A Christian House By Harriet Beecher Stowe

Architects, journalists, and social reformers viewed suburban life as a virtuous atmosphere to raise children and further separate the private sphere of women and the public sphere of men. Though articles, drawings, and stories told by journalists the push for suburban life made by social reformers and journalists is clear. City living describes as “poisonous” 1 where the suburbs are coined “the promise land” 1 is only one example of how journalists and reformers linked suburban living to ideals on gender and living and persuaded people to move away from the cities and into the suburbs for a more fulfilled and virtuous life. Journalist and reformers in the early 20th century believed and reinforced the ideas that healthy, successful families

A depiction of “A Christian House” by Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe shows the ideal suburban virtuous home. The house is in a very outdoorsy setting, with a nicely maintained yard. In the photo you can see the whole family working outside.3 From this, the value on appearance, family unity, and hard work can be seen. Another example of virtuous life provided in the suburbs is an article written by Grace Duffield Goodwin and published in Good Housekeeping Magazine in 1909. In the article Goodwin writes, “It is a tribute to the unspoilable manhood and womanhood that there is today in all these suburban towns so implicit a confidence in this individual home, where the family may sacredly guard its right to live and sleep and eat and develop and love and quarrel and repent.” 4 From this quote, the importance of family independence and virtuous behavior in the 20th century is evident, directly linking suburban living with virtuous living. The presence of gendered spheres in suburban living is also evident from the previous quote from the article found in Good Housekeeping Magazine. The presence of strictly defined separate spheres in suburban living contributes to the “virtuous” labels places on suburban living in the 19th and 20th century. But, contradictory to the traditional gendered spheres, Harriet Beecher Stowe writes about the merging of typically “man” and “woman” jobs in the Saturday Evening Post. Beecher Stowe writes, “… a man should understand and be able to occasionally do the work of a woman, and as he can do it without becoming unmanly, so woman can learn to understand and do many things which pertain to the work of men, without becoming unwomanly.” 5 Traditional “man” and “woman” jobs begin to become skewed in suburban society as men commute to work far from their suburban homes, leaving the wives to do