Prairie Style (1900-1920)
This is one of the few indigenous American styles. It was developed by an unusually creative group of Chicago architects that have come to be known as the Prairie School. Frank Lloyd Wright’s early work, inspired by the linearity of Japanese prints, is in this style and he is the acknowledged master of the Prairie house.
Features include:
-Low-pitched roofs, usually hipped or gabled, with widely overhanging eaves
-Two stories, with one-story wings or porches
-Massive square or rectangular piers of masonry used to support porch roofs-Rows of casement windows
-Window boxes or flattened pedestal urns for flowers
-Broad, flat chimneys
-Contrasting wall materials or trim, emphasizing second story
-Decorative friezes or door surrounds with floral ornamentation
-Wright’s famous furnishings and flowing interiors
Foursquare (1900-1930s)
A close relative of the Prairie School, the Foursquare (or Box House) is probably one of the most popular styles of houses in America. Its practicality cannot be overstated. Despite their basic, simple cube design, Foursquares were not bogged down in a sameness of exterior design or decor. They offer a large variety of appearances, and their form can be seen from coast to coast, from plain to fancy. Indeed, they are the quintessential home of the period.
Features include:
-Cubish shape
-Two full stories
-Hipped roof and front roof dormer
-Front porch (ranging from wraparounds to simple stoops)
-Windows usually grouped in pairs
-Usually four bedrooms
Period Revivals (1915-1930) Period revival styles-such as Spanish, pueblo, log and colonial-are usually thought of as projections of the 1920s, but each had its roots in the recent as well as the distant past. The eclecticism of previous revivals was dropped in favor of the authentic recasting of historic styles. Interiors reflected newly informal lifestyles with more open plans and flowing spaces.
Spanish Colonial
Building on the interest in America’s missions, a number of architects went beyond the Hispanic architecture in the United States to draw imagery from Mexico and Spain itself, especially from domestic architecture. In doing so they opened a new architectural vocabulary, called Plateresque and Churrigueresque. The high art of this style had to be watered down in its application to the bungalow.Not many baroque doorways appeared on these small houses. The better-than-average Spanish Colonial Revival bungalow, however, did have some endearing ornaments.
Features include:
-Red tile roof
-Canvas draperies pulled across large, round
-Arched windows
-Awnings supported by spears over doorways
-Light-bathed interiors (thanks to large windows and white or rosy pink walls)
-Black iron balustrades and curtain rods with wooden rings
-An abundance of tile on staircases and in bathrooms and kitchens
-Spanish fireplace
Pueblo
Drawing from local historical precedents for inspiration, the Pueblo Revival style is a mixture of both the flat-roofed Spanish Colonial buildings and the Native American pueblos.
Features include:
-Flat roof with parapeted wall above
-Stucco wall, usually earth-colored
-Projecting wooden roof beams (vigas) extending through walls
-Wall and roof parapet with irregular rounded edges
-Window lintels
-Porch supports
Log Cabin
The revival of log cabins coexisted with the rise of rustic lodges and distinctive national park architecture (Parkitecture), both outgrowths of the Arts and Crafts movement, and both expressing a need to get back to nature. Log cabin bungalows, however, are extremely rare but fun to watch for. Even Gustav Stickley, the chief promoter of Arts and Crafts ideas in the United States, used logs for Craftsman Farms in New Jersey-making sure that his own bungalow appeared to commune properly with nature.
Colonial
At the turn of the century, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris sent the message that architecture is essentially bilateral symmetry and that style must be classically inspired. Translated into the language of bungalow designers, this meant the use of Georgian- or Federal-style models from the 18th century, which produced the Colonial Revival.
Features include:
-Miniature temple fronts
-Windows in bands
-Perhaps French doors
-White woodwork interiors
-Dashes of classical detail
Chicago Style (1920 - 1930)
The unique new bungalow that developed in Chicago in the 1920s was fueled by the national bungalow craze and Chicago’s own Prairie style-but much of its roots came from the workingman’s house of the 19th and early 20th century. The result was the cottage transformed, and a bountiful harvest of Chicago bungalow neighborhoods-just right for Chicago families today.
Features include:
-All brick (in an assortment of shades)
-Three levels of living space
-Elbow to elbow with the neighboring house
-20 first-floor windows
-Leaded or stained glass-
Generous use of wood and ceramic tile
-Tile roofs
-Artful, multipaned doors and doorways
-Expansive interior with all the Craftsman delights
Cape Cod (1930-1940)
The house of almost universal appeal-literally millions still dot the national landscape. The design took its inspiration from both early Massachusetts and, with roof dormers, Colonial Virginia. There were thus two styles of this small one-story house, the Cape Cod and the dormered Williamsburg.
Features include:
-Usually center doorway on a three- or five-bay facade
-Southern-style sidewall chimney-
Absence of a front porch (usually just a stoop)
-Window shutters and flower boxes
-Possible bay window
-Williamsburg specific features:
-Side-gable plan
-One-and-a-half stories
-Colonial-style roof dormers
-Usually clapboard-sided, but also sheathed with shingles or built of brick
-Rear-roof shed dormers on large models
Moderne (1930 - 1940)
Art Deco may have been too high style to be used for the modest bungalow, but in the 1930s quite a few bungalows were designed in what is now called Streamline Moderne.
Features include:
-Occasionally portholes and bulkheads
-Concrete and stucco material (often painted in pastels)
-Glass brick (especially around entrances)
-Terra-cotta ornaments
-Light, airy interiors with simple modern touches
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