Rev. Stephen M. Koeth, CSC

Rev. Stephen M. Koeth, CSC, is a doctoral student at Columbia University, working on a dissertation on the suburbanization of American Catholicism.

Articles by Rev. Stephen M. Koeth, CSC

Postwar Building Boom

In the two decades after World War II, American Christians built an unprecedented number of churches as a postwar baby boom and suburban expansion created tremendous demand for new houses of worship. The trend began in 1947, when Americans spent $126 million dollars on church construction, and peaked in 1965 at some $1.2 billion dollars.