Americans Used to Spend Every Evening on the Front Porch, So Why Did That Stop?

A hundred years ago, when supper was over, the whole family went out to the front porch and stayed there until dark. Neighbors nodded from porch to porch, the swing creaked and nobody needed an invitation. This is the story of where that evening went. The summer heat that made the porch a second living room, Andrew Jackson Downing and the Victorian veranda, the bungalow and the sleeping porch, Willis Carrier and the Rivoli Theater in 1925, window air conditioners, the car and the garage that moved to the front of the house, Levittown and the ranch house, television in the living room, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and zoning setbacks, Jane Jacobs and her eyes on the street, Bowling Alone, and the New Urbanism porches that are coming back. Chapters 0:00 A July evening in 1926 0:50 The empty street today 2:03 Summer before air conditioning 3:48 The Victorian porch 4:18 Bungalows and sleeping porches 5:45 Willis Carrier 6:34 The air-conditioned movie theater 9:30 Cars and the front garage 10:40 Levittown and the ranch house 12:09 Television takes the evening 13:16 Highways and setbacks 15:50 Fear and privacy 18:37 The porch comes back 20:13 What we gained and lost In collaboration with Surviving Old America and Life Without It. Fact sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration (residential air conditioning), Federal Highway Administration (Interstate history), Wikipedia: Willis Carrier, Air conditioning, Porch, Levittown New York, Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Bowling Alone, Seaside Florida, Celebration Florida, 1936 North American heat wave. Archive film (Internet Archive, Prelinger Archives and U.S. government films, public domain): Freedom of the American Road (Part I) (https://archive.org/details/Freedomo1955) Freedom of the American Road (Part II) (https://archive.org/details/Freedomo1955_2) Highway Hearing (Part I) (https://archive.org/details/HighwayH1956) In The Suburbs (https://archive.org/details/2323_In_The_Su...) Magic in the Air (1955) (https://archive.org/details/Magicint1955) Our Changing Family Life (https://archive.org/details/OurChang1957) Our Community (https://archive.org/details/OurCommu1952) Shopping Can Be Fun: A New Concept in Merchandising (https://archive.org/details/Shopping1957) [Amateur films: Ivan Besse collection: Britton, South Dakota 1938-39] (Part I) (https://archive.org/details/sIvanBes1938_2) [Amateur films: Ivan Besse collection: Britton, South Dakota 1938-39] (Part II) (https://archive.org/details/sIvanBes1938_3) [Home Movies: Groeber Collection: Kansas City, Mo. area, late 1930s] (https://archive.org/details/6395_HM_Groebe...) Photographs and documents: Library of Congress, U.S. National Archives and other public-domain collections via Wikimedia Commons. Used under Creative Commons (attribution): "American Scene by Carroll Jones III" by Carroll Jones III (CC BY-SA 4.0) "Family sitting on the porch with their dog (136747" by simpleinsomnia (CC BY 2.0) "Folk-Victorian Home " by LibertyThomas (CC BY-SA 4.0) "Group of women sitting on a porch (12664605494)" by simpleinsomnia (CC BY 2.0) "Jane Jacobs' House (28991237764)" by Paul Sableman (CC BY 2.0) "Man sitting on the porch (13674770823)" by simpleinsomnia (CC BY 2.0) Archive film and photographs: Prelinger Archives, U.S. National Archives, Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons (public domain unless noted). Full credits above. Why It Stopped, the american habits that quietly disappeared. #history #americanhistory #documentary #WhyItStopped