By Rob Schweitzer
To many people the term “bungalow” simply means any small house, in particular any one-story house. But the word actually describes an entire family of house design—in fact an entire culture that began inAmerica in the early years of the 20th century, peaked in the Teens and Twenties, and lasted into the late Thirties. These we call “Bungalows” with a capital “B” to denote them as a style of architecture. In terms of modest Bungalows our research has discovered six distinctive types. Among those types are several styles such as Colonial, Tudor, and Arts & Crafts.
One of the most popular Bungalows is the Arts & Crafts Shed-Roof type. It is characterized by a side-gable plan with a sloping front roof. Above the porch is always a front roof dormer, sometimes it is small as small as pictured above but it can be large as on the “Marsden” plan.
This shed-roof Bungalow has rustic detailing: shingle, stucco or clapboard siding, cobblestone or brick chimney and porch piers, The roof has a wide overhang showing exposed rafter-ends; many times there are also brackets of simple stick like materials. All these reflect the influence of the Arts & Crafts spokesmen such as Gustav Stickley and the Green brothers who helped popularize the larger, more ornate versions of the style. But the more modest homes were designed for the “first time” buyer and were mass produced by ready-cut companies like Aladdin and Sears or by developers who purchased stock plans from Keith’s or Garlinghouse.
First in a series of guides to major Bungalow architectural types by former advisory board member Rob Schweitzer. Originally published in our debut Issue in Fall of 1990.
