Everything about California Bungalow totally explained
California Bungalows, commonly called simply
bungalows in America, are a form of
residential structure that were widely popular across
America and, to some extent, the world around the years
1910 to
1925.
Exterior features
Bungalows are 1 or 1½ story houses, with sloping roofs and
eaves with unenclosed
rafters, and typically feature a
gable (or an attic vent designed to look like one) over the main portion of the house. Ideally, bungalows are horizontal in massing, and are integrated with the earth by use of local materials and transitional plantings. This helps create the signature look most people associate with the California Bungalow.
Bungalows commonly have
wood shingle, horizontal siding or
stucco exteriors, as well as
brick or stone exterior chimneys and a partial-width front porch. Larger bungalows might have asymmetrical "L" shaped porches. The porches were often enclosed at a later date, in response to increased street noise. A "California" bungalow (except in Australia, see below) isn't made of brick, but in other bungalows, most notably in the Chicago area, this is commonplace.
A variation called the "Airplane" bungalow has a much smaller area on its second floor, centered on the structure, and is thought to look like the
cockpit of an early
airplane.
Interior features
Unlike earlier private homes, true bungalows don't include quarters for servants, and have a simple
living room, entered directly from the front door, in place of
parlors and
sitting rooms, as well as a smaller
kitchen. The focal point of the living room is the
fireplace, and the living room often has a broad opening into the
dining room.
All common areas are on the first floor with cozy atmospheres. Though the ceilings are lower than in homes of
Victorian architecture, they're usually higher than in
ranch and other homes built later.
Attics are located under the sloping roof.
History
The bungalow actually traces its origins to the
Indian province of
Bengal. The native thatched roof huts were adapted by the
British, who built bungalows as houses for administrators and as
summer retreats. Refined and popularized in
California, the first California house dubbed a bungalow was designed by the San Francisco architect
A. Page Brown in the early 1890s.
The bungalow became popular because it met the needs of changing times in which the lower middle class were moving from apartments to private houses in great numbers. Bungalows were modest, inexpensive and low-profile. Before
World War I, a bungalow could be built for as little as $900 although the price rose to around $3,500 after the war. Bungalow designs were spread by the practice of using mail-order plans available from illustrated catalogs, sometimes a few alterations were made based on local practice or conditions. A variety of firms offered precut homes, which were shipped by rail or ship and assembled on site. These were most common in locations without a strong existing construction industry, or for company towns, to be built in a short time. The majority of bungalows did include some elements of mass production; typically doors, windows, and built-in furnishings such as bookcases, desks, or folding beds were sourced from lumber yards or from catalogs.
Bungalows can be found in the older neighborhoods of most American cities. In fact, they were so popular for a time that many cities have what is called a "Bungalow Belt" of homes built in the 1920s. These neighborhoods were often clustered along
streetcar lines as they extended into the suburbs. Bungalows were built in smaller groups than is typical today, often one to three at a time. Examples of neighborhoods with a high concentration of bungalows include
Bungalow Heaven in Pasadena, California
,
Belmont Heights in
Long Beach, California,
North Park (site of the proposed "
Dryden District") in San Diego, California;
Houston Heights, Houston, Texas;
Park Hill and
Washington Park in Denver, Colorado;
Takoma Park, Maryland, and
Takoma, Washington, D.C.;
Cherrydale and
other neighborhoods in
Arlington County, Virginia; and
Del Ray in
Alexandria, Virginia.
Resurgent interest in the
American Arts & Crafts or
American Craftsman movement (sometimes mistakenly referred to as
Mission style), and the emergence of special-interest publications such as
American Bungalow Magazine have contributed to the bungalow's recent popularity. Rising house prices nation-wide through the late 1990s and early 2000s as well as the central and convenient location of many bungalow-heavy urban neighborhoods have further fueled demand for these houses; as one example, some three-bedroom bungalows in San Diego can sell for $650,000 to $700,000, or more. The pricing of bungalows does seem to be dependent, however, on the strength of the local housing market; many bungalows in
Detroit, Michigan, for instance, have been abandoned, and are being razed.
The California bungalow in Australia
The California Bungalow style was particularly popular in Australia from around 1914 to 1940. This period coincided with the rise of the
Hollywood film industry, which popularised American clothes, furniture, cars and houses, and also with the increased importation of U.S. architectural magazines into Australia, a society which previously had been heavily influenced by British domestic styles.
The bungalow in Australia underwent regional adaptations, being built in the local red brick in
Melbourne and the local liver-coloured brick of
Sydney and in limestone in
South Australia. The bungalow was also constructed out of timber — in tropical
Queensland these were raised on high (eight-foot) stilts as the
Ashgrovian Queenslander.
The bungalow was so popular in Australia that very few houses were built in any other style during the 1920s. A range of other styles, including
Georgian revival and "
Spanish Mission" style became popular during the 1930s.
Further Information
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