Materialism in the American Home

Changes in Greenbelt Living Rooms: 1937-1997

Terri Paik
December 1997
AMST 205-0201

The twentieth century has been a century of economic progress and mindboggling technological advances for this country. The consumer market is constantly flooded with new products that we are urged to purchase. Our lives are more and more centered around using these products and earning money to buy more; Americans today have many more "necessities" than they did 60 years ago. This is illustrated in the changes in American homes from the 1930's to the 1990's. For this project, I compared the artifacts and furniture inside two living rooms in middle class homes in Greenbelt. Aside from the time periods they represent, the two living rooms are structurally similar. They are both located in middle class townhouses that are within one mile of each other as the crow flies. Also, both townhouses do not have a separate family room, so the living room functions as a combination living/family room. ¹ The first is a restoration of a late 1930's living room in the Greenbelt Museum, 10B Crescent Road, Greenbelt, MD. The second is a modern living room, located on Mandan Road, Greenbelt, MD.

A Greenbelt Living Room in 1937

The Greenbelt Museum home was designed and built by the federal government in 1937 as part of Roosevelt's plan to provide comfortable housing and pleasant communities to low-income families. For more information on Greenbelt history, see Virtual Greenbelt's "Planning and Construction" section. All furniture was custom-made by the Greenbelt Co-op, priced and sized for the Greenbelt residents. Zachary Lunin's project from the Virtual Greenbelt site elaborates on how beautiful and affordable Greenbelt furniture was. Also, some amenities such as swimming pools were shared by the community. Thus, even if the residents' income level placed them in the lower class bracket, they could enjoy a middle class standard of living. (Right: Living room couch, 1937.)²

The living room in the Museum measures approximately 10' by 14'. ³ Its furnishings consist of a tiny coffee table, a 3-seater couch, a side table with a telephone, two armchairs, and a lamp. Aside from the lamp, these objects are made of solid wood. Off to one side is a large radio. A rug covers the floor. On top of the coffee table is an issue of Popular Mechanics and an encyclopedia. There are four medium sized pictures hanging on the walls. My estimate for the cost of the living room furniture is $50 if not less. This is based on an item-by-item furniture contract for one of the original Greenbelt homes, which lists the price as $240 for the entire home ⁴. The $50 estimate does not include the radio or the telephone. The radio and the telephone would have cost approximately $15 more. John Dorsey, Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, states that the change in dollar value can be computed from the Consumer Price Index. Thus, the dollar in 1937 was worth about 11.2 times as much as the dollar in 1997. In other words, the living room furniture in the Greenbelt home might cost approximately $65 X 11.2 ~= $730 in 1997. (Left: Living room entertainment: radio, 1937.)

Although there were not many items in the living room, the furniture was sufficient to satisfy the family's needs. According to Lee Struglia, another docent at the Greenbelt Museum, the family would always spend their evenings together in the living room if they were not attending community meetings of some sort. Parents would watch the children do their homework. Or they would read books, play cards, do puzzles, or listen to the radio. Generally, their activities were centered around interaction with each other rather than with objects. None of the furniture items in the living room were superfluous; each served an important purpose. (Right: Side table with telephone and directory, 1937.)

A Greenbelt Living Room in 1997

The townhouse on Mandan Road was built in 1986 and the current resident, Stefane Whittiker, moved in when it was brand new⁵. The house was built by an independent commercial company and is not part of any homeowners association. Stefane and her family bought or received all of the furniture from independent sources. (Left: Living room couch, 1997.)

This living room is approximately 12' by 16' and is carpeted wall to wall. Inside there is a plush 3-seater sofa with a matching armchair, an upright piano, two Oriental screens, three halogen ceiling lamps (but one is used only as a hat hanger), a stand with a cordless phone and phone books, a stand with a live aloe plant, a side table with a miniature stereo system and magazines, and a TV stand for the TV, VHS VCR, 8mm VCR, antenna, videos, and remote controls. Not to mention dozens and dozens of family photos. Stefane estimates the total cost of all the furniture at $7000 or more (in 1997 dollars). (Right: Living room entertainment: TV etc, 1997.)

