Here's a longer version of the same video for those who want to slow down the video, but you can also use the pause and play buttons to view each picture a little longer. ruclips.net/video/QksBZgynZwA/видео.html
Living in LA I have become fascinated with different eras and the apartment building styles. Kind of obsessed with them would love more videos like these 😃
Too much square footage in modern house design is wasted on bathrooms and over-large closets. You don't need room-sized walk-in closets for every room, nor bathrooms for every room. I grew up in a 1920s design with one bathroom for 4 people and it was never an issue. It's one of the things I love about these designs. The emphasis on economy of space with a distinctive visual and architectural flare that makes these designs FEEL like a home.
I think they've gone from a little small on average to getting too big. The average house of the 1920's had big enough living / dining rooms, but often small kitchens and bathrooms and not much closet space. (like my house). Luckily mine was built with a toilet in the basement. One bathroom for 4 people isn't too bad but the average family then was 5-6 people. So we've gone from smaller houses with big families to big houses with small families.
Great video! Love these old houses.. but I had to pause and re-watch or rewind several times, because it goes by so so fast before you can fully see the whole photo.. (I like to oooowe and aaawe and ponder over old houses).. you can really see just how these houses were really meant to be like in their beautiful prime
@@gregvancom - I like both videos. I slowed down this one by using the "Pause" feature when I want to take advantage of any extended viewing time. The music on the other version is also very nice, and even so, I still use the "Pause" feature when I want to view something in more detail. I can do this on my big screen TV when I view RUclips on the Firestick/Amazon programing; or on my smartphone; or my tablet. It just depends on what I feel like doing at the time. The only thing I miss by using Firestick is access to everything below the actual screen, like any links that may be included with the description, and the ability to read, respond to, or add comments. But, when I want to do that, I can just use the other formats like I'm doing here! (My phone here, since it's after official "bedtime" for my husband, who is still working and needs his sleep! The only thing acceptable on the TV at this hour is any of the "sound scapes" with a black screen, like rain storms on the ocean, or something similar, which means I can still use my phone, since I am a "confirmed, card-carrying night owl!") And I no longer have had any gainful employment to go to, for the last 9 years. 😟😞
I’m Sears Catalogue collector from Finland and have always liked those houses. My dad was a carpenter and his brother in Canada is a constuctor. I’d like to buy more cats but the shipping to here is $45 per catalogue so it’s tooexpensive. Postages were much cheaper some 20 yrs ago.
Yea a big disadvantge to buying an older home is the lack of bathroom and its kinda hard to make impovments to current bathroom and kitchen with existing layout. In our home built in 1922 we had to close off a doorway to the hallway to improve our kitchen. And when it comes to bathrooms its pretty hard to keep the existing layout since most old home bathrooms have a sink and toilet on one side and a shower on the other.
My home, built in 1925 has 3 fairly large bathrooms and 2 walk-in closets. I love my 1925 home. I will never buy one of the new homes they build today. They are so horrible.
I liked the Charlotte, Harvard, Raymond & Aberdeen. Reason: they're more of rectangular, with the front of house on the narrower side. My lot is rectangular with narrow frontage, so those designs would fit. Thanks for the vid!
@@gregvancomooh, I also liked the Avon. I like these type of houses more than the contemporary ones. I'm writing this comment for posterity, in case I need to return to the vid. Lol. Cheers!
The house i live in was build in exactly 1920 but the house was pretty small it only had a living room and a small kitchen and 2 bedrooms but some time later they renovated the house to make it bigger by adding 2 more rooms and a garage. So basically only the front side of my house was build in 1920 but the other half was probably build like in the 80s
9-12-2024-It's interesting to see the homes of the decade my grandparent's apartment building, bought new, was built ($25,000 in 1928), 6 apartments in the building. The rooms I grew up in were 2/2-bedroom apartments joined together (six kids) about 900-950 sq. feet per apartment (brother is an architect and recently did the math, about 22 ft wide/95 ft front to back) taking the common hall/stairs into consideration) it was attached to an identical building with an alley for each to be separated from the next two identical buildings. The closