bungalow neighborhoods

June 7, 2006 2:53 PM

What US neighborhoods are best known for interesting examples of Craftsman homes? I know about the various bay area neighborhoods - the Maybecks of the Berkeley hills, Westwood Park in SF, etc.; I'm familiar with Pasadena and its Bungalow Heaven, as well as Santa Barbara's many restored bungalows - and I'm familiar with similar neighborhoods here in Sacramento, where I live now. What I'm mainly looking for are out of the way, underrated or less-known neighborhoods with interesting historical and architectural character, specifically expressed in homes built in the Craftsman aesthetic - from the conservative late Victorian through the Prairie and Mission revival.

I know there are plenty of little pockets like this; I was recently very surprised to find beautiful tree-lined avenues of perfectly-maintained and somewhat austere bungalows in Patterson, California, of all places, which is often maligned for being an unpleasant little backwater, but which is actually quite pleasant.

Places like this are especially interesting to me, and I like to take pictures of them for a site I run. Any recommendations of neighborhoods - or even little-known and significant properties I should know about - are very welcome!

posted by luriete to home & garden (21 comments total)

Mission Hills, and parts of neighborhoods surrounding Balboa Park (mostly to the north and south), just north of downtown San Diego, CA. Some houses in these neighborhoods were also included in the book "The Bungalow", which is also a good source for finding neighborhoods. It mostly covers SoCal.
posted by LionIndex at 2:59 PM on June 7, 2006

Hm... lemme think.

I've lived in a number of places, but can only think of a couple in Utah that approach Pasadena's... there's the Jauquin neighborhood in Provo, and The Avenues and Sugar House in Salt Lake City. I've heard of one in Ogden, too (which is where Everwood was filmed), but I haven't been there myself.
posted by silusGROK at 3:10 PM on June 7, 2006

Try Buckhead, in Atlanta. I remember driving through on vacation a few years ago and being impressed by the bungalows and stick houses.

I grew up in a bungalow in Cranston, RI with built in cabinetry and lots and lots of wood. It was a great house.
posted by Biblio at 3:12 PM on June 7, 2006

Evanston and Highland Park, Il probably has the highest concentration of F L Wright homes in the country. Also, Oak Park, Il.

I'm not sure I would call these areas "out of the way, underrated or less-known" though.
posted by anastasiav at 3:14 PM on June 7, 2006

Seattle has a ton of bungalow style craftsman houses. Notable neighborhoods include Wallingford (I used to live in one up off of 56th street). Apparently there was a magazine devoted to them:

Yoho, Judd, The Bungalow Craftsman (magazine) 1910s, Seattle, Crafstman Publishers, copies on file, Seattle Public Library.

Here's some more info, assuming you're interested, from Early Seattle Neighborhood Buildings Historic Resource Survey[pdf]

Craftsman Bungalow Style. In 1905, both the bungalow house type and the Craftsman style house probably existed in Seattle. But it was after 1905, that the popular Craftsman Bungalow was built in Seattle. The Craftsman style dwelling came to the Puget Sound area about 1900. In 1904,
Ellsworth Storey designed two Craftsman houses in the Denny-Blaine neighborhood. The bungalow house type, essentially a cottage or small house with a low-pitched gable or hipped roof, was originally considered a summer house. The July 7, 1902 issue of The Daily Bulletin (Seattle) gives the first mention in Seattle of the bungalow dwelling and states that the new style is called the Bungalow and had existed nationally for the last few years. The article went on to say, "It is exceedingly interesting for summer houses, but that since it is made rambling and low [it] is not practical where land is at a premium."

It wasn't until about 1906 that the bungalow was first considered as a year round residence when an article was published in The Craftsman titled Possibilities of the Bungalow as a Permanent Dwelling. On March 10, 1906, the Seattle publication Pacific Builder and Engineer announced the construction of a 4room bungalow of J. Warren Upper in East Seattle for $1000 which apparently served as a year round residence. A month later the same publication described a bungalow house designed by Knapp and West

Also, this may be outside of your scope, but the Wright-built American System homes in Milwaukee make for a neat little day tour, but there's no super neighborhood full of them. I used to live in a little Craftsman house in Madison Park in Seattle off a small dirt road in a little row of four of them that were -- so I'd heard -- designed by local architect Victor Steinbrueck. They're a neat little set of houses, the top one only accessible via footpath, not quite a neighborhood but a neat little set of bungalows.
posted by jessamyn at 3:19 PM on June 7, 2006

Redlands, CA has a nice selection of Victorian and Craftsman homes in the older section of town. Riverside, CA also has some great old homes like this one scattered throughout the city. While it's the big ones that draw most of the attention, both cities have a large number of beatuful smaller bungalows as well as the large mansions. You could drive around Riverside for a few days and not see all of them.
posted by buggzzee23 at 3:30 PM on June 7, 2006

Check out Janes Village near Altadena.
posted by RoseovSharon at 3:35 PM on June 7, 2006

I don't have an answer for you, but since you're from Sac I just wanted to chime in that I own and live in a 1911 Crafstman Bungalow in East Sacramento.

Small world :)
posted by caryam at 3:35 PM on June 7, 2006

Yes, Caryam, especially since you know me well and we've known each other for 12 or 14 years ... and your sister sang at my wedding. It's me, Joshua!
posted by luriete at 3:38 PM on June 7, 2006

Lots of great leads here. Thanks everyone. I knew Seattle had some neat examples but whenever I'm there I'm in the downtown core and don't get to see enough of the town. Same with Portland, which I'm sure has lots of nice Craftsman areas.

I will check out Redlands - I'll be there in a month or so. And next time I'm in Riverside I'll look there too.
posted by luriete at 3:40 PM on June 7, 2006

Buffalo has quite a few intersting examples, if you ever find yourself in the greater Niagra region.
posted by milquetoast at 3:44 PM on June 7, 2006

Hyde Park, Austin.
posted by jayder at 3:51 PM on June 7, 2006

This question might also go over well at American Bungalow Forum. Those readers are very knowledgable!
posted by anitar at 4:08 PM on June 7, 2006

South Park, Burlingame and North Park. All in San Diego. South Park is my favorite.
posted by snsranch at 5:05 PM on June 7, 2006

Long Beach (CA) has several pockets with fine examples of Craftsman homes: e.g., Belmont Heights, Rose Park, and lesser known Bluff Heights. It's not as touristy — or ritzy — a place as Santa Barbara or Pasadena; on the other hand, the neighborhoods are more cohesive and consistent in style. Also note that the houses tend to be on the smaller side, especially when compared to some of the famous specimens by Maybeck or Greene&Greene.
posted by rob511 at 5:24 PM on June 7, 2006

Hey Josh, if you stopped using different freakin' usernames on every website I might be able to recognize you!

;)

Hundertwasser... what am I, a mind reader?!
posted by caryam at 6:04 PM on June 7, 2006

Not sure if Arts and Crafts is the same as Craftsman. If it is, a suburb south of Philadelphia called Rose Valley (near Media) used to be an artists colony devoted to this aesthetic, and most of the homes in are in this style.

Also, my house!
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:06 PM on June 7, 2006

Victoria, B.C. (esp. Oak Bay, James Bay and Fairfield neighbourhoods) and Vancouver, B.C (esp. West Side) have a lot of these, if you are ever in SW Canada.
posted by Rumple at 8:02 PM on June 7, 2006

Many Seattle neighborhoods are great for this -- Wallingford as already mentioned, parts of North Beacon Hill (I live in a 1911 bungalow myself, which isn't too impressive from the outside since the previous owners put on ugly aluminum siding, but was nearly untouched inside and has almost all the original woodwork and original finish, etc.), parts of Ballard, etc. Seattle hasn't quite yet decided to make a fuss out of preserving its bungalows so many neighborhoods have lots of them of varying levels of preservation. And some neighborhoods are losing these old houses rapidly, which is sad.

Also, I will second Victoria and Vancouver, though I don't know the cities well enough to know the names of the neighborhoods I saw these houses in.
posted by litlnemo at 12:12 AM on June 8, 2006

In Southern California, Anaheim has a small historical district (roughly bounded by North, South, East, and West streets, which were the old boundaries of the city) and Santa Ana has a larger one, with some great houses.
posted by dame at 6:38 AM on June 8, 2006

rob511's use of the word "ritzy" triggers a memory: William Bendix in "The Blue Dahlia" muttering about "ritzy dames in bungalows" (in reference to Veronica Lake's character, who lived in a bungalow, as opposed to a more upstanding residence for an unmarried woman, like a boarding house.)
posted by Rash at 10:32 AM on June 8, 2006