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09 · American Vernacular & Regional

Ranch

c. 1935–1975

Single-story sprawl: a low-pitched roof, attached garage, picture windows, and an open floor plan.

Look for

Horizontal emphasis Hipped roof Deep eave overhang
Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway, Palm Springs, California: an example of Ranch architecture
Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway, Palm Springs, California. Photo: LucynaPrz, CC BY-SA 4.0
Twin Palms, Frank Sinatra House, Palm Springs, California
Twin Palms, Frank Sinatra House Palm Springs, California · Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0
Alexander Home, Palm Springs, California
Alexander Home Palm Springs, California · Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain
1950s California Ranch House, California
1950s California Ranch House California · Mcheath at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Eichler Home, Green Gables, Palo Alto, California
Eichler Home, Green Gables Palo Alto, California · Sanfranman59, CC BY-SA 3.0

what it is

A ranch house is a single-story house with a long, low profile, a low-pitched roof with deep overhanging eaves, and an attached garage or carport. Living areas are open to one another and kept separate from the bedroom wing, and sliding glass doors lead to a rear patio. Exteriors mix stucco, brick, wood and stone, and many have a large picture window facing the street. Later variants include the split-level, with floors offset by half a story, and the raised ranch, with a finished lower floor.

Cliff May's Rancho Estates in Long Beach, California (1953-1954), designed with Chris Choate, has more than 700 houses. At Levittown, New York, Levitt & Sons replaced their 1947 Cape Cod model, which put future bedrooms in the attic, with a 32-by-25-foot ranch model in 1949, built on a concrete slab with radiant floor heating.

how to spot one

Horizontal emphasis A design that stresses long horizontal lines through low roofs, deep eaves (roof overhangs), bands of windows and continuous sills (window ledges). It defines Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie houses. Hipped roof A roof that slopes down to the walls on all four sides, with no gables (triangular wall ends). It is common on Georgian, Italianate, Prairie and American Foursquare houses. Deep eave overhang Roof edges, called eaves, that extend well beyond the walls. They shade windows and keep rain off the walls on Prairie houses, Craftsman bungalows and Italianate buildings.

Also look for

Corner windowFlat roofClapboard siding

history

The ranch drew on the single-story adobe ranchos of Spanish colonial California and the Southwest, which had wide eaves and interior courtyards. Cliff May (1903-1989) is credited with the first California ranch-style house, the O'Leary House in San Diego, built in 1932. May combined Spanish Colonial Revival details with floors level with the ground, cross-ventilation and courtyards, and his houses appeared often in Sunset magazine in the 1940s and 1950s.

After World War II, tract builders adopted the ranch for large developments, and by the 1950s it accounted for most new houses built in the US. It stayed popular with middle-class buyers from the late 1940s into the 1970s, especially in the fast-growing Sun Belt states. May designed more than 1,000 custom houses, and about 18,000 tract houses were based on his designs. American taste moved toward traditional styles in the late 1960s, and by the late 1970s the ranch had been overtaken by neo-eclectic houses, which mix details from several historical styles.

where to find it

Postwar suburbs everywhere, with showpiece California ranch neighborhoods around Los Angeles and Palm Springs.

easy to confuse with

Stahl House, an example of Mid-Century Modern Mid-Century Modern Post-and-beam houses with walls of glass, flat or butterfly roofs, and easy flow between indoors and out. Sturgis Library, an example of Cape Cod Cape Cod A compact story-and-a-half cottage: steep gable roof, central chimney, dormers, and minimal fuss. Robie House, an example of Prairie School Prairie School Long horizontal lines: broad low roofs, deep overhangs, and continuous bands of windows hugging the ground.