Small Home Gazette, Spring 2016

History Brief: significance of American bungalow

A more practical building than the bungalow cannot be conceived—it combines the beauty and simplicity of the cottage with the beauty and sublimity of the castle. It is a colossal little house where the home spirit is given every freedom and enjoy­ment. It is a place where stern reality takes upon the air of romance and romance finds expression in reality.

It is a very good type of home, friendly and kindly. Artistic, durable, practical, it is a modern house of dreams made real; bungalows are castles in Spain brought to earth in a way that either country families or the city householders can enjoy them so that every man has a chance for living the life that claims all of the home life.

Whatever the criticism that might be made of the bungalow, this much is certain—this little house marks an epoch of independence among American citizens who not only are encouraged to break loose from the shackles of their overlords, the rent­ing agency, but are led to save and invest in property of their own and build for themselves.

The bungalow is not a mirage in the desert, nor a dream palace never to be realized, but a practical tested-out product of modern civilization.

Text from “The American Bungalow and Its Significance,” by Evelyn M. Watson, in the April 1915 edition of Keith’s Magazine, published in Minneapolis.