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national interstate system. The general economic prosperity of the WWII years enabled many
<br />more people to purchase cars and, the cars, in turn, had a marked impact on people's lifeways
<br />and the design of towns and neighborhoods.
<br />Prior to WWII, most businesses were located on towns' main streets or in their downtown
<br />business districts near railroad lines. With the post -WWII rise of automobiles, entire new
<br />shopping malls and commercial areas were constructed on the edges of or outside towns. This
<br />drew people away from historic downtowns and to the fringes, creating suburbs. The result
<br />included strip malls, large parking lots, curvilinear street designs, cul-de-sacs, parks, large
<br />planned subdivisions, and new forms of houses that had attached garages (Barlow et al.
<br />2013:25). Towns became decentralized but spread along highways, as commercial developers
<br />took advantage of cheaper land adjacent to roads with large volumes of traffic (Ames and
<br />McClelland 2002). In Louisville, this shift took a couple decades, as the town's growth was slow
<br />from 1945 to 1970 (Barlow et al. 2013:31). Just two small new subdivisions were platted in
<br />1948: Acme Terrace First Addition and the Fischer Addition, with two more in 1957 (Bella
<br />Vista) and 1959 (Scenic Heights), three more in 1960 (Industrial Area), 1963 (Paragon Heights),
<br />and one in1969 (Cottonwood Manor) (City of Louisville 2017a).
<br />The gradually increasing growth in Louisville's post -WWII housing was supported by an earlier,
<br />but similarly functioning, regional road: the Denver —Boulder Turnpike, which opened in 1952
<br />and allowed the Broomfield, Lafayette, and Louisville areas to serve as bedroom communities
<br />for downtown Denver and Boulder (Bacon 2011c:5). Prior to that time, the route from Boulder to
<br />Denver ran east on Arapahoe Road (State Highway [SH] 7) to Nine -Mile Corner at present-day
<br />U.S. Route (US) 287, where it abruptly turned south, followed a zigzag course through Lafayette
<br />and Broomfield, then made another 90-degree turn at Cozy Corner, and then ran down
<br />Mushroom Hill onto North Federal Boulevard. The road was dangerous and very heavily
<br />traveled, which resulted in a large number of accidents (Bearwald 1967:12). Shortly after the end
<br />of WWII, when American troops returned from the war and a large labor force was again
<br />available, Governor Ralph Carr proposed the construction of a direct road between Boulder and
<br />Denver. His proposed means for paying for the road was to collect a toll from drivers until bonds
<br />to fund the construction were paid off. Although diverse factions questioned the road's necessity,
<br />cost, and route, construction of the Denver —Boulder Turnpike (US 36) began on October 16,
<br />1950 (Bearwald 1967:15; Corbett et al. 2009:19; Pettem 2001:155). The road opened for use on
<br />Sunday, January 20, 1952, with electric counters located at the Wadsworth underpass in
<br />Broomfield estimating that 30,000 cars passed through on the first day. An average of more than
<br />4,000 cars used the turnpike every day (Bearwald 1967:17; Boulder Daily Camera January 21,
<br />1952), and the $6.3 million of revenue bonds that were scheduled for retirement in 1980 were
<br />paid off in September 1967 (Bearwald 1967:12; Corbett et al. 2009:20).
<br />Around the same time, Louisville was making marked changes to its own infrastructure. In 1951,
<br />Louisville constructed a town sewage system. This resulted in the discontinuation of use of
<br />outhouses and, undoubtedly in some cases, their removal and/or use for storage and other
<br />activities after the privy pits were filled and sealed (Avenue L Architects 2013:4-20). As
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