Post World War II Tract Houses: The Subdivision Developments of Joseph L. Eichler 1949-1956

During the years immediately following World War II, one of the principal concerns of the architectural community in the United States was the development of modern single-family residences designed to meet the contemporary needs of middle-class families. This development, necessitated by the housing shortage resulting from the decline of building during the Depression and the virtual standstill of the home construction industry during the war, was viewed by proponents of modern architecture as one critical means to achieving the public's acceptance of modernism. From the mid 1940s on, this view was supported in a multitude of architectural exhibits, catalogs, competitions, books, and magazine articles in which a variety of design solutions for the modest, low-cost house were proposed. Another series of solutions were presented in the subdivision tract houses constructed on the San Francisco Peninsula by builder/developer Joseph Leopold Eichler during the 1949-56. A study of these subdivision houses reveals one complex and evolutionary response to the postwar concern with middle-class housing in which the tenets of modernism were fused with practicality.