Ranch. The Greatest Generation, AKA "squares"...had one thing right. Low, sleek, not much adornment and cheap as can be. A style which looks best with virtually nothing expensive inside or out. In the 1950's, ranch accounted for 9 out of 10 houses being built. After the mid-1960's houses started getting taller, but not better. They also started having manufactured materials rather than organic, staples rather than nails, dry-wall rather than plaster and were being built to last as long as the rat-ass shag carpet. There are millions upon millions of small, cheap, solid, simple ranch houses out there waiting to be fixed up without "elevated rooflines" to heat. And since there are no jobs left and none coming, I'm afraid...they make good places to hunker through the sundown on the union. These images are from a 1956 National Plan Service brochure. NPS printed the catalogs and let individual builders and lumberyards stamp them with their imprint. Most are a modest 1,000 square feet. Two cool sources. Atomic Ranch Magazine and Mid Century Home Style.
Modern Ranch Homes Brochure 1956 34 Pages Collection Jim Linderman
And they're kind of cute too.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a version similar to R-136. Solid as nails. Real nails, that is. Put in one at a time with a hammer. Brick. Cinder block behind that. Two car garage, built for WIDE land cruisers. HUGE basement, the length of the house. Floor joists and rafters the size before they started cutting back (i.e. a 2x4 is not really a 2x4 anymore!). And no stairs. As we enter older age... it will be a good thing. I do long for high ceilings. Can't have everything, I guess.
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