The American suburban housing development practices. It will provide a clearer understanding of the values and philosophies which come to be attached to the idea of the “American Dream”. As will become more apparent, through the exploration of lower density settlements. The combination of varying levels of each of these factors producing different variations of sprawl. while the suburbs were where the poor lived. Some of the earliest mentions of suburbia, in fourteenth century BC, was in ancient Egypt, outside of Amarna, and later by Cicero, in first century BC, as suburbani outside of Rome. Initially, cities were the realm of the rich, while the suburbs were where the poor lived. There are examples of the wealthy building villas or manors in the countryside for relaxation and escape, but their primary dwellings were in the city near their businesses.1 This status quo didn’t change until the industrial revolution when wealth became available to the merchant middle class and cities became horribly polluted, causing an exodus of the upper class.

The suburbia seems to define so much of American culture today. It was not the initial housing dynamic. Like in Europe, American cities also were where the wealthy built homes and set up business. This continued until the industrial revolution came to America, having similar effects as it did in Europe. Manhattan’s population reached an all-time high of 2.3 million people in 1910, most living in the 90,000 available windowless rooms with nine other occupants.