She also estimates that the average amount of time the family spends together in the living room is about 30 minutes a day. Most of this time is spent watching TV or videos, but once a week they study the Bible together there. The family members have very busy schedules and do not have time to sit around the coffee table every evening. In fact, some of the most expensive furniture items are hardly ever used. Stefane says, "No one ever sits on the sofa....No one plays the piano either. We just put pictures or books on top of it." These comments also support Kristi Peter, who claims that the family room today is little more than a place to watch television. (Left: Side table with phone and phone books, 1997.)

Analyzing the Differences

The comparison between the two living rooms shows that Americans are spending much more money on consumer products now than they did 60 years ago. The Greenbelt Museum living room has fewer and cheaper objects than the modern living room, and the objects were sufficient to meet the needs of the family. Stefane spent 10 times as much as the 1937 family to furnish her living room, despite the fact that her family spends much less time there than the 1937 family did. This is not because Stefane has cash to spare; she says her family bought most of these items on credit. An alarming number of Americans today are falling victim to the lures of Buy Now, Pay Later. Discover Card reports that "credit card use has increased by 50% in the past four years." ⁶ In contrasting the spending patterns of the 1930's families to today's families, Lee Struglia recalls, "We weren't materialistic. We didn't buy Beanie Babies. We didn't go out to eat....You didn't charge anything. Nobody wanted a bill." Thus, the Greenbelt Museum family managed with the income of a single earner, but three out of the four members in Stefane's family must work to pay the bills.

One of the reasons for the change in spending patterns is that 1937 was still a Depression year, and so Americans had their belts tightened. However, as Struglia says, people's attitudes were fundamentally different. They assumed that if they didn't have the money, they wouldn't buy. And they were reasonably content. What was "good enough" 60 years ago is now considered destitute. Have more women joined the work force in the past 60 years because we really need two earners to feed a family, or are we simply less satisfied with what we have? By 1990's standards, Stefane's living room is not extravagant; TV's, VCR's - these items are now "necessities." Kay Mattutat's analysis of the change in bathrooms arrives at the same conclusions. She notes that the Greenbelt bathroom held the bare essentials and yet it was considered a luxury at the time. On the other hand, her mother's bathroom is cluttered with "impractical belongings" which she takes for granted. Kay attributes the difference to Americans' increased standard of privacy and the use of the bathroom for pleasure as well as practicality; a change in lifestyle. Both of our projects confirm that Americans have become more wasteful and impractical.

Economic and technological progress has made our lives more comfortable with better products, but it has made us increasingly materialistic and dissatisfied with what we own. The contrast between the 1930's living room and the 1990's living room shows that we keep buying things even though we do not need them or use them. And we have to work more to pay for these things. When asked why she keeps buying things, Stefane says that "they keep coming out with new stuff" - in essence, she blames the producers. Certainly, the growth of advertising has been a large factor in our changing attitudes towards consumer products. And with technology moving at blinding speeds, they do keep coming out with new stuff and they try hard to convince us that we need it. However, some of the superfluous items in Stefane's living room, such as the third halogen ceiling lamp, can not be explained by advertising ("Halogen ceiling lamps - Great for storing hats!") or new technology. It is simply a more wasteful attitude about material things on the part of the consumer. Thus, both producer-driven and consumer-driven factors have brought about the increase in materialism in American society.

1. The terms "living room" and "family room" are used interchangeably in this paper.
2. Images courtesy of Virtual Greenbelt. See References.
3. The "living room" as discussed in this paper does not include the dining room. It also does not include the desk by the window, because functionally, the desk belongs to its own study area. However, it includes the radio, which is functionally part of the living room although located in the dining area.
4. Greenbelt: History of a New Town 1937-1987. See References.
5. Name has been changed at owner's request.
6. "Becoming a NOVUS Merchant." See References.

References
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