Ease and Comfort at Home

When it came to establishing suburban communities, it is easy to forget that there were folks coming to them from both directions. For many, the suburbs was a place to escape from the crime and congestion of a dirty city. For others, it was a way to maintain some semblance of country life, even when owning a family farm was no longer possible. Homestead was an example of a neighborhood that country folk, like the Burgans, could continue a rural lifestyle, albeit closer in and on a smaller scale.

When the Kenney family arrived from Ireland in the 1850's, they joined a farming population that made up 64 percent of America's labor force. By the turn of the century, farmers and their families only accounted for 30 percent

(see http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/20/us/farm-population-lowest-since-1850-s.html) . Many began a new life in the city that never quite felt like home, and suburbs were a way to return to country living to some measure.

The Burgans and Bambergers shared an A-frame wood-built duplex with grass, flowers, bushes and a nice fence, all around. During the early years of their life in Homestead, The Irish Matriarch had her mom over for a visit on the front porch, and snuggled with granddaughter Vi in the back yard. These pictures show how a bit of gracious living was possible in suburbia in those early days.