The ranch style house is a purely American form of architecture that became immensely popular after World War II. Most ranch style homes can be described as single story, gabled or hipped roof with simple floor plans that include an attached garage. They filled the need for affordable housing at a time when America was bursting at the seams.

It was a California architect named Cliff May who was credited with building the first ranch style home in 1932. His goal in home building was for a home’s interior to have a connection with the outdoors. Hence there were large windows, sliding patio doors and an emphasis on openness as well as an efficient use of space, such as built-in kitchen cabinets. May primarily worked in California, where he built numerous versions of his dream house. His idea quickly spread.

These homes were not fancy. Basically, the bedrooms were at one end of the house and the living space was at the other end. Generally, they were four rooms long and two rooms wide. These long narrow houses hugged the landscape with their deep overhanging eaves and minimal ornamentation. It is easy to see that May was much influenced by the low-slung prairie homes and the easy bungalows of earlier times.

These houses usually exhibit a good measure of value in how they were built. Because there were so many of them erected in such a short period of time, their reputation suffered, and they became known as cookie-cutter homes with poor quality. Many would disagree due to things such as the copper plumbing that still works today, the hardwood floors that are still valued and the lasting natural stone and brick used on many of their exteriors.

By the mid-1950s, these affordable tract homes were peppering the landscape of the United States. Subdivisions and suburbs began to spring up outside major cities with ranchers dominating the landscape. Several versions — which included the rectangle, the L-shaped and the U-shaped — kept the neighborhoods from being monotonous. Later on, the raised rancher and the split rancher would be added to developers’ plans for different versions of this house.

One of the most notorious subdivisions of the era happened as a planned community around Philadelphia, Pa. The developers Abraham Levitt and Sons wanted to offer affordable single-family homes for returning GIs who had money from the GI bill to spend on housing. They sold six different model rancher homes with four variations on each plan in what would eventually become their 17,000-home community. This planned community became a model exhibit of homes of the period.

The ever-popular rancher continues to attract buyers because of the spacious open floor plan that allows a family to age through a lifetime in one place.

Today, some look for ways to update the house, and expert renovators offer a few ideas. The first and easiest suggestion is landscaping to make a nondescript house stand out in a neighborhood of look-alike houses. It’s an easy fix a homeowner can do himself. Setting a rancher apart can involve raising a roofline, adding a covered entryway or simply replacing exterior siding. These and other ideas abound; however, experts also warn against changing the style of the house too drastically and losing its identity.

These mid-20th Century homes have now aged and melded into the landscape of their planned American subdivisions. Even though it is a 20th Century creation, it continues to attract buyers due to its style, livability and chameleon character.
 

Courtesy of Metro Creative Graphics Large windows, sliding patio doors and an emphasis on openness are characteristics of ranch style homes.