Household Activity Patterns in Nineteenth-Century Suburbs: A Time-Geographic Exploration

A residential move to a new suburban location in the mid- to late-nineteenth century affected the access of all family members to necessary and enriching activities. Conventional analyses of household location decisions have focused on the development of cheap mass transit for the journey to work of the head of household. In this paper the access of wives in five hypothetical middle-class households is examined. Their ability to complete five hypothetical activity programs from three suburban locations in Philadelphia, before and after the development of the horsecar, is analyzed from a time-geographic perspective. The amount of discretionary time available to each woman, dependent on household structure and socioeconomic status, explains differences in access better than more traditional explanations such as transportation availability or relative location within the urban environment.