Early-20th-Century Los Angeles Bungalow Architecture (Images of America)

Early-20th-Century Los Angeles Bungalow Architecture (Images of America)

Los Angeles, California, shaped the nation’s culture in the 20th century with the city’s bungalow style of mass middle-class housing. The style made the novelty and easy climate of Los Angeles into a force for living according to new standards of health and well-being, freedom and openness, and simple artistry. The bungalow combined the cozy appeal of Arts and Crafts design with what became the basic principles of 20th-century house architecture: earth-hugging lines, visible structure, and open floor plans emphasizing warmth, intimacy, and fluidity. While the streets and neighborhoods of the “bungalowtown” presented a lively panorama in which each house stood out as an individual, the bungalow was also a dream that the real estate industry sold to exploit the hunger for upward mobility that brought hundreds of thousands of new residents to the city during the three decades of the popularity of the style. Some of the neighborhoods that the developers established failed, and many homes were eventually demolished or in advanced decay. Yet today, these old houses are beautiful and comfortable homes when restored. Harry Zeitlin is a photographer, musician, kabalist, and Orthodox rabbi in Jerusalem, Israel, where he teaches traditional Jewish texts. Bennett Gilbert is assistant professor of history and philosophy at Portland State University and the author of books and papers on the philosophy of history.