How this house took over the US

Why is the Craftsman bungalow everywhere? It’s due to a socialist artist, an entrepreneurial furniture maker, and a real estate movement.

To anyone who’s been a casual architecture fan (or spent time trawling Airbnb and Zillow), the “Craftsman bungalow” is a familiar term. Today, historic districts around the US celebrate the Craftsman’s beauty. But how did this style of house become so ubiquitous and so beloved?

The above video explores the history of the Craftsman bungalow, from the 1800s Arts & Crafts movement, to its popularization in America, to its commodification in the 1910s and 1920s.

Further reading:

Oklahoma Houses by Mail chronicles the detective story of tracking down a kit home in the real world.

Janet Ore provides the humorous history of Seattle Bungalow entrepreneur Jud Yoho, who made Craftsman into a brand.

Kim Hernandez wrote about how the Los Angeles Investment company developed LA with lots of bungalow flair.

[Vox]

Thanks for watching! Those “Craftsman” magazines have a motto printed in the inside: “Als Ik Kan.” It’s Dutch and basically translates to “As Best I Can” — a good summation of the Arts & Crafts ethos of individual craftsmanship.

[CJusticeHappen]

I grew up in a house like this. Half a life later and growing ever more distant, it is still the image that comes up when I think of the word "home."

[rachelshoemaker]

Thank you! For fourteen years (researching catalog and kit homes) I have been trying to set people straight on this. Equating Craftsman to Sears as kit home etc. Even explaining the trademark purchase! I will answer with this video now.
I am Oklahoma Houses By Mail that you reference. Not just authenticating all kit homes but researching their origins of the plans that were acquired by the companies that marketed bundled materials.

[GlennDavey]

We literally have "California bungalows" in older parts of Melbourne, Australia. It's so odd to suddenly feel like you stepped into a Hollywood movie walking past them with oak trees overhead. They're beautiful, but they stand out among the other houses built in that era. I guess the American trends found their way here too!

[thedetail.]

In the UK we call this the Arts and Crafts movement which has heavy links to the french Art Nouveau period in the late 19th and early 20th century. It's interesting how pervasive and enduring this style is.

[alimaatod]

As a non american i always wondered why america had houses like this

[averybuffington]

I have grown up my entire life in a sears bungalow kit house in Denver and it is the very definition of home to me. It's not as flashy as some of the homes of friends who have more bigger modern houses, but it means a lot to me. It has also been in my family for five generations including me.

[benmcreynolds]

These are my favorite type of houses when done right. They just got a nice feel to them. I love the raw wood and stone approach and low spread out floor plan with covered porches 👍🏼

[lagritsalammas]

As an architecture history buff I had known about the Arts and Crafts movement as well as the Craftsman style in the US, but I had never thought nor made the connection of how the aesthetic of an anti-mass-production ideology started being mass produced regardless. Thank you so much for the good video, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[ryerye]

Craftsman bungalows look so dark inside. It's almost the antithesis to modern design which emphasizes light and airiness. But designed in an era without air conditioning, they must have been extremely insulating. Reminds me of a cave. It looks like it just wants to sink into the ground.

[stev]

I love Vox so much. They make so many videos about things I didn’t think I would be interested in, but here I am.

[vickiamundsen]

these bungalows are a perfect design for keeping cool in hot weather - lots of air flow, windows shaded by porches, and no blasting hot second story bedrooms. Love!

[TheTrainmobile]

There's an entire historic district in my city that is pretty much all craftsmen bungalows built between the 1920's and 1950's. Pretty neat to learn that this is why most of them were built.

[jti]

it’s really cool to visit a bungalow in Pasadena. It’s a completely different feel, lots of wood, natural light and a feeling of coziness. kinda hard to explain but it’s almost like the house had some soul to it, like it was built with attention to detail not a mass market house

I live in a "Mexican Bungalow" (I'm from there). The roof is made of wood covered with tiles, the walls are mostly granulated cement and the front wall is Adobe brick. It reminds me a lot of the word "Home".

[charlessirridge]

In Chicago we have our own signature style of bungalow. There are about 80, 000 of them in the "bungalow belt" that hugs the periphery of the city and extends into the inner ring streetcar suburbs.

[petitthom]

As a non-american, the first time I remember seeing this kind of house was in Malcolm in the Middle lol

[echnaton]

William Morris is also known to have denied the toxic effects of his arsenic wallpaper designs he sold mostly in the UK, so people died slowly in their colourfull victorian homes by arsenic gas caused by damb walls.

[TheAlbinoskunk]

And now LA has a housing crisis because upper middle class people bought houses like these all over the city in the 80s and oppose any attempt at densification. They want to preserve a small-town lifestyle of low-density, lush, socially homogenous neighbourhoods whilst living in the inner suburbs of a major world city. It's not just Los Angeles, this is happening in every major city in the world but LA has to be one of the most extreme examples of this

[ameliatahnia]

This is what I imagined all American houses looked like