Recently someone posed the question: Why do so many home owners in Boston’s neighborhood’s have those ugly chain link fences around their property? They were looking for an explanation to this phenomenon, so I thought I might add my perspective,which is born from over thirty years in the fence industry.
I believe the explanation is simply a matter of economics and history. Most of the chain link fences in Boston, MA that they refer to were installed shortly after the turn of the twentieth century and into the 1940’s. In those days the choices for fences were limited to Custom Wood Fences, mostly built by carpenters and home builders. These men were highly skilled artisans who demanded high wages that only the very wealthy could afford. Another popular choice among Boston’s wealthy was Wrought Iron fences. These Wrought Iron fences were also predominantly found in public settings such as parks, colleges, museums and other high profile places. They too, were out of the reach of the average working class family living in and around the neighborhoods of Boston. Communities such as South Boston, Dorchester, West Roxbury, Charlestown, Roxbury and East Boston, were popular landing spots for many immigrants. Many of these families were struggling with typical issues that faced of many newcomers to America. There was hardly enough money to feed and cloth their families let alone for expensive fences.
Which brings us to the choice of Chain Link as an affordable alternative to Custom Wood fences and Wrought Iron Fences. Unfortunately the choices for fences were very limited in those days. Today there are many styles and sizes to choose from and the materials used today such as PVC vinyl, aluminum, northern white cedar, pressure treated, vinyl coated chain link, red cedar, Azeck, … the list goes on.
I think this is an interesting topic that can be discussed further in future post.
