and cleaned up the mess and delays on the streets. The subway system is now very essential for most people in the both cities, and still can improve its system to avoid any problem with the transportation.

"Bell Mouths Under Tremont Street- Boston Subway" from nycsubway.org

"The New York Subway Souvenir" from nycsubway.org

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One aspect of New York City development during the twentieth century was the building of the skyscrapers that have become a symbol of the City’s skyline. This all began with the construction of the Empire State Building, which was completed in 1931. A 102-story landmark in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, the Empire State Building, a name derived from the nickname of New York, stands 1,250 feet tall, and was the tallest building until the World Trade Center was erected in 1972. During the twentieth century, the construction of skyscrapers also began to develop in cities around the United States, comparably in Chicago with the erecting of the Willis Tower, commonly known as the Sears Tower. Completed in 1973, the Tower is 108 stories, 1,451 feet tall, and is the tallest building in the country. Towards the end of the twentieth century, the Sears Tower, John Hancock Center (also in Chicago) and the World Trade Center in NYC all vied to be the tallest building in the country. The Sears Tower eventually won in 1982 when two antennas were installed on top of the Tower, bringing its height to 1,707 feet.

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During the 1920’s, urbanization took place on a wider front than even before. While, New York was famous as the most commercial and creative city in the world, Florida was enjoying rapid economic growth, and Miami was becoming known as a tropical paradise, stirring the interests of investors from across America. It was the time of wild real estate speculation known as Real Estate Boom of the 1920’s. During this time, the stock market was moving forward at an extremely fast pace and many investors were becoming quite wealthy. As the boom gained speed, residential and commercial lots were sold and resold several times during a day, and prices spiraled. Celebrities and tourists flocked to the area, land sales increased astronomically and as a result land prices went up. Miami prospered during the 1920’s with the increase of population and infrastructure, but weakened after the real estate crash and the Great Depression.

Sources: Chudacoff 177; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_land_boom_of_the_1920s ; http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/crises/forgotten.html

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An aerial shot of Manhattan that spotlights the newly constructed wall of public housing on the East River -- Lillian Wald and Jacob Riis -- and the middle-class private city at the right, Stuyvesant Town. Original Source: New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), circa 1949.

In the twentieth century, public housing was one aspect of the development in cities in the United States. Public housing in the United States was dedicated for the poor, low-income people, and for slum clearance. In New York City, the first public housing project was built in 1935.

At the beginning, the public housing projects in the United States were welcomed by many working-class whites as well as blacks. Public housing was highly demanded and was not only provided for blacks. In some cities, such as Chicago, the government allocated the poor of different races carefully into different apartments whose location matched the racial composition of that area. For black, there were projects in black communities, and for white, there were projects in white communities. There were also areas there racial composition was mixed.

However, in the late 1940s, this racial allocation seemed to be hard to maintain. As more and more blacks applied to public housing and more and more white looked for alternatives in private market, the government had to fill the public housing units with increasing amount of blacks, rather than let the units vacant. In Chicago, the black population of the Frances Cabrini Homes had reached 40 percent by 1949, the double of the original 20 percent limit. The percentage of blacks continued to increase and reached 85 percent by 1959. This was the same in New York City. The white population of public housing in New York City dropped from 66 percent to 25 percent during the 1950s. Since then, public housing became as a label of impoverished black residents, and even became a way of segregation. (Chudacoff, 233)

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Image depicts the idea of the quota laws set forth during the 1920's in the United States. Original Source: American Isolationism Cartoon, 1921 (Library of Congress)

During the 1920s many American cities saw quota laws that limited or completely stopped a group of people from entering into the United States. One of the cities that was affected by these quota laws was NYC which saw a great decline of immigration during the 1920s. The congressional acts of 1921, 1924, and 1929 limited greatly the amount of immigrants coming from southern and eastern Europe places where the majority of immigration came from to NY (Chudacoff & Smith 206). On the other hand these laws did not limit the immigration coming from the Western Hemisphere therefore, during the 1920’s the majority of the immigrants entering the country where Mexicans. While some of them moved up to some of the northern cities like Chicago and Detroit many of them resided in southwestern cities. For example during this decade Mexicans where a little more than 50% of the population in El Paso, a little less than 50% of the population in in San Antonio and 20% of the population in Los Angeles (Chudacoff & Smith 206). This influx of Chicanos provided a large body of labor as they worked in steel mills, tanneries, meat-packing industries, automobile factories, etc. However these Chicanos were also faced issues in the United States such as segregation a negative aspect of their time here.

Image of a Mexican immigrant couple during the 1920's. Original Source: UC Berkeley Bancroft Library

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As result of the great depression, many factories in New York were forced to closed, and half of New York’s manufacturing plants were canceled.  New York City was one of cities in the united state which was hit in seriously.  People began to lose their jobs and their houses; they lived in streets as wanderers who had nothing to do.  In order to exist, they started to steal and rob from others. Criminal Rate had increased quickly. Some of them waited for the aids from government to help them overcome the hardest time.

