Hallmarks of California Ranch Style
A "California Ranch" outside Needles, Arizona, with an amoeba-shaped pool.
Noah Sheldon, The Ranch House, courtesy Abrams Books
• GROUND-HUGGING with a low roof and deep eaves
• VERNACULAR: built of local materials (wood, stucco, brick, or stone)
The 1956 Antrim House in Fresno, California.
Noah Sheldon, The Ranch House, courtesy Abrams Books
• ANONYMOUS to the street (with a flat façade, covered entry at grade, and few streetside windows), but open to gardens in back
• ONE ROOM DEEP, shaped like an L or U (or splayed) to surround a patio and landscape features
Seminal California builder Cliff May designed the Eshelman-Bemis House in 1963.
Noah Sheldon, The Ranch House, courtesy Abrams Books
• EXPANSES OF GLASS and horizontal windows, sliding glass doors
• FRANK INCLUSION of cars, children’s yard equipment, etc.
The 1958 Rhodes House in Big Springs, Texas, designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris.
Noah Sheldon, The Ranch House, courtesy Abrams Books
The Ranch and its associated lifestyle received a great deal of press during the late 1940s. The buzz caught the attention of builders and buyers in the post-war boom. Many suburban Ranches of the 1940s and 1950s are true to form, but adaptation for small lots and cold climates eliminated some salient characteristics. By 1954 critics were decrying the use of the word “ranch” for all manner of fast-built tract housing.
1956 Hanley House living room, Dallas, Texas.
Noah Sheldon, The Ranch House, courtesy Abrams Books
Like the Bungalow, the Ranch suffered a period of ridicule. A second look at history—and at these functional homes, now with mature landscape in established neighborhoods—is changing the way we see the American Ranch house. The ranch house is back!
