In the last third of the nineteenth century Boston grew from a crowded merchant town, in which nearly everybody walked to work, to the modern divided metropolis. The street railway created this division of the metropolis into an inner city of commerce and slums and an outer city of commuters’ suburbs. Streetcar Suburbs tells who built the new city, and why, and how.

Included here is a new Introduction that considers the present suburb/city dichotomy and suggests what we can learn from it to assure a livable city of the future.

• CONTENTS 
• I 
• A CITY DIVIDED
• Who Built the Metropolis?
• Common Ideas and Experiences
• II 
• THE LARGE INSTITUTIONS
• The Walking City
• The Street Railways
• Other Services to Home Builders
• Common Patterns of Decision
• III 
• THE THREE TOWNS
• The Discipline of History and Geography
• The Three Towns, 1870–1900
• IV 
• A SELECTIVE MELTING POT
• The Street Railway and Class Building Patterns
• The 1900 Segregation
• V 
• THE WEAVE OF SMALL PATTERNS
• Central Dorchester
• Tremont Street District
• Roxbury Highlands
• VI 
• REGULATION WITHOUT LAWS
• The Home Builders
• The Grid Street and Frontage Lot
• Suburban Architecture
• VII 
• THE CONSEQUENCES
• APPENDIX A 
• A LOCAL HISTORIAN'S GUIDE TO SOCIAL STATISTICS
• APPENDIX B 
• TABLES
• BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
• NOTES
• INDEX