I am reading Shand/Tucci's Built in Boston for the first time (seriously) with the aim of learning more about what is around me and where it came from. A long-run topic deals with the origin of the American suburb. There isn't a good, objective definition for that, but the formation of the Boston cityscape points to some clear development patterns.
Phase 1: The early settler period and the port city. From the 1600's to the 1800's
Phase 2: The urban/suburban expansion. The faraway towns of Dorchester and Roxbury are brought into the urban fold. The streetcar suburbs of the post civil war era favored a high density suburban development, BUT, and this is the interesting thing I just learned, the property owners in the inner ring suburbs had been trying for greater density, a la row houses. However, they had to settle for the 5000-6000 s.f. lot that is the standard of many of these neighborhoods (Quincy included). This is regarded as large.
Phase 3: The outer suburbs--Wellesley, Weston, Wayland. They were considered attractive very early on, i.e. mid to late 1800's. Their settlement, and subsequent displacement of farmland, seems inevitable circa 1870. And I used to think that nothing happened until after World War II!
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