06/27/2024
Oh, the synergy! Our A Field Guide To American Houses by Virginia Savage McAlester client collaborates with our bestie and referrer modtexas. Who could ask for anything more!?
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Posted • Let’s learn more about this fabulous 1958 time capsule, designed by Don Duncan, with !
Written by preservation icon (and Dallasite) Virginia Savage McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses is an essential tool (I keep mine in the car for easy access). The book tells us that Ranch-style homes originated in the 1930s in California and became ubiquitous in the postwar housing boom of the 1950s and 60s. Their growth was directly related to the use of automobiles and the expansion of the suburbs where it was possible to have sprawling designs on wider lots.
Loosely inspired by early Spanish Colonial design, Ranches were promoted by California builder Cliff May and soon found their way into influential shelter magazines like House Beautiful. “These same magazines promoted a casual family-oriented lifestyle for postwar families… and the Ranch became the favored way of experiencing this informality. Described as ‘middle of the road modern’ and ‘modern inside, traditional outside,’ the Ranch was also considered, both by lending institutions and builders, to be more acceptable to the American home-buying public than more dramatic modern designs.”
This fine specimen in Coleman – which is available to rent as – is straight out of The Field Guide’s chapter on Ranches, with its broad profile, picture windows, off-centered front door, attached garage, low masonry planters, sliding glass doors, back patio, etc.
To learn more about identifying styles of houses, follow our friends at and get your own copy!
📷: Stardust Retreat. History: A Field Guide to American Houses.
❤️ modTEXAS is a statewide community service project. We’re crowdsourcing the largest collection of Texas design worth preserving. Use to contribute and explore!
