Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
VÁC IN THE 20TH CENTURY 171 organization of the so-called model health care districts. One of these was started in Vác in 1930, within which an ambulance station was opened in 1937, and a TB and venereal disease clinic in 1943. The standard of public health substantially depended on the infrastructure of the town. Healthy drinking water and sewerage were essential for a healthy environment. The town started the building of the water supply system in 1927 and that of sewerage in 1930. For this purpose, the government helped the town to receive a loan from the New York Speyer Bank: in 1925 one million and in 1926 a further one and a half million gold crowns. The improvement of public health conditions contributed to the fact that the absolute population ofVác increased between the two world wars. Year 1920 1930 1935 1943 Population 19 395 20 960 21 903 22 130 However, the pace of growth slowed down and was mainly dominated by natural increase. The population explosion expected as a settlement becomes a conurbation of the capital city was not detectable in the town; what is more, it is conspicuous how small demographic growth was compared to towns of similar legal status (by 1929 Vác had become a county town). All these indicate that the earlier dynamic development had stalled. Job opportunities were just enough to take up the local labour force excess, but too few to make the town appealing to those looking for a job or a new home. Seal of the town ofVác of Pest County Compression test in the Main Square THE BIRTH OF A MODERN TOWN The increase in population required further areas to be parcelled out. In 1915 the regulation of the market area was put out to tender, but because of the First World War the plans of parcelling were not carried out until 1921. The bishopric gave the area lying between the Red House and Széchenyi Street to the town. The council in turn offered it for sale with the obligation of developing it. A well-arranged street network was developed, and along the newly parcelled area a new boulevard was designated running from the Lutheran Church as far as the Gombás Stream. The section of Széchenyi Street between the boulevard and the railway station was also built up, so people no longer had to walk to the station on dusty or muddy roads.The new roads were lined with modern blocks of flats of a uniform design. In 1921 a campaign of constructing small flats was started, and the development of Deákvár continued. In 1944 Mayor Dr Kálmán Karay summarized the data concerning the construction of flats in the interwar period: between 1920 and 1939 altogether 769 houses
