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1700s
Throughout the 1700s, many people moved west to settle on large plots of land. They lived on their land in a variety of dwellings. -
1700s
Farmhouses ranged in design and construction from sod houses to log cabins to ranch houses. At the same time, the construction of large plantation houses was happening in the South. -
1700s
The Industrial Revolution brought major changes to the economy and society through the use of new machines and the efficient production of goods. -
1700s
The demand for workers grew out of changes in mass production due to the use of such machines. -
1700s
Along with immigrants, rural people began moving to the cities looking for jobs. With an increasing birth rate, the cities grew. This increased the demand for housing in urban areas. -
1800s
Mansions, such as the Alva Vanderbilt Marble House shown here, were often built for wealthy businesspeople in the late 1800s. -
1800s
Many people in urban settings lived in these row houses in the late 1800s. -
1800s
The first row houses were built in the 1820s. Row houses are a continuous group of dwellings linked by common sidewalls. -
1800s
Two-story row houses sometimes housed as many as six families at a time. -
1800s
Most houses were frame houses in various designs. A number of tenement houses, or early apartments, were built before housing regulations existed. The first tenement houses appeared in New York City around 1840 to house immigrants. -
1900s
During the early 1900s, there was a dramatic increase in the number of immigrants to the United States with many moving to the cities. A housing boom in the early 1900s began to meet this need for housing. -
1900s
Then during World War I (1914–1918), almost no housing was built except by the federal government, causing a housing shortage. House ownership declined. -
1900s
There was a shortage of materials and, as a result, structures fell into disrepair. After World War I, about one-third of the population was living in substandard housing -
1900s
Substandard means the housing is not up to the quality living standards prescribed by law that are best for people -
1900s
By the time of the Great Depression in 1929, more than half the U.S. population lived in cities. The building of houses, however, had slowed down.