At the same time, Agriculture in the Midwest also suffered. Most of the Great Plains, from Texas to North Dakota, had been turned into a “Dust Bowl.” This name referred to the stripped landscape that was a result of windstorms that blew away millions of tons of topsoil. The reason the windstorms made such an impact can be contributed to the over-planting and stripping of lands to plant wheat after World War I. Many farms were abandoned and many families relocated in California.

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The Empire State Building. Photo Taken by: Michael Kenna. March-May 26, 2008

In present day United States, cities are recognized by their skyscrapers. Especially the main cities in each state including Dallas, Los Angeles, Piladelphia, New York, Boston, Miami and Chicago. Skyscrapers were and are still used to help represent each city. In 1913, one of New York’s earliest skyscrapers called the Woolworth Building, which stood at 792 feet was completed and helped define the new downtown along with other skyscrapers (Chudacoff 93). During the construction of the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building already stood tall over midtown New York. The Empire State building was completed in 1930 and until this day, 81 years later, it still stands tall overlooking all of New York City and New Jersey. “By 1929, the editors of The American City could count 377 buildings at least twenty stories tall” (Chudacoff 183). Chudacoff also adds that almost half of those skyscrapers stood in New York, while Syracuse, Memphis and Tulsa boasted with their own share of skyscrapers (183). Cities that competed with New York City included Cleveland and Chicago. The skyscrapers revolutionized the looks in the cities. In Cleveland, there stood the 52-story Terminal Tower; Chicago was represented by the 36-story Tribune Tower and New York had its 102-story Empire State Building (Chudacoff 183). Despite the occupation of vast territories of the city, skyscrapers helped define the true value of its respective city.  Until this day, skyscrapers continue to tower in cities worldwide and they help define the city they’re located in. New York is the city most popular for its skyscrapers; however, many cities in the United States have their own beautiful, towering skyscrapers.

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The roaring twenties was the decade for growth and prosperity for many American cities. Some of the cities that flourish was New York City. It was leader of America modernity during the decade. While some cities grew and prospered, others stagnated.

Boston was one of those cities that had trouble during the 1920s. It entered the decade with a great disaster called the Boston Molasses Disaster. At 529 Commercial Street a huge Molasses Tank collapsed which crushed many buildings foundations and washed them away. Some trucks were hurled into the Boston Harbor. Some people were drowned by the Molasses also 151 people were injured. It took 187 000 man hour to clean up the mess but even though the aftermath led to many class action suits against the state. After the event Boston population stagnated, but the Molasses Disaster was just beginning.

As New York was gro

http://edp.org/molasses.htm

wing culturally, Boston experienced a police riot when they wanted to join the AFL union. This led to a clash between the Massachusetts militia and the police. Eventually Governor Calvin Coolidge suppressed the riot. But later this led to the unionization of police forces across the country. Then Boston decides to send anarchist Nicola Sacco and Bartolommeo Vanzetti to the electric chair which caused riots in most of Europe major cities.

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Fred Stein 1946 10x10 Photo of NYC Skyline at Night

When people think about skyscrapers, they think of major cities such as NYC. However in reality, many cities had built sky scrapers by the 1940’s. Although NYC has some of the finest and most popular skyscrapers in America, it was not the only city to have them. Although NYC built the first skyscrapers in Ameica, many cities such as Miami had also built a spectacular skyline. Many Americans tend to forget the beauty of Miami and other cities because they are overshadowed by the great New York skyline.

original source is unknown http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5174/5508195003_6693ef6c2f.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php%3Fp%3D74302547&usg=__8B3DmhKVCT5rJ6Zt77qdIdFCAo4=&h=217&w=500&sz=66&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=2SVuzg4f7ehVHM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=196&ei=hwESTpT3Bcft0gGX3JSNDg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmiami%2Bskyline%2B1940%2527s%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGLL_enUS382US383%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D565%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=4&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:0&tx=143&ty=47Fred Stein 1946 10x10 Photo of NYC Skyline at Night

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The twentieth century brought about great changes for America, especially in New York.  New York had shown great progression economically, culturally, and architecturally. There was growth in every aspect of New York life from informal to professional subjects. However, there were also changes taking place in other parts of America and not all of those changes ended as good as New York. One of those places are Miami, Florida. In the mid 1920s, Florida was facing a land boom. Miami was looked at as a tropical paradise and people from all over America decided to invest in land. There was easy credit access and the prices of the land were quickly increasing. This led to the brokers and dealers ordering large amounts of supplies and causing a big problem with the railroads, some of them even being stranded en route. In result, there was a negative news feed about investing in Florida real estate.

