Unreal Estate: Words, Names and Allusions in Suburban Home Advertising

Abstract

Suburban subdivision naming practices are a revealing branch of toponymic study. However, cultural geographers have neither fully tapped these names in the landscape nor explored the parallel vocabulary of expression and emphasis in real estate advertising. Here I consider the allusions conveyed by the names of residential developments advertised in metropolitan Rochester, New York. A taxonomy of allusions shows how nomenclature had come to transcend the pastoral gentry theme typical of previous and mostly impressionistic writing on expressions of the suburban ideal. Selling this ideal goes beyond the charm of subdivision names. Classified advertising of resale homes fixes them in social and lifestyle space. The undercurrents of meaning of advertised features of lots and yards are also investigated. Subdivision names may and often do fade from general usage. In their absence, real estate advertising furnishes a kind of place identity and context for suburban settings.