07-13-2008, 03:21 AM
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Confirmed User
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Back in Blighty
Posts: 4,280
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutt
- While it was possible for California cities to boom from the single family detached formula in the 1920s and 1930s, it did not happen in Phoenix until after World War II. In 1940, Phoenix?s population had still only reached 65,000. A continuing impediment to growth was the oppressive heat which was not really solved until the arrival of air conditioning. When the FHA [Federal Housing Authority] accepted central air conditioning as part of its home mortgages in 1957, installation exploded. In part, central air penetrated the market so quickly in Phoenix because of the arrival of Motorola with its high tech manufacturing plants in the early 1950s. Those plants had been refrigerated from the outset and the engineers who moved to Phoenix to work for Motorola thought their homes should be just as comfortable as their factories.
- With the arrival of air conditioning, Phoenix population surged. During the 1950s it was the fastest growing city in America, rising by 311%. In 1959 alone, there were more houses built than in all the years from 1914 to 1946. By 1960, it was the largest city in the southwest with a population of 439,000
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Now that's what I call a comprehensive answer. Thank you for enlightening me Mutt  |
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