Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
The infection point was almost certainly sometime in the first half of the 20th century.
In 1900 most would've been in the city, by 1950 most would've been in the burbs.
In 1923? Maybe equalish, or maybe the burbs already ahead.
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In 1923, the Gold Coast was basically country, and there weren't even major arterials. Women didn't drive. There were few suburban schools of note. Public school districts were rudimentary and private schools were rare.
I cannot imagine most of Chicago's social register set was living full-time out in the countryside.
It's a Detroit-related anecdote, but I know an older guy who moved from an elite neighborhood in Detroit to Bloomfield Hills in the 1950's. There were dirt roads and barely any gas stations. The schools were horrendous compared to Detroit Public Schools. The facilities were a joke. The Detroit schools had science labs, professional-quality auditoriums and multiple pools. There was no comparison between a Cass Tech and a suburban HS. At the time, Detroit Country Day was in Detroit. Cranbrook was a boarding school in the woods.