Grandma's Canned Green Beans

Before 1875 the people in the cities preserved their own summer crops (at least those who could afford to) for winter use.  Commercial canning hadn't come of age, but home canning was common, and the only way to enjoy some fruits and vegetables in the colder months.  Housewives made jams and jellies from in-season fruit.  Apples, tomatoes and other locally grown fruit and vegetables were stored in underground cellars.  Are you old enough to remember the doors outside the house leading down into the cellar?  (if not, think of the Wizard of Oz!)

Changes toward the end of the 19th century made it harder for city residents to store their own supply of food for winter.  One was central heating, which made cellars where furnaces were located too warm to store food. 

Secondly, the apartment building - which developed because of overcrowding in the cities raising the price of land.  For instance in Chicago, the value of land doubled by 1873 from $500 million to over $1 billion in value in just 25 years.  The first apartment building, a middle class dwelling (not a tenement) first appeared in New York City in 1873.  Apartment buildings had no private cellars and no place to store food.

The good part of this whole story is for the farmers. More opportunities to sell fresh fruits and vegetables in the city meant merchants needed more wholesale product.  The farmer was now assured of a regular market for all his produce.  Farmers made more money and it was easier to farm.

Before refrigeration, the farmer grew early and late varieties of the same fruits and vegetables.  By planting several times he might have something to sell to the local market over most months (if nature cooperated).  Quality, taste, and appearance didn't really factor in much.  When the refrigerator car came along, it changed everything.  Now farmers could plant one variety that was best for transport and still be attractive and tasty to the consumer.

Next time...Changing in Farming
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Today on Pioneer Pieces Blog: "On October 31, 1517,  the priest and scholar, Martin Luther, approaches the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions of that would begin the Protestant Reformation in theology. 

The "Burbs"

The electrified streetcar railways reached out in all directions.  More often than not the rails did not go where the people were, but went where the developers wanted the people to come.  Streetcars definitely helped to widen the city and create the suburbs.

For example, in Los Angeles, the streetcar system designed and built by Henry Huntington, extended 35 more outside the city proper by 1913, and serviced more than 40 different incorporated centers.  Redondo Beach, which was 17 miles outside of LA, re-cooped the cost of the streetcar line in just two months by the sale of real estate.

In Cleveland, Ohio, the Van Sweringen brothers purchased over 4000 acres outside of town.  What became known as Shaker Heights did not follow the conventional models of checkerboard construction...it curved around man-made lakes and parks.  The architecture was strictly controlled and eventually Shaker Heights set a new pattern for all American suburbs.  

Residential joining came from Shaker Heights as well.  It separated families according to income, race, and religion.  The suburbs now offered a place where families could live according to income and have safety from the "stigma" of living among people of a different "kind."  It wasn't a good thing for the structure of American society, although at the time, it was considered the answer to society's problems.

For the first time in 1950, the US Census Bureau redefined the meaning of "urban" including those living in suburbs as the "urban fringe."  The American dream was now strengthened - owning a home of your own was possible in the "burbs."

Next time...continue on the "Decline of Main Street"

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Today in Pioneer History:  "On August 19, 1909, the first race is held at the Indianapolis Speedway, the Indianapolis 500.  Built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana, the speedway was started by local businessmen as a testing place for the growing automobile industry.  

Birth of the Streetcar

The suburbs were a by-product of the streetcar.  "Streetcar suburbs" expanded a city and their story is an interesting one...

Prior to streetcars the boundary of a city was the distance a man could walk in one hour from the city center.  Horses and carriages were an asset of the wealthy, not the ordinary city dweller.  The railroad traveled to the central station, mostly for moving goods, not for transporting people short distances.  The bus ran in the city proper only.  The streetcar put an end to the "walking city" as Boston had been in the 1850s, but Boston by 1900 had a suburb radius of 10 miles out thanks to the streetcar.

The streetcar began back in 1832 when John Stephenson designed a horse drawn bus on four wheels for the New York and Harlem railway.  For 30 years he was the leading manufacturer of anything like a streetcar until 1863 when Stephen Field (nephew to Cyrus Field of telegraph cable fame), along with Thomas Edison, unveiled at the Chicago Railway Exposition the first electric railway car.

There were major problems with this early electric railcar - there was no efficient way to get the electricity from the central location to the car without killing people! Live wires and underground conduits weren't working until a guy in Detroit solved the problem.  The "Detroit Edison", Charles Van Depoele invented the first efficient streetcar motor so that the overhead trolley system could actually work and be safe.

By the 1890s the trolley system was in common use...and cities were designing their own streetcar systems.  The first system was in Richmond, Virginia in 1888 and the story is quite spectacular.

Next time...Frank Julian Springer
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Today in Pioneer History:  On August 12, 1939, the Wizard of Oz movie premieres in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.  Based on a book by Frank Baum, the movie went on to be one of the best loved movies of all time, still shown today on television.  A part of my childhood, how about yours??