Laurelhurst Neighborhood & Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times

Similarities between Charlie Chaplin's classic film, Modern Times, and the carefully platted and constructed Laurelhurst Neighborhood?

Three hints with the answer below.

1) As the map view shows, Laurelhurst has a distinctive curving street pattern, markedly different than the rest of Eastside Portland's grid.

2) Street trees planted to create a neighborhood-wide canopy.

3) Homes, most of which were built in the the 1910s and 1920s, have 20 to 30 feet setbacks from the streets to create a park-like setting designed to lure residents out of their homes and into the community.

So why do Chaplin's Modern Times and the Laurelhurst Neighborhood have much in common?

The answer in three-part harmony:

1) Both resisted the dehumanizing effects of late-19th century US industrialization.

2) Both wanted less efficiency and more naturalness.

3) Both focused on ennobling the human experience.

In sum, the goal in the neighborhood was a park-like setting throughout, not just the 27-acre Laurelhurst Park set in the middle of the development. Most of the homes were built in the 1910s and 1920s when developers used curvilinear streets, planted front setbacks (usually 20-30 feet) on homes and mature street trees to create a huge canopy achieved this desired effect: comfort, happiness, and physical well being.

They worked to attract American’s expanding middle class, members of which quickly bought up the 3000 platted lots had been sold and most of the homes built.  While 30 percent of the styles were Craftsman Bungalows, the Laurelhurst Neighborhood also has many examples of Colonial Revival and English Cottage architecture.