1950's Air Conditioning

[nachoman]

My house was built in 1950, without air conditioning. The house across the street was built 5-8 years later, with a/c. Both are houses that would have been middle class basic houses near the outskirts of town at that time. I suspect household a/c would have become a standard middle class amenity for new houses in southern arizona between about 1955 and 1960, and probably universal for new houses in my area after 1960.

Commercial or industrial refrigeration came long before that. Malls and movie theaters featured a/c before houses, and industrial refrigeration for ice production predates 1900.