Radburn Ramblin': House swapping in the Motor Age town

Why did early residents move so often inside Radburn?

The Russell family moved from Aberdeen to Bedford in 1932

On July 4, 1930, Howard and Hildegard Speer joined in Radburn’s first big Independence Day celebration. They played in a goofy men vs. women softball game in which the men wore women’s clothing and threw left-handed. Then they played doubles: Hildegard on the horseshoe pitch, Howard on the tennis court.

Later, everyone moved to the park for races – kids’ scooter and roller skating, followed by relays in B Pool – and, in the evening, fireworks.

The Speers’ address that day was 12 Arlington Place. But that would soon change. And change. And change again.

The Speers, like many of their neighbors, became Radburn ramblers – Daniel Boones on the suburban frontier.

Between 1930 and 1960, the Speers and their two children lived at nine different addresses in Radburn: 12 Arlington, 325 Howard Ave., 2 Ashburn Place, 20A Townley Rd., 341 Howard, 12A Townley, two different apartments at Abbott Court, and 343 Howard.

Although the Speers moved more than any other family, they were not unusual; to the contrary, a strikingly high percentage of Radburn residents moved from one home to another within the community in its early decades.

Some other examples of residential ping pong:

• Richard Swallow, a New Hampshire-born electrical engineer, lived with his wife Madlynn and their family between 1933 and 1960 at eight different addresses in Radburn, including ones on Reading Terrace, Beekman Place, Arlington Place, Addison Place, Ballard Place (twice) and at the Abbott Court apartments.

• Walton Miller, a real estate broker who, with his wife Emma and their family, moved five times between 1935 and 1968, starting on Burnham Place and ending on Randolph Terrace.

• John Feinler, an insurance agent who, with his wife Mary and their family, jammed five moves inside Radburn between 1931 and 1944.

To confirm what seems like a strikingly high rate of residential movement within a relatively small community — especially in its first decades – we studied 11 of the first streets of single family detached or semi-detached houses developed in 1929 and 1930. We looked at each household that lived on each street between 1930 and 1973 to see how frequently they moved within Radburn.

We added up the street’s total number of different households 1930-1973 and figured the percentage of those households that moved at least once within Radburn. (Many moved multiple times).

We found, for example, that of all households on Audubon Place between 1930 and 1973, half moved at least once inside Radburn during that same period.

A community of movers

Here are the percentages of Radburn households by street that moved at least once from one Radburn address to another between 1930 and 1973:

The percentages do not reflect the fact that, after 1945, the amount of internal moving declined markedly, even though there was still considerable turnover. People were perhaps moving as much as ever, but not as much within Radburn.

To make that point, we also surveyed two Southside streets that were built in the early 1940s and only fully inhabited after World War II.

The contrast was striking: on Ryder Road, only 14% of all households had moved by 1973 within Radburn, and on Ruskin Road only 10%.

House to house

What’s interesting is that in many cases people moved between similar housing types – from one single family house to another. Almost one in five (19%) of Radburn residents 1930-1973 moved at least once between one single family home and another within Radburn.

That said, many families clearly moved for more space, even if it was not a lot. In an interview, Radburn native Ben Russell told us that was why in 1932 his family (including his older sister) moved from Aberdeen Place to the house on Bedford pictured above. That proved fortunate; in 1942 relatives who’d fled the Japanese invasion of Singapore moved in.

Why was Radburn’s internal migration rate so high? Some theories:

• Americans in general were once far more bullish about moving than they are now. In the 19th century, about one in three Americans moved each year; by the 1960s, that was down to one out in five. According to the Census Bureau, only 9% of the U.S. population changed address in 2022.

• The Great Depression of the 1930s (which produced a high rate of mortgage foreclosures in Radburn) forced people to move more often, including between owner-occupied and rental homes.

• For children, moving inside Radburn allowed continued attendance at Radburn School and access to amenities such as the pools.

• Same for adults. Take the Speers. He was president of the Radburn Volunteer Fire Company and chairman of the Citizens Association’s Sports and Games Committee. She was chair of the Radburn Garden Show, secretary of the Brownie Pack Committee and a member of the bridge group. They were members of the Church in Radburn.

• Options for moving outside Radburn were limited. Radrock Estates, for example, did not open until 1940. The Cresthill development east of Radburn Road was not built until after World War II.

• Radburn was designed to promote internal movement. It offered an unusual range of housing options, from single-family to attached to row to apartments.

• Because Radburn was such a cohesive community, there were many “insider’’ opportunities to buy homes before they hit the regional housing market.

But to those of us today who hate hate hate to move, all that movement remains something of a mystery. If you have any theories of your own – or any evidence – leave a comment below.