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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



May, 1908 



is covered on the exterior framework with matched sheathing, 

 good building paper, and then white cedar shingles left to 

 weather finish while the trimmings are painted white. The 

 quaint small-lighted windows and the stone chimneys are 

 features of importance for a bungalow. 



The porch, one step up from the grade, has a floor of red 

 brick laid in herringbone fashion. 



A Dutch door opens into a large living-room, which is 

 used both for living and dining purposes, thereby carrying 

 out the original characteristic of the New England living- 

 room, which, like its prototype, its kitchen, was where the 

 family life centered, where the dining table was spread, and 

 the large cranes hung in the large open fireplace from which 

 steaming pots swung over the blazing coals. This living- 

 room is more modern, however, for it has its large stone 

 fireplace, built of selected fieldstone taken from the local 

 stone wall fences, with two cobblestones protruding from 

 the face and supporting a wooden shelf. At the opposite 

 end of the room there is an attractive bay window with flower 

 shelf, above which the wall is pierced with three small- 



lighted windows. The trim of this room is chestnut stained 

 a soft brown. The ceiling is beamed with a similar chestnut. 

 The walls in the living-room and elsewhere are of two-coat 

 work, finishing in a brown coat. 



A small butler's pantry, well fitted up, forms the connect- 

 ing link between the living-room and kitchen; the latter is 

 trimmed with whitewood finished natural. It contains a 

 range placed against a red brick chimney breast, sink, laun- 

 dry tubs, ice box, pantry, rear porch, and stairs to the cellar. 



The remainder of this floor is trimmed with whitewood 

 painted, and it contains the owner's room furnished with an 

 open fireplace, large closet, a bathroom furnished with porce- 

 lain fixtures and exposed nickelplated plumbing, a large store 

 closet, a linen closet and a servants' bedroom. A stairway 

 leads up to the second floor, which contains two extra bed- 

 rooms and storage space. The house has oak floors, except 

 those which are in the bathroom. It is heated with hot-water 

 system, with the boiler and fuel room placed in the cellar. 

 This house cost $3,200 to build in the year 1903, including 

 all the materials and labor complete. 



Types of Bungalows 



By Roy M. Smith 



\0 MUCH has been said elsewhere in this 

 magazine anent the bungalow, its building, 

 its furnishing, its adaptability, its usefulness, 

 that almost every aspect of this most inter- 

 esting type of house may seem to have been 

 adequately treated. But I have been told 

 that the final word on this subject has not 

 been uttered, and have been requested to present a brief note 

 on various types of bungalows. Many of them are shown 

 in the illustrations printed in this issue ; yet there has been no 

 attempt to list these bungalows in a formal way, nor, indeed, 

 as I understand it, to present every possible bungalow type. 



How difficult this would have been is amply evidenced in 

 the many sorts of bungalows shown. They cover a great 

 range in size, cost, style and situation, yet the great central 

 fact that is 'brought out clearly and distinctly is that every 

 one of these pictures represents a bungalow. The very ob- 

 vious conclusion, therefore, may at once be drawn that the 

 bungalow, while a type of dwelling in itself, is a most varied 

 type, lending itself to a great variety of needs and require- 

 ments, both of convenience and of cost. In this, I think, 

 lies one of the strongest claims the bungalow has on the con- 

 sideration of home builders. It may be taken as likely, I 

 think, that the bungalow will not answer the requirements of 

 every house owner, and will not meet the conditions imposed 

 by every housekeeper. This, however, does not detract from 

 the general value of the bungalow as a thoroughly adaptable 

 type of dwelling. It is, in truth, so generally available that 

 it may well be termed the home universal. 



Like every other sort of dwelling the bungalow naturally 

 ranges itself in the ranks of houses of great, considerable, 

 moderate and small cost. Surely these terms may be used to 

 describe every sort of a dwelling now built for human needs. 

 The bungalow of great cost is, of course, a rare structure, and 

 is chiefly used for the mountain homes of rich men. Such 

 dwellings stand apart by themselves, exactly as the dwellings 

 of such fortunate folk elsewhere stand apart and in a class 

 by themselves. It would be truer to describe them as man- 

 sions built on bungalow lines rather than as large bungalows, 

 since in construction and in furnishings they violate many of 

 the strict requiremets of the bungalow type. 



There are many less costly bungalows which constitute a 



class by themselves as bungalows of high grade, which may 

 be truer bungalows in style and in construction than the more 

 splendid play-places of the rich. But the larger, and in some 

 respects the most important, class of bungalows are dwellings 

 of comparatively moderate cost, many of which, from their 

 type, are actually of lesser cost and of much simpler equip- 

 ment than dwellings of corresponding use built in another 

 way. These houses are much more apt to be the true bunga- 

 low than the more expensive and costly varieties. 



I need not here rehearse the definition of a bungalow, nor 

 trace its development from the summer homes of distant 

 India to its adaptation to the cold climates of America. A 

 detailed study of the changes and transformations presented 

 by this evolution would not be brief. It is quite sufficient 

 for our present purpose to remember that the evolution has 

 been accomplished, and that the bungalow to-day is a dwelling 

 of a definite type that has been adapted to almost every pos- 

 sible climatic condition and almost every need. This is 

 really the important thing; the steps by which this end was 

 reached belonging more to the archeology of building than 

 containing any facts of present useful availability. 



But because the bungalow has moved away from its primi- 

 tive form does not destroy the integrity of the modern bunga- 

 low. Word-purists may, indeed, argue to the contrary, al- 

 though the point is of quite unimportant consequence. The 

 great fact is that we have a bungalow type, a type almost in- 

 variably recognizable at a glance. It is true that the tempta- 

 tion to move away from the simplicity of the primitive type 

 is sometimes too great to be put to one side; and in this lies 

 the greatest danger of our modern bungalow building; or 

 that an ornate structure be designed to take the place of the 

 dwelling whose primitive conception is simplicity of the 

 simplest. 



The most dangerous factor in modern bungalow building 

 is the tendency to over-ornamentation. It is the old story of 

 overdoing a good thing, and is a tendency that seems almost 

 unavoidable in building. It is always so much easier to 

 string ornaments on to a building than to take them off; yet 

 the solution of the problem — if it be a problem — is not to 

 put them on in the first place ! A bungalow practically ceases 

 to be a bungalow when over-ornamented and enriched with 

 costly trimmings, for its very essence is simplicity in and out. 



