Group 4, Residential Walkabout: Harvard & Yale

For Walkabout #3, our group looked at the houses in the Harvard & Yale area. Harvard and Yale are two streets that run east/west for several blocks between 13th E. and 9th E. The houses varied widely in style; there were Tudor revival homes next to more prairie style modern homes next to bungalows. This led us to believe that these homes were custom built to the owners' tastes. Depending on how far east or west you are, the houses have varying degrees of distinct architectural style. The houses farther east are bigger and have more obvious architectural styles, while the houses farther west were smaller and more nondescript.

How close the houses were to each other also depended on how far east you were up the street. The houses were closer together, smaller, and more run down as you went down the street (west), while the houses were larger and on bigger, better kept lots the farther east you traveled. The bigger houses all had garages, and were therefore set back from the street a little bit more. The smaller houses were all fairly close to the street and had either covered car ports added onto the side or street parking. The bigger houses had very well groomed lawns and detailed landscaping, while the smaller houses rarely had front yards at all and several houses had chain link fences up.

The streets did not conform to the grid pattern very well. They were all fairly straight, but they did not line up with each other exactly from block to block. The large trees lining the streets made it obvious that the streets were the main path; the trees covered the street and almost isolated the sidewalks, indicating that the sidewalks were not the main paths. According to Kevin Lynch, "[A] great deal of planting . . . [can] reinforce a path image very effectively" (51). The neighborhood did not feel like a development or a suburban neighborhood. This was due to the diversity of house designs, sizes, and displays of wealth. By no means did it feel as if the people who live there are all the same types of people.