Thesis (M.A.)--University of Virginia, 1998. / Description based on content as of June 1999; title from title screen.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1935. / Vita. The above is an abridged version of the author's dissertation. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 437-442).

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In this dissertation, I wrestle with how literature has helped frame how modern cities have been understood, and how neighborhood change within them has been interpreted, since the dawn of the modern city in the early twentieth century U.S. Moving from Chicago at the time of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to 1920s Harlem, to postwar Chicago, then back again to 1960s-era Harlem before focusing on the first “brownstoning” era in Brooklyn, I analyze how literature has shaped and contested the terms through which urban neighborhood change was and still is understood—terms like “community,” “integration,” “segregation,” and, on a more housing-specific note, “tenements” and “slums.” Its aim is to demonstrate the necessity of applying close reading to cities in order to understand and address urban problems appropriately in light of their context(s). It also seeks to illustrate how literature can be and has been used as a tool for imagining more equal and more just forms of cities, forms occasionally reached for but never fully attained.

The Columbian Exposition of 1893 held in Chicago, Illinois has been the most influential World’s Fair held within the United States. It social, cultural, and architectural impact advanced America on a worldwide scale. There are only four buildings that still remain from this Exposition today: the Palace of Fine Arts, Dutch House, Norway Building, and Maine State Building. This thesis focuses on the Norway and Maine State Buildings since these are the only two that still remain with a majority of the original building materials still intact. An expanded history of both these buildings are explained, including their design, construction, impact at the Chicago World’s Fair, relocation(s), changes in ownership, what has happened to the buildings since the Fair, and what they are used for today. Further analysis includes why these buildings were saved and the importance of their historical inclusion in the 1893 Columbian Exposition / The Norway Building -- The Maine State Building -- Analysis & conclusion. / Department of Architecture