More to the point, those grand houses (not to mention, all manor of nice public works like subways in NYC) were built on the cheap labor of people who couldn't

More to the point, those grand houses (not to mention, all manor of nice public works like subways in NYC) were built on the cheap labor of people who couldn't dream of owning their own home. The reason that kind of architecture became scarce in the 50's is that it became prohibitive for the merely-rich (as opposed to super-rich) to hire armies of artisans to cater to every detail.