Cars in the Archives, ‘Burbs Part 2

In this second installment of our Autos in the Archives series, we take a look at how the car has changed the consumer landscape in America. By the middle of the 20th century, the automobile was king and the new concept of urban sprawl was synonymous with the domination of cars.

Suburban subdivisions were popping up rapidly across America. Cars allowed residential development to expand further and further from urban cores into undeveloped areas, as they allowed people to get to work, school and shopping with unprecedented ease.

Savannah Archives:Automobiles have stimulated the growth of the suburbs; Oglethorpe Marble & Granite built an early burial, public monuments

Polly Power Stramm:Getting the dirt on the mid-century roads in Savannah

Polly Powers Stramm:Catch urban traces for Savannah’s architectural history

This required swapping the convenience of walking to a convenience store with the efficiency of newly developed malls where consumers could park their cars in a large centralized parking lot, then walk from store to store, do all their shopping. races in the same place. The rise of the linear mall meant that the average consumer could do more shopping and business in a single day than ever before. Suburban areas often had a few large grocery stores, often chain stores, where shoppers could load their cars with a larger quantity and choice of groceries than was available in an average urban market.

America’s first shopping malls emerged in the 1950s, envisioned as an antidote to the disconnection and isolation that also accompanied increasingly mobile suburban life. By creating spaces that incorporated shopping, food, and relaxation in the deserts of the suburbs, malls were meant to draw people out of their cars and connect with each other. Oglethorpe Mall is Savannah’s oldest shopping mall, opened to the public in 1969.

Enjoy these images from the City of Savannah Municipal Archives that show some of the earliest suburban Savannah malls.

Dark Orders: Cursing on the Phone

Having a loudspeaker conversation in public and not turning off your ringer while watching a movie are some of the biggest missteps we can make with our phones in today’s society, but none of those. -It won’t get you to jail or cost you dearly. a fine. Back in the 1930s Savannah, however, you might not have been so lucky.

Strange orders:Savannah: ordinances of the 1800s banned Sunday ‘rejoicing’

As part of our periodic series of obscure ordinances, we highlight local law passed by city council on March 17, 1927, prohibiting anyone from using a telephone conversation as a medium for “insulting or abusive remarks or [to] use obscene language or curse another over the phone. Offenders could be convicted of disorderly conduct with a fine of up to $ 100 or jailed for up to 30 days in jail.

No, Big Brother wouldn’t listen to your phone calls, but your neighbors certainly could. In the early part of the 20th century, party lines were a common telephone system where multiple subscribers shared a single line, and anyone on the shared line could eavesdrop on any conversation. Laws like this, banning obscenities over the phone, were likely put in place to protect the delicate ears of any unwitting recipients in the name of public decency.

This law was on the books in Savannah at least until 1958, and to this day cursing in front of children under the age of 14 is still considered disorderly conduct in the state of Georgia.

City of Savannah Municipal Archives, [email protected], Discover the archives: savannahga.gov/MunicipalArchives.