Being American on the Edge

Being American on the Edge

Being American on the Edge Penurbia and the Metropolitan Mind, 1945 2010 Jose ph G od d a r d

BEING AMERICAN ON THE EDGE Copyright Joseph Goddard, 2012. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-1-137-02079-6 All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-43753-5 ISBN 978-1-137-02081-9 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137020819 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Goddard, Joseph, 1962 Being American on the edge : penurbia and the metropolitan mind, 1945 2010 / Joseph Goddard. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-349-43753-5 1. Suburbs United States. 2. Suburban life United States. 3. Country life United States. 4. Urban-rural migration United States. 5. Urban-rural relations United States. 6. City and town life United States. 7. Metropolitan areas United States. I. Title. HT352.U6G63 2012 307.740973 dc23 2012005222 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: August 2012 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents List of Figures and Tables P r e fa c e vii ix 1 I nt ro duc i n g Pe nu r bi a 1 2 T h i n k i n g a b out C it y E d g e s 11 3 Penurbanites and Exurbanites: Peoples of the Fringe 21 4 C h a r t i n g Pe nu r b a n Grow t h 5 Pol it ic s, Pl a n n i n g, a nd A d m i n i s t r at ion 6 Pe nu r b a n C i v i l S o c ie t y 7 I m a g e s f rom Popu l a r Cu lt u re 8 M a g a z i ne s a nd Pe nu r bi a 4 3 73 91 111 129 9 Professional Views of Penurban Change 153 10 C onc lu sion 175 Appendix Notes Bibliography Index 191 2 01 2 33 2 61

Figures and Tables Figures 4.1 Total County Farmland, Farms under 50 acres, and Sales under $2500 a Year, 1966 2007 57 4.2 Horse Farms and Population Change in Howard, Loudoun, and Niagara, 1969 2007 65 4.3 Horse Business Listings in City Directories and Phone Books 67 4.4 Golf Courses and Business Listings 68 8.1 Magazine Readership by Household Income and G e nd e r (2 010) 147 8.2 Place of Living Preferences, 1966 1998 150 Tables 4.1 Howard County Demographic Change, 1940 2010 47 4.2 Loudoun County Demographic Change, 1940 2010 49 4.3 Niagara County Demographic Change, 1940 2010 51 4.4 Sheep Farms and Numbers in Howard, Loudoun, and Ni a g a r a, 19 9 7 2 0 07 61 4.5 Wool Farms and Production in Howard, Loudoun, and Ni a g a r a, 19 9 7 2 0 07 62 4.6 Goat Farms and Numbers in Howard, Loudoun, and Ni a g a r a, 19 9 7 2 0 07 62 4.7 Grape Farms in Howard, Loudoun, and Niagara, 1997 2007 64 4.8 Hay Farms and Production in Tons in Howard, Loudoun, and Niagara, 1997 2007 66 6.1 Church, Schools, and Clubs and Organizational Change in Howard, Loudoun and Niagara, 1970 2003 92 4.a Howard County Selected Civil Society and Commercial Development, 1972 2003 191

viii Figures and Tables 4.b Loudoun County Selected Civil Society and Commercial Change, 1962 2001 194 4.c Lockport, Niagara County, Selected Civil Society and Commercial Change, 1949 2000 196 4.d Farm and Farmland Change in Howard, Loudoun, and Niagara, 1964 2007 198 4.e Farm and Farmland Change in Howard, Loudoun, and Niagara, 1964 2007 199 4.f Farm and Farmland Change in Howard, Loudoun, and Niagara, 1964 2007 200

Preface T his book, Being American on the Edge: Penurbia and the Metropolitan Mind, 1945 2010, only reached completion through the help of colleagues, friends, and family. The journey started during graduate seminars at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom during the mid-1990s. I owe debts to Dr. Peter Coates and Professor William Beinart for introducing me to the field of environmental history and for their inspiration. Thanks also go to Dr. Charlotte Werther and Dr. Dorthe Salskov- Iversen of the Copenhagen Business School, to Dr. Dorte Albrechtsen and to the late Dr. Niels Thorsen of the University of Copenhagen, who gave me my first teaching positions. Colleagues at the Department of English, University of Copenhagen, have given support throughout. Special thanks go to Dr. Jørgen Sevaldsen and Dr. Jens Rahbek of the history and society section. My doctoral supervisor, Professor Russell Duncan, has provided great support as a mentor, sparring partner, and colleague throughout the process by which an idea became first a dissertation and then this book. Thanks, Russell. The Faculty of Humanities of the University of Copenhagen made much of the research carried out in connection with this book possible, through the award of a doctoral fellowship, travel grants, and administrative support. For the last several years, the faculty and the now-renamed Department of English, Germanic, and Romance Studies provided the necessary postdoctoral research time to transform a dissertation into this book. The final revisions carried out in 2011 12 have been made with the support and grants provided by the Department of Global Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark. Archival research in the United States was helped by the kindness and generosity of many people. The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech in Alexandria provided office space and facilities. The Metropolitan Institute s then-director Rob Lang and Professor Arthur Nelson helped clarify my thinking. Professor Kenneth Jackson at Columbia University

x Preface in New York also helped refine my ideas, and Professor Charles Poland of the North Virginia Community College in Annandale aided the project through several meetings and conversations. In Howard County, the staff of the Historical Society Library provided patient help and inspiration, as did the staff of the Columbia library and the Columbia archives in Columbia, Maryland. Thanks to Dace Blaumanis, Gerard VonMayer, and the rest of the staff at the Department of Planning, to Caragh Fitzgerald and Martin Hamilton of the Maryland Cooperative Extension in Ellicott City, and to the farmers who made me welcome. Loudoun County s Thomas Balch Library provided advice and access to records, as did the Leesburg branch of the Loudoun library. Pat Giglio, Marsha Keim, and Diane DuCharm of the Loudoun County Planning Department were helpful, as was Richard Calderon of the Fauquier County Planning Department. Warren Howell Jr., Louis Nicholls, and Sean LaCroix of the Loudoun Department of Economic Development gave support, as did Corey Childs, director of the Loudoun office of the Virginia Cooperative Extension. Thanks also to Chris Millar and Peggy Maio of the Piedmont Environmental Council and to Margaret Good of the Waterford Foundation. In Niagara County, I owe debts to County Historian David Dickinson and his deputy Marcia Rivers for their support and advice. The staff at Lockport Public Library and the City of Niagara Falls Library also helped, as did Amy Fisk at the Department of Planning, Development, and Tourism. Thanks also to Director Paul Westfall and Paul Lehmann of the Cornell Extension Service in Niagara for sharing their expertise and local knowledge. The Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland, and the University of Maryland in College Park were also helpful. Many other people not listed here deserve thanks for aiding the project by listening to my ideas, for providing invaluable feedback, and for volunteering suggestions that have helped the final product. Any failings in this work are, of course, my own. The help required in transforming a dissertation into a readable manuscript is immense. My dissertation committee Dr. Rahbek, Professor Duncan, and Professor David Goldfield set me off in the right direction with good and constructive advice. Several other people have helped me in this, including Laurie Matheson and Joseph Powell. Commissioning Editor Robyn Curtis at Palgrave Macmillan in New York has played an immense if patient role in bringing this project to

Preface xi fruition, as has Matthew Kopel. Thanks also to anonymous reviewers. Their comments and questions have greatly improved this text. In slightly different forms, some sections of this book have appeared in scholarly journals and an encyclopedia. I would like to thank the editors of those journals for helping me to disseminate my research and for allowing the republication of materials. Specifically, portions of the Chapter 1 were first published as Penurbia in an encyclopedia essay in David Goldfield s Encyclopedia of American Urban History (2007), Sage Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 562 66. Some elements of Chapter 4 originally appeared in the article Landscape and Ambience on the Urban Fringe: From Agricultural to Imagined Countryside in Environment and History 15 (2009), pp. 413 39, White Horse Press. Lastly, an excerpt of Chapter 7 has been published in Virginia Lee Burton s Little House in Popular Consciousness: Fuelling Environmentalism? in the Journal of Urban History, 37:4 (2011), pp. 562 83. Thanks to my family, my parents, and especially my children Ella, Mia, and Alfred who have entered my life, enriched it, and endured the absences while this project ripened. And lastly: thanks, Jytte!