Burness - Vintage House Book: 100 Years of Classic American Homes 1880-1980: Classic American Homes 1880-1980

The Vintage
House Book Classic American Homes
1880-1980
TAD BURNESS 2003 Tad Burness Published by 700 East State Street Iola, WI 54990-0001
715-445-2214 888-457-2873
www.krause.com Please call or write for our free catalog of publications. Our toll-free number to place an order or obtain a free catalog is 800-258-0929, or please use our regular business telephone 715-445-2214. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a critical article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically transmitted on radio or television. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2002113142 ISBN: 0-87349-533-0
eISBN: 978-1-44022-590-1 A cknowledgments Though I was only able to include a fraction of my picture and reference collection in this volume, Im grateful to those who, over the past several years, sold to me or freely contributed pictures or information helpful to either this specific book or to my reference collection in general. In alphabetical order, these individuals and organizations include:
Joseph Altieri
Bert Aronson
Associated Brokers
Charles Aucutt
Don Beals
Bill Bluhm
Bonafied Properties
Bratty Real Estate
Robert T.

Bratty
Tom Bruce
Burchell House Properties
Buyers Real Estate
Calandra Real Estate
California Arts and
Architecture
Carmel Realty Company
Century 21 Real Estate, Scenic
Bay Properties
Chelew and Campbell (Rose
Marie Coleman)
Sharon Christensen
Coldwell Banker
Bob Cowan
Herman Smith Curtis
David Real Estate (A.G., Jeff,
John, et al)
Del Monte Real Estate
Adeline Di Lorenzo
Draper Realty
Wallea Draper
George East
First City Realty
Fouratt-Simmons Real Estate
Richard Fowler
Game and Gossip
Joanne Garden
Terri Gelardi
Bruce Gilbert
Harbor Real Estate
Pat Hathaway
Ben Heinrich Real Estate
Lawrence C. Holian
International Estates
Elliott Kahn
Chuck & Wendy Lazer
Sal Lucido
Jane Mamat
Nancy McCullough
Merit McBride Realty
Mitchell Group
Monterey Board of Realtors
Monterey Peninsula Associates
National Trust for Historic
Preservation
Nations Estates
Lynda Nichols
Ocean Avenue Realty
John Olkoski
Pacific Bay Realty
Pacific Grove Heritage Society
(a.k.a. Heritage Society of
Pacific Grove)
Pacific Grove Real Estate
Pan American Real Estate
Company
Peninsula Realty
Alain Pinel Realtors
Roy Pohlmann
Porter-Marquard Real Estate
Prestige Properties
Betty Pribula
Marlene Provence
Prudential California Realty
Red Carpet Realty
Remax
Lois Renk & Associates
John Reynolds
Sal Rombi
Deen Rowe
Deane Rudoni
John Saar Properties
San Carlos Agency
John Sansone, Sr.
Saturday Evening Post
Bert Saunders
Larry Scholink
Seven Cities by the Sea
Harry Shaw
Rand Smith
Sunset
Gail Szafran
Herb Towle
Tri-City Real Estate
Marilyn Vassallo
Hank Veloz
Adam Weiland
Windermere Preferred Properties
Carol Winningham
F oreword
by Wendell Nelson Before the 1976 bicentennial, few Americans seemed to care about preserving old buildings, and few books were published on our architectural history. In 2002, however, many buildings are being restored, preserved, and written about. And many books are available on American buildings, especially old houses: the histories of styles in general, on one or another particular style, and on the old houses of a specific city, state, or region. The Vintage House Book is a unique addition to this growing body of architectural history, and it is an ambitious book.

While whole books are now written on the houses of a small city or on a single style or even a single feature like a cupola or veranda, this one covers nothing less than a whole century of a dozen or more basic styles, with numerous variations and combinations. But the book is even more than that. It is also a history of American material culture from 18791980, including not only our houses, but also our garages, toilets, water heaters, thermostats, kitchen ranges, chairs, building materials, bicycles, cars, hats, and toys. Houses of many social and economic classes are also represented: shanties, cabins, apartment buildings, middle-class houses, local mansions, and grand palaces. A few images even show houses being built and remodeled. The format of this book is as distinctive as its content.

It is not a straightforward history, but a kaleidoscope of hundreds of pieces of information, verbal and visual, scattered around each page and loosely organized chronologically. It reminds one of newspaper cartoons, with each panel having pictures and words, often laid out, seemingly haphazardly, around the space. A Sears, Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalogue, part illustration and part text, also comes to mind. Those were vintage and quintessentially American popular formats, so this book is in fitting company. It informs us by impressionism, much as do the paintings of Monet and Seurat. We look around each page, and slowly we absorb and become aware of objects and patterns and themes.

And we gradually find ourselves drawn into the world of these vintage houses, as if we were walking down a 1910 street, looking at them: new and old, big and little, simple and ornate. We feel what it was like for, say, a bank teller to look in plan books and catalogues for the design and furnishings of the new house he wants to have built for his family. As youll notice, styles did not begin and end abruptly, but gradually merged one into another. One gets a sense of the passage of history in our everyday world. This eclectic slice of American architecture entertains us while leaving us better-informed and more observant of houses and many other features around us. Wendell Nelson, who also wrote the chapter introductions for this book, is an old-house expert currently living in Portage County, Wisconsin.

Nelson has given hundreds of tours, classes, and slide talks on many aspects of the history of Portage County and Central Wisconsin. He is also a consultant on old-house research and restoration. He has published many articles on local history and buildings and has written three books, including Houses That Grew: Old Houses of Stevens Point, Wisconsin . He is now writing two more books on the history of Portage County and the houses of its villages and farms. Nelson received a B.A. in English and history from St.

Cloud (Minnesota) State University in 1963, and an M.A. in English from Southern Illinois University in 1966. T able of C ontents Wont you come in? Open the pages of The Vintage House Book , and tour 102 years of old houses, inside and out, year-by-year, from 1879 to 1980 (the title states 1880 to 1980, but I tossed in a bonus year). See thousands of houses of all styles, plus rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, basements and attics, appliances, and other features that will help you determine the age of nearly any older house that hasnt been heavily remodeled. If youve never seen the inside of a really old house, heres your chance! Many floor plans are also included! There are many illustrations, including original advertising of very early plumbing fixturesweird-looking, primitive ones that are entirely different from what we see today! Many kitchens from bygone years are also featured, with their old-fashioned (and now collectible) appliances. If you own and plan to restore an old house, this book will be helpful in showing you items you may want to hunt down in order to return the house to its original look.