When I lived in Berkeley, in the 70's, Malvina's house on lower Parker Street was a landmark, of sorts.
I love Baez but I think she sort of butchers the song. It just sounds better to me, coming from an older, cackling, cynical voice like Reynolds'.
I also remember that "Little Boxes" was quite a radio hit for a while. Don't know how it did on the national charts, but it was very popular in SF at some point in the 60's.
I remember one co-worker from Egypt complaining in the late 90's about how difficult it was to find a well-built house to buy within commuting distance of Silicon Valley.
"They are all made of just sticks!" he'd exclaim. I explained to him that this is how houses in California are constructed, due mainly to earthquake concerns, so that few if any residential homes were ever constructed of brick or masonry.
Still, even excepting the need for wood frames, the stuff that went up in a lot of places was rather shoddy - cheap siding and roofing and interior finish. And by the height of the dot com boom and later housing booms, those shacks were selling for a million dollars in some places, only to be torn down after sale and replaced with McMansions.
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