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Explore the transformation of Twin Cities' landscape during the auto era from 1950s to 1960s, witnessing the rise of suburbs, changes in housing density, transportation shift from streetcars to cars, and the impact on urban and industrial areas.
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Geography of the Twin Cities DevelopmentPart 8: Auto Era and Suburban Competition David A. Lanegran Geography Department Macalester College
This is the north side of 7th Street East at Wabasha in 1952. Some great old cars are visible. We also see the coming changes in the city. In the later 1950s the economy would boom as cars and houses would both become larger and traffic congestion would take over the downtowns.
In 1956, the great period of urban expansion had begun. The mix of high, medium, and low-density housing had changed with the addition of more low density development. The primary direction of growth was established.
By 1964, the move to the suburbs was in full force. The low density area had leaped the Minnesota River and surrounded the lakes. The rate of building was fantastic, and the nature of the city was altered forever. The streetcars were replaced by buses and the era of personal transit was established. Cars and suburban houses continued getting bigger.
The rapid rate of suburbanization was aided by new laws that made it easier to incorporate independent communities. The political leaders began to understand that a metropolitan area was developing that needed to be managed as a unit. The first step in this direction was the production in 1958 of a land use map of the entire area.
In the 1950s, the cities were a mixture of the old industrial city and the new service center. There were still many industries located in the railroad corridors and near the falls industrial area that were functional but did not yield high profits. Although a great deal of investment had occurred at the city's edge, little had been done to improve the city core. Various slum clearance and urban renewal programs had started on the fringes of the downtowns. The general view of the future was mixed. Most believed the city centers were obsolete and prone to abandonment. Many wondered who would build new buildings in the downtown and about the likely future of the railroad-oriented milling district that was rapidly becoming derelict.
An office scene, depicted in an economic development promotion piece developed by the state government in 1960, gives little hint of the revolution that would occur in offices over the next 25 years.
By the same token, the state was promoting skilled craftsmen working in traditional industries.
A middle-aged white worker operating a drill press by hand. This was typical for many industries in the 1950s. These jobs would all be lost to mechanization or off-shore completion during the last decades of the 20th century.
The South St. Paul Stockyards at their peak in 1960. The new bridge under construction would be an important link in the circumferential freeway that would usher-in a new set of industrial locations that were freed from the constraint of railroad access.
While urban leaders in the core cities struggled with issues of obsolete infrastructure, traffic congestion, and worker turnover, their industries were being lured to the ex-urban fringe by communities with brand new industrial sites and promises of new buildings designed to fit the requirements of the new machinery and the trucking industry that shouldered an ever-increasing share of the transportation business.
