The Lawn in 19th Century America Revealed Social Status

The home landscape reveals something about both the homeowner and the culture.

In nineteenth century America the lawn became a way to define the middle class.

The home landscape thus reflected the homeowner’s social status.

Kenneth T. Jackson writes in his book Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States, “Although the elaborate lawn would be attainable only by the wealthy in England, in the United States carefully tended grass became the mark of respectability.”

Even before it reached America, the lawn had  become an essential component of the romantic English garden style.

Jackson writes, “The new suburban yard in the United States followed a naturalistic or romantic approach. It was inspired by the English, with antecedents in the Orient, and seemed well suited to the spaciousness of New World suburbs. The style sought to use the existing terrain, with gently curving paths, irregular groupings of trees and shrubs, and rustic pavilions.”

So when the seed and nursery catalogs promoted the importance of the lawn, it was no surprise that the green grass on the home landscape appeared from coast to coast.

Jackson wrote,  “The ideal house came to be veiwed as resting in the middle of a manicured lawn or a picturesque garden.”  It did not matter if the house was in California or Maine.

In 1884 the Vick Seed Company from Rochester, New York wrote in its garden magazine Vick’s Illustrated Monthly, “What we do in the gardening way is done for the appearance, the respectability of the thing, done for the same reason that we have a coat of paint put on the house, or renew the wall-hangings.”

Share this: