“Bungalows!? Why on earth would anybody in his right mind want to publish a magazine about those horrid little houses? They’re exactly the kind of houses we’re trying to get rid of!”
These words, thrown in my face like a slapstick pie by a squat, scowling person at a national preservation conference in 1990, were both startling and sobering. We had struggled to produce the first issue of our magazine and scraped together enough money to debut American Bungalow at the conference, 3,000 miles from home, only to find that there were preservationists like the pie thrower who considered the bungalow to be such an unsightly blemish on the fair countenance of America’s architectural heritage that their instant removal was justified. Fortunately, there was a larger contingent at the conference who applauded and cheered us on, delighted to see a publication devoted to a house type that they considered to be sensible, efficient and stylish, a long-neglected icon of American self-reliance. With the catcalls drowned out by the standing ovation, we came away feeling reinforced, endorsed by experts and more determined than ever to help these cozy if common little houses step into the limelight they deserved.
With no funds to advertise in those days, our only option to gain publicity for the magazine was to send out press releases to newspapers large and small across the country, and that’s exactly what we did next. The results were surprisingly gratifying. Reporters from cities large and small were quick to announce that the lowly bungalows that nested in their city’s decaying old section might be enjoying a comeback, and we were pleased to see the optimistic story repeated in papers from all over the country. That was in the early 1990’s, a time when inflated property values were releasing hot air at an alarming rate and forcing America’s high-flying ideas about extravagant housing to fall back to earth, much as we’re experiencing today.
These memories came to mind because of the frequency with which I see similar articles appearing in print and on the Internet lately. Across the country, a new generation of reporters, with a detectable twang of discovery in their words, proclaims that the efficient, stylish bungalow may be a new trend—a sensible option to the McMansions of the past decades—and a possible remedy to America’s housing problems. The idea has resurfaced that new urbanism might not be necessary when there is a plethora of bungalow neighborhoods in almost every American city, waiting to be appreciated and complete with local shopping, sidewalks and even front porches for those who might want to wave at a neighbor.
This notion is not new to readers of American Bungalow. It is what we have stood for from the beginning, although I must admit we have featured a fair share of high-style craftsman dream homes, which I always rationalized with the belief that advertisers sell a lot more doorknobs to builders of such houses and that readers are always interested in what can be done by combining good taste with big bucks. Trophy homes notwithstanding, the word, “modest,” has always been a part of our creed. When it comes to houses, we feel that the design adage, efficiency is beauty, is especially true in today’s waste-conscious, “recycle it” world.
This new wave of recognition by the media is evidence that enthusiasm about our favorite home is not waning, in spite of the country’s hand wringing about home loans or overbuilding during the now-decaying housing boom. To the contrary, it appears as though the languishing economy is actually supercharging an already strong surge of interest in smaller, more efficient homes. In the mid 1990’s, the news was that there might be merit in “those horrid little houses.” Now, with the proliferation of interest in the craftsman style and the word “bungalow” restored to a positive connotation, the media’s rediscovery of the bungalow and bungalow neighborhoods focuses more on practicality than on style.
With so much of the American landscape bespattered with evenly spaced McMansions that seem to have dropped from an alien sky, it is comforting to recognize that the hammering of nails through green 2×4’s is now silent while we turn to recognize the merits of a tried and proven concept of home that we already have. For a while, at least, the pendulum of popularity has reversed, and American excess has been replaced by an interest in American efficiency.
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