A Lift in Living

The Chicago suburb of Markham looks like any of the thousands of bedroom communities that rim the cities of the nation: its lawns are well trimmed, its homes are split level or ranch, its streets neat and winding. To the 40O-home subdivision of Park Terrace in Markham last week drove a young, house-hunting couple. They cruised for a while, stopped off at the sales office, asked Sales Manager Milton Lewis to take them through the model homes. "Certainly," said Lewis. "Of course, you folks are aware that Park Terrace is a Negro development."

They were not. "They just stared at me," says Salesman Lewis. "They couldn't believe their ears." The couple examined the model homes, walked through the neighborhood. Said the husband: "I never dreamed that Negroes could live so well around Chicago. I always pictured them as living in slums."

Crab Grass & Taxes. While far too many of the 16 million U.S. Negroes do live in slums--and cannot find the housing they can afford and need--other thousands are blazing a trail in fast-growing Negro suburbia. Blooming on the outskirts of dozens of cities are hundreds of new communities such as Park Terrace: Crestwood Forest (150 homes, $12,000-$60,000) near Atlanta; Lakeview Gardens (614 homes, $9,000-$19,000) near Memphis; Pontchartrain Park (725 homes, $14,30O-$25,-ooo) near New Orleans; Dunbar Estates' Westbury Houses (200 homes, $14,000-$20,000) in Long Island; University Park (400 homes, $11,000-$15,000) near Charlotte, N.C.; integrated (53% white, 47% Negro) Concord Park (139 homes, $12,700-$14,350) near Philadelphia.

These developments are all peopled by the newly prospering Negro middle class, who all seem to have one thing in common : a fever for good living. Technicians, professional men, teachers, nurses, well-paid factory workers, federal employees--they settle where the air is clean and the schools good, join the P.T.A., buy power lawnmowers, curse the crab grass, endure the rigors of commuting, barbecue their steaks, buy second cars and second TV sets, grumble about taxes.

Profit & Pride. More and more white builders, sensing the demand for decent, moderate-priced Negro housing, have taken the plunge into the suburban market. It has its special hazards; in some areas, white building inspectors and utility companies drag their feet when Negro tracts open. Negro mortgage money is often a stiff 1% or 2% more than for whites (it is easier to get loans for prospering Negroes in the Deep South than it is in Northern states). But mortgage companies are beginning to realize that steadily employed Negroes are a good risk. Chicago's Park Terrace even has a layaway system that allows buyers to sign up for homes and pay out the down payments in monthly installments. "We went into it for a profit," says Dan Kroll, builder of Long Island's Dunbar Estates, "but frankly we are enjoying the experience because we can see and feel the appreciation of the people who buy our houses. That's nice."

The customers are just as pleased. Postman Frank Derrick ($4,000 a year) lived on Chicago's South Side, decided to move to suburban Park Terrace. Says his wife Geraldene: "We didn't have a down payment. But Frank was determined. He took out a $20 bill and handed it to the salesman and said, 'This is to show that I mean business.' We started to save for the down payment on the budget plan and finally got a G.I. mortgage." The Derricks now have a brick, three-bedroom ranch house with two TV sets, an air conditioner, piano, dog, two birds, a 1953 Chrysler, and a Zoysia grass lawn that is the envy of their neighbors. "You know, a lot of Negroes never think too much about their homes and their lawns in the city," says Mrs. Derrick. "But when they come out here, they really put all of themselves into their homes. It lifts them up."

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