Although the railroads were messed up, there was still ways of transporting goods by waterway. That was used until 1926, when a ship sank at the base of the port, making impossible to reach by any other ships, killing every way of transporting goods at the time from January until May. But by that time, Miami was no longer a place people wanted to go. Later that year, Miami faced a huge hurricane and left most developers bankrupt. After facing another big hurricane two years later then the stock market crash in 1929, Florida was no longer looking like the paradise it had initially been. The great depression and the invasion of mediterranean fruit flies left Florida with a bad economy that wasnt fixed until after World War II. Although New York faced economic depression as well, nothing was as bad as having your resources cut off and actually ruining your land.

[caption id=”attachment_2086″ align=”alignnone” width=”600″ caption=”photo from "Miami: Then

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Boxing in the 1920’s was an exceptionally popular sport. Many fights during this era were social events with many thousands in attendance, both men and women. New York has an interesting and unique boxing history. Boxing was banned from America in the early 1900’s. In 1920 New York passed Walker Law, this law permitted boxing fights to be legal in New York. As other States witness what was happening in New York so they also legalized boxing. One of the state was Chicago, following agitation to end the ban, notably by the Chicago Tribune, boxing was legalized in 1926, upon which the illinios boxing commission was organized. Windy City Boxing Gym in Chicago was a gym where fighters trained in 2o’s. Similarly, in New York a famous gym from that era was stillman gym located near the old madison square garden in New York City. On December 14, 1920, Jack Dempsey, the heavyweight champion, appeared in the Madison Square Garden, knocking out Bill Brennam in the 12th round. Dempsey drew the largest crowds at Madison Square Garden in that period. Likewise, With big time bout back in the Windy city, Chicago also began to attract soem of the biggest names in Boxing. Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey met at Chicago’s soldier field for the title. The bout drew record heavy weight gate receipts of over $2.5 million with 104000 fans at soldier field where Gene Tunney defeat Jack Dempsey. 1920’s was the tougher society and the more it loves tough sports which was boxing. The following youtube video footage is the fight between Tunney and Gibbons during 1920’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tN0nynRY9U

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Throughout the entire decade of the 1920’s the baseball teams in New York, the New York Giants and the New York Yankees, have dominated the sport of baseball by being a part of the World series nearly every year in the 1920’s. New York baseball has dominated every other baseball team during this time and it set the tone for New York being an aggressive and winning state in sports. This era also brought ought arguably the best baseball player of all time. Babe Ruth.

Babe Ruth as a New York Yankee

Source: Library of Congress

Author: George Grantham Bain

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In the early 1930s, the United States and much of the rest of the world faced severe economic problems. Many factories and stores closed, and people were out of work. Many families had little money to buy food. These years are remembered as the “Great Depression.”New York and Chicago were both one of the hardest hit areas of the country during the Great Depression. By 1932, about a quarter of Americans were jobless. The figures were astronomical in big cities: one million unemployed in New York, 600000 in Chicago.

By 1932, half of New York’s manufacturing plants were closed, one in every three New Yorkers was unemployed, and roughly 1.6 million were on some form of relief. The city was unprepared to deal with this crisis. Abandonment of women and children by husbands and fathers increased 134 % during the first few years of the crisis. Vacancy rates nearly doubled as the number of people with money to pay rent plummeted. Privately funded mutual aid societies, the first defense for most Lower East Sliders, collapsed under the stress. The number of mutual aid societies on the Lower East Side dropped from 6,000 in 1920 to 2,000 in 1938, in part because of out migration.

Chicago at that time was also seriously hit by the Great Depression because of the city’s reliance on manufacturing. Only 50 percent of the Chicagoans who had worked in the manufacturing sector in 1927 were still working there in 1933. Aferica American and Mexicans were particularly hurt. By 1932, 40 to 50 percent of black workers in Chicago were unemployed.  Many Mexicans returned, responding to incentives like the free transportation offered from Chicago, or to the more coercive measures in Gary, Indiana Harbor, and South Chicago. Nor were white-collar employees necessarily safe. By February 1933, public school teachers were owed eight and a half months’ back pay. Many unemployed and frustrated workers took matters into their own hands. The Great Depression saw some of the most volatile strikes and protest movements in the city’s history. Unions were often supported by the newly organized Congress of Industrial Organizations . Organizing efforts were facilitated by mass culture, which provided a common ground to a disparate workforce. Workers united across race, ethnicity, and even across different industries. By 1940 one-third of the workers in Chicago’s manufacturing sector were unionezed. Active social protest movements extended outside of the workplace too. Unemployed workers, relief recipients, even the unpaid schoolteachers held huge demonstrations during the early years of the Great Depression.

Both New York and Chicago were suffered economy crisis during the depression, however in Chicago, the depression also involved with the strikes and protest movements, which represented the voice of the worker class people and the minority. It also made the Chicago’s manufacturing sector was unionied.

the unemployed worker:  Picture from the FDR Library, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Woman and children in a camp during the Great Depression, 1936. Photograph: Dorothea Lange/Corbis

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