The Chicago Bungalow: the House that Built a City

The Chicago Bungalow is a distinctive and ubiquitous style of house in the city. In fact, there are over 80,000 bungalows in the city, concentrated primarily in an area challenged the “bungalow belt.” Combining good design, sturdy construction and an affordable price point, the bungalow rose to prominence during a time when Chicago was booming, but it persists to this day as a popular home type. So what is a Chicago bungalow? And how did they become ubiquitous in the city?

0:00 - Intro
1:03 - The Rise of the Bungalow Belt
2:31 - What is a Chicago Bungalow?
4:02 - Standardization: Lot sizes and mass production
5:11 - Stylistic Elements
6:09 - The Bungalow today
7:12 - Conclusion

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[lynwill]

My the early 1960s my parents purchased a beautiful gray bungalow for $18, 000. Those were the days.

[rhondajohnson]

Wow, brought back memories, my Granny had a bungalow with a finished basement. Been in many bungalows. One of my favs. Great vid

[JR-ghlp]

Love the layout and practicality of bungalows

[Egglicks]

Love the video dude! Is there anyway you could cover the courtyard style apartments we have here in Chicago? I've always been curious about them and how they became so popular here.

[Not_Sal]

We had similar bungalows in the NYC outer boroughs. I grew up in one of these in Queens

[chadwj]

What a well produced video; really enjoyed it! And here I thought I had a pretty good idea of what a made up a bungalow, but learned so much more.

[dannyjamz]

Great concept for a video love seeing these ! Learned so much !

[edwardmiessner]

I would like to see these bungalows converted and expanded into bungalow style three-flat triple-deckers, like in Boston. I knew someone who lived in the upper flat of a bungalow style two-decker in that city and it was nice!

[maryhanneman]

Great video, nicely written and great research. Just when a question popped up in my mind, it got answered,

[thomasjamison]

I am rather surprised that no mention was made of Sears, though I would note that the program showed pages from the Sears catalog. I live in Providence RI and something I like to do once in a while is go wandering around the neighborhoods from this era to pick out the Sear's homes from the Sears catalog.

[The_ZeroLine]

My favorite are gray stones. Off topic, but it’s crazy that coyotes live and thrive among these urban bungalow areas. Those things can survive anywhere.

[saulguel]

My Chicago bungalow was built in 1922!

[roberthaas]

I grew up in one of them in a city made of them. Just outside Chicago.

[trell]

This might be the part alot of 1st timers are looking for 6:36

[BellaBellaElla]

I would be really surprised if there weren't more three flats/two flats (especially the 300k+ greystones). I see WAY more of them throughout the city. The bungalow is ubiquitous as well

[money]

Born and raised in a bungalow I guess I never knew the name n history til now

[RobertSpiller]

Question...are those houses in Elmwood Park?

[hughkremer]

It’s true that there are a lot of these, and you do acknowledge that there’s an outer rim called the bungalow belt. This is semi-suburban area. But you make it sound as if they are far more part of Chicago housing than they are. Looking at your map, it’s only the outer edges in the bungalow belt, and some of that isn’t in Chicago. I’ve lived here most of my life and I rarely see them.

[GuildsmanPirate]

You must be Chicagoan because you called it, correctly, the Sears Tower lol

[Heyuher]

I love bungalows but hate that the Chicago style has brick