After World War II

https://www.idaillinois.org/utils/getdownloaditem/collection/skokiepo02/id/1651.jpg

Berman Family at the site of their future home, 1955

After World War II, many of the abandoned real estate titles were cleared and lot sizes were revised to provide for single-family homes with 40-55 foot frontages.

This second housing boom was the definitive one for Skokie. Postwar prosperity, population growth, and the rise of the automobile created demand for the kind of single-family housing Skokie was in a position to supply.

Skokie’s population in 1940 was 7,172 and by 1950 it was 14,752. Once again, transportation was a factor in growth: The Edens Expressway, which opened in 1951, provided a major route to the city for burgeoning automobile traffic from the suburbs.

This part of the story is not unique to Skokie; many formerly rural communities grew into suburbs in the 1940s and 1950s. The development of the suburb and the automobile, the growth in homeownership and geographic mobility, are all extremely important parts of the mid-century American experience.

‹ ›