The slow wave - The changing residential status of cities and suburbs in the United States, 1850-1940

The findings of this study show that the development histories of smaller metropolitan areas differed markedly from those of large metropolitan areas, which have been the focus of most studies of suburbanization. Before World War II, the pattern of low-status core residence and high-status fringe residence is found almost exclusively in the oldest and largest metropolitan areas. Factors other than metropolitan population and age do not seem to be correlated with high-status fringe residence. Before World War II, metropolitan areas exhibiting this pattern were located in all regions of the country except for the South. The South, however, lagged behind the rest of the country in terms of metropolitan growth. The annexation patterns of cities do not appear to be strongly correlated with high-status fringe residence, nor is the percentage of the metropolitan population residing outside of the central city. With the exception of Boston and Pittsburgh, which had large metropolitan populations, most of the metropolitan districts with the highest percentages of residents living outside of the central city maintained high-status urban cores throughout the period of this study. Researchers need to study the differences between large and small metropolitan areas more closely to understand more fully the residential status distribution of the metropolitan population in the United States before World War II.