Small Home Gazette, Fall 2023
Minneapolis Treasures
Past and Future
Editor’s note: The text below is from Kristi Johnson’s introductory speech given at Minneapolis City Hall in 1996, at a workshop attended by city council members, planners and members of the City Inspections Department. We thought it would be interesting to look back at public perceptions of bungalows at the time, and reflect on how things have changed, or not, since then.
My husband and I live in a 1926 stucco bungalow just off Lake Street in South Minneapolis. We have just over 900 square feet of living space––two bedrooms on the first floor separated by a bath and a finished expansion space upstairs that looks something like a chapel, with its sloping walls and triangular ceiling. The house is built like a rock, using brick, plaster, stucco and lumber from old growth forests that are long gone, using a craftsmanship that is no longer available at any price.
It’s one of those houses that say “home” as soon as you walk into them, and they are in Minneapolis in the hundreds of thousands. We got our home using MCDA first-time homebuyers’ money in early 1990, and we were thrilled. We were just off the bus line; we could walk across the street to the SA station to buy a gallon of milk; we had a 130-year-old oak tree in the backyard. We had friendly neighbors, a park close by, and the Mississippi River three blocks away. We bought the house for $61,000 and our mortgage payments were slightly less than the rent we were paying on a duplex. Right now, we pay just over $600 a month on a 20-year mortgage.
This is city life as it was meant to be. It is a living example of the city working, and working properly, and it was designed that way. Imagine my surprise, when I found out our “dream house” was considered a “blight” of sorts by the city: “Old and inadequately sized.”
A “starter home.”
What exactly is a starter home?
Obviously, one that you leave when you have enough money and wherewithal to “trade up.” And where do you go? To the suburbs. By labeling thousands of bungalows “starter homes,” the city and the real estate field has more than implied that they are not adequate for anyone with an ounce of ambition. The real estate market has a reason for doing this. They want constant buying and selling. They want people to move. The city should have a different agenda. It is working at cross purposes by labeling this wonderful resource a liability.
Birthplace of the Twin Cities Bungalow Club—Kristi Johnson’s bungalow in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis.
Bungalows were built to be unassuming. They were part of a reaction against the excesses of the Victorian age. Now we are in the age of the Parade of Homes and the “starter castle.” Fake French chateaus on cul-de-sacs with three-car garages that could swallow a bungalow whole. And $3,000, $7,000 or $10,000 monthly mortgage payments. It’s back to outdoing our neighbors with these pseudo-European manors. These are not friendly places, and these are not relaxed homeowners. This is not what the city of Minneapolis should be admiring.
Let me read an excerpt from The Craftsman magazine, February 1913.
The reason that Craftsman furniture met with such a wonderful popular response from the very day that it was first exhibited at the Pan-American Exposition, is that Craftsman furniture represented to its designer not a concrete thing, but an ideal. It was to Gustav Stickley one of the factors of a natural, simple and honest environment which he believed necessary to right living. Because of this concept of right environment his thoughts were directly led to the larger question of suitable homes for the people.
He realized the seriousness of the home-building problem; the social and economic dangers arising from the common type of domestic architecture as it then existed; the usual mistakes of the home-builder trying to outdo his neighbor; and the false standards of living which have their foundation in the false standards of home building.
As a result, he has evolved a type of architecture which occupies a position in this field as distinctive and permanent as does Craftsman furniture in the field of furniture design.
The features of a Craftsman house which cause it to stand out from all others are plainly distinguishable. The ruling principal is simplicity. Simplicity spells economy; elaborate ornamentation is eliminated by the Craftsman method of interior treatment. The greatest economy of all, however, is the permanent quality of the Craftsman home. A Craftsman house should stand a hundred years or more without requiring repairs. In fact, for many years a Craftsman house will increase in value and beauty without impairment, and use will give it a softness and friendliness which will constantly add to its value. The simple lines of a Craftsman house give to it a dignity and distinction which react most favorably upon the life and character of the family. In effect, it is designed to answer the question, ‘What are the needs of the family?’ Not an inch of floor space is wasted. The household machinery is simplified to the last degree.
An economic use of space; a house that stood back on its lot and didn’t compete for attention; a simple lifestyle––all that has hurt the bungalow today.
Program cover from the November 1995 exhibit and exposition, which took place in St. Paul.
But the city has an opportunity to help turn this around. Older homes, and bungalows in particular, have become extremely desirable. The fastest growing consumer publications today are those dealing with old houses and gardening. The Bungalow Exhibit at the Landmark Center in St. Paul over the Thanksgiving weekend had an attendance of over 2,000. The Twin Cities Bungalow Club gained hundreds of members. I talked to dozens of people who wanted to buy a bungalow and wanted a list of “bungalow neighborhoods.” I talked to those who had just purchased one, and to retirees who wanted to move back to the city from their suburban townhomes to live in a bungalow, not another town home. They wanted a garden, and they wanted a neighborhood. I talked to a contractor who worked in new construction in Eden Prairie and lived in a 1903 bungalow originally built as a lake cottage. He called his customers in Eden Prairie, “the most unhappy people I’ve ever seen.” This is a real movement, and the city of Minneapolis has exactly what these people are looking for. According to architect local Robert Gerloff, bungalows can be called “lifestyle homes.” That is because they have an easy way of changing along with their owner’s lifestyle.
For one or two people, the two ground floor bedrooms should be sufficient. If children are added, the expansion space upstairs can provide a master bedroom, and the unfinished basement can provide terrific play space. When those children are gone, the house is perfect for retirement. It has everything on the ground floor, and expansion space can become storage again.
Not everyone wants a new house, and not everyone wants to live in the suburbs. Business has learned about niche marketing, and the city must, too. People are seeking these houses out. These bungalows are lifestyle houses that will adapt to those living in them and will add to the stability of the neighborhoods they created so long ago. Minneapolis needs stability. Let’s not ignore this tremendous resource. Let’s make it easy for our citizens to invest in their city.
