World War II–Postwar Effects on Western Migration

Population Explosion

Of all the states in the West, California was the most impacted by postwar migration, with more than 1 million people moving there within two years of the war's end. During the 1940s, California's population exploded by 54 percent, increasing from 6.9 million at the beginning of the decade to 10.6 million in 1950. With an estimated 1,000 people a day moving to the state during the 1950s, California's population topped 15 million by 1960.

[Page 712]To the north, Oregon's population also grew by half, increasing from a little more than 1 million residents in 1940 to 1.5 million in 1950. Postwar migration was even more pronounced in Arizona where the population jumped from just fewer than 500,000 in 1940 to 1.3 million in 1960, making the Grand Canyon State the fastest-growing state in the country during the 1950s.

Most of the migrants—many of whom were from rural parts of the country—relocated to western cities like Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. As a result, modern suburbs began to flourish. In Washington state, communities spread from the urban areas of Seattle and Tacoma into surrounding counties, eventually growing to include 60 percent of the state's population. In Oregon, the population of Portland's suburbs tripled within 30 years, expanding from less than 200,000 people in 1940 to more than 600,000 in 1970. Utah's Wasatch Front counties grew by 65 percent between 1950 and 1970. The population in Davis County, adjacent to Salt Lake City, increased 163 percent.

Over one eighth of the country's population lived in the western United States by 1950. Politically, the postwar migration translated into an increase of 18 seats for the West in the U.S. House of Representatives. By the 1960s, the South had lost five congressional seats while the North lost 13. No surprise, then, that federal spending in the West was at an all-time high during the postwar period.

Housing Crisis

The need for cost-efficient and productive housing was apparent thanks to the incoming throngs of immigrants. Steel magnate Henry J. Kaiser led the effort to create planned communities of low-cost homes in west Los Angeles and in Panorama City, a tract development of some 2,000 single-family dwellings in the San Fernando Valley. With a down payment of $150, postwar couples could own a $5,000 ranch-style home complete with garage, backyard, and dishwasher.

Elsewhere in southern California, John Entenza, architectural critic and editor of Arts & Architecture, espoused the creation of prototypical yet stylish homes made of off-the-shelf materials, such as plywood and aluminum. Toward this end, he enlisted the talents of such renowned modernist architects as Richard Neutra, Pierre Koenig, and Raphael Soriano to design “case study” houses that could be easily and affordably replicated. One particularly famous example of this visionary architectural style is Charles and Ray Eames's case study house number eight, situated on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Built of prefabricated materials, this simple two-story, four-sided edifice was erected in 16 hours and remains a quintessential example of postwar housing design.

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