IS THIS A CRAFTSMAN BUNGALOW?

The Answer:

You could call it a bungalow, but it does not have the "Arts & Crafts" stylistic cues of the Craftsman Bungalow.

This home represents an early stage in the transition from "Queen Anne Cottage" to "Craftsman (or Arts & Crafts) Bungalow":

• It has a relatively low-pitched roof compared to most late-Victorian houses, but the small gable above the porch steps points back to late-Victorian influence.
• There are no exposed rafter ends and no triangular brackets. No effort has been made to give you the sense that the basic structural elements are open to view.
• The slender porch columns seem barely substantial enough to hold up the roof of the porch. The house is not visually tied to the earth in the manner of the Craftsman Bungalow.
• The windows are in units of one, which is a late-Victorian treatment. They are not ganged together in the manner that became commonplace with the later Craftsman Bungalows.

The "low look" of this house and the emphasis on the porch mark this house as "bungalow in form," but it isn't appropriate to call this a Craftsman Bungalow.

Illustration by Luis Escalante. Copyright 2002 by Ken Lampton.