Americans were eager to segregate themselves by class, as the French were, and they chose to flee the city in order to do so. The growth of industrial capitalism had created a middle-class with enough money to purchase homes in the suburbs. In addition, the development of quicker and more inexpensive means of transportation encouraged Americans to leave the increasing number of immigrants who crowded the city. Dating back to the time of Jefferson, American culture has been characterized by anti-urban tendencies. Embedded in the minds of many Americans is the idea that country living is somehow virtuous and desirable.
People often view contact with nature as essential to a happy home life.
In my reading on the process of suburbanization in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, I did not find much variance regarding the forces behind this transformation. In the case of Chicago, the fire of 1871 was influential in ending residential occupation of the city center. Residents chose to stay in the temporary dwellings that they had constructed just outside of the urban nucleus. While the poor formed a ring of settlement close to the core, the wealthy were able to afford the higher prices of outlying land. The development of the trolley and the streetcar provided quick, inexpensive service to these fringe areas.