ABSTRACT

This chapter analyses how late-19th-century middle-class Philadelphians used steam trains and streetcars to remake their city and its region. Since the publication of Sam Bass Warner's Streetcar Suburbs nearly 40 years ago, scholars effectively have developed a consensus on suburbanization in Victorian America. Middle-class Philadelphians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries deviated in many ways from Jackson's model of suburbanization. First, they chose homes within the city limits in large numbers well into the 20th century. This decision suggests that the bourgeoisie felt no need to escape the political threat of Philadelphia's growing working classes. Until the middle of the 19th century, most Philadelphians had to live within walking distance of their place of employment. In 1850, the average worker lived within six-tenths of a mile of his or her workplace. The only modes of public transport available in the city were omnibuses and a few steam railroad local trains.