| Ranch style houses - the easy-living emblem of the | | | | mortgage money provided an avid market for this |
| post World War II lifestyle - have now become historic. | | | | inexpensive, functional type of building. Builders and |
| The ranch house plans Levit style which dominated the | | | | developers throughout the United States quickly |
| suburban neighborhood ethos of the 1950's and 1960's | | | | discovered that these designs were fast and cheap to |
| have attained the cutoff age for listing in the National | | | | build - especially en masse - and they were popular |
| Register of Historic places; and historians of | | | | with consumers. Ranch style houses today are |
| architecture accordingly have been scrutinizing ranch | | | | typically asymmetrical and informal, one-story boxes or |
| houses with an eye to placing them in their proper | | | | else L-shaped, in which function is more important than |
| historical context. Ranch-style houses were first built | | | | style. They feature low-pitched hip or gable roofs with |
| on southern California ranches in the middle of the 19th | | | | overhanging eaves; an attached garage which juts out |
| century; and the ranch style was reborn there a | | | | of the main house; a long and narrow front porch; |
| century later. In the original model, based upon Spanish | | | | picture windows in the living room and sliding glass |
| colonial architectural style, a single-story, linear | | | | doors which open onto a patio in the rear; and some |
| arrangement of rooms was arranged along a long | | | | house plans ranch w2f basement too. |
| porch called a corredor. The corredor gave access to | | | | Ranch-style homes are inexpensive to build and easy |
| all of the rooms without wasting space (as interior | | | | to expand. Although post WWII ranch houses were |
| hallways do). At the same time it opened each room | | | | usually small, the combined dining and living spaces, and |
| to the cooling breeze and light from outdoors. When | | | | the large glass windows and sliding doors, gave these |
| new rooms were needed, they were simply added on | | | | homes an open, spacious look. Family and recreational |
| to the corredor; so typically ranch houses grew | | | | activities - children's games, barbecues, cocktail parties |
| asymmetrically into L's or U's, and the corredor's | | | | - centered on the outdoor patio area. Since ranch |
| expanded into patios with gardens. | | | | houses are suited to an indoor / outdoor lifestyle, they |
| The first modern-style ranch house was built in San | | | | are better adapted to regions with mild climates rather |
| Diego in 1932 by architect Cliff May, whose association | | | | than to areas where keeping the house warm in |
| with Sunset magazine resulted a wave of publicity for | | | | winter is an important economic factor. As the basic |
| the western ranch house. Other popular magazines, | | | | design moved east and north, the profile of the typical |
| such as American Home and Ladies Home Journal, | | | | ranch house tightened into a "massed ranch" look; the |
| contributed to the craze by sponsoring design | | | | stucco or clapboard siding was often replaced with |
| competitions and offering house plans to their readers. | | | | brick; and house plans ranch walkout basement were |
| A mass of returning WWII veterans with G.I. Bill | | | | often included as well. |