Home styles of the not-so-rich-and-famous

The ballooning suburbs in Post-War America was marked by simple, repeating architectural styles which are often overlooked by more iconic styles. However, abundant styles such at the ranch or split-level home would become a distinctly American staple.

The ranch style home had a simple floor plan and was constructed by simple materials. They were popular in warm climates but can be found anywhere. They are characteristically only one story tall and particularly wide, with an attached garage. My great-aunt used to live in a ranch style, as did everybody else in her Hamburg, NY neighborhood.

This example is from a farm in Northern Idaho. Most interesting is that it has a virtually identical floor plan to my Aunt's house in Hamburg, right down to the stoop at the front and the bay window. And here are some more:

  Split level homes are similar to ranch homes. They have little ornamentation are are based on simple construction, but are split across multiple levels. My grandparents had a house like this. They are often built to take advantage of uneven terrain and are considered an efficient style of construction. Not to be confused with a multi-story home, split-level homes may have different levels side-by-side with only a half story difference. In the case of my grand parents' home, the garage was at ground level with the drive way, but a staircase connected it to the rest of the house, with one flight heading down to the ground floor and another flight heading up to a second floor above it. Their basement was beneath both the garage and ground floor. The first image I have is a house for sale at the edge of my town that I've been trying to find an excuse to post in this blog for months, and the rest are from Google.

Give me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam...

I used Realtor.com to examine architectural styles in Buffalo since it'd be much harder to get myself lost (at least, not in a way that costs me lots of gas). I narrowed the search to a range of homes between $100,000 and $300,000 and looked for a cluster of available spots with photos and found myself in a region surrounding Wadsworth Street, a street which connects the southern terminus of Elmwood Ave. and Richmond Ave. I thought my price parameters might though off the results, but all of the homes were fairly consistent around the $150,000 range, with only two over $200,000. Of the seven houses I found, Realtor.com had classified them all into one of three different categories: Victorian, Traditional, and Bungalow. I'll use these categories to break them up, but will discuss how each house fits (or doesn't!) into its assigned category.

The first house is the most ornate in the neighborhood, and also the most expensive (at $250,000) It also has many of the features which I would agree make it a Queen Anne style Victorian: The ornamentation along the windows and the built in, rounded tower on the left side giving it an asymmetrical look.

The second house has little in common with the first beyond it's address: both houses were on St. John's Place. The house is asymmetrical due to its windows, but structurally is not. The ornate roof line does push it towards the Victorian style and is possibly a hybrid with something else, but, aside from maybe traditional, I can't be sure with what.

The third house hails from Mariner St. and is listed as "Victorian, Colonial." I am inclined to agree with the idea of the house being a small, colonial revival, being symmetrical and simple, embellished with a porch in front and no other ornamentaion.

 

These two houses are both described as traditional by the Realtor website. The first house is located on Plymouth Avenue and doesn't have much going for it. It is small and simple, clearly modern construction, with no ornamentation and is largely symmetrical. With no other elements to classify it, I'd agree to leave it as an example of the current vernacular style.

The second house is much easier on the eyes and is located on College Street. The windows are symmetrical but the addition of the porch on the right side means the structure is not. Strikingly, the exposed timbers offer more variety to this house. The timbers are purely decorative as they don't add anything to the house's support, but also push this house into the "Sticks" category.

These last two houses are classified as Bungalows. I hate the sound of the word, but at least I feel confident that I can easily identify one. Both houses are very small, one-story, and are relatively squarish. The first house on Maryland Street has a more "cozy" feel than the second, located on Wadsworth Street, due to the different colors and its nicely ornamented porch. 

As a whole, the Wadsworth neighborhood doesn't seem to have a uniform style, but the houses do have a common theme as being small homes, many of which perfect for a small family of two to four people. They are relatively small, saving space in the city, but most appear to have their own driveways and a little bit of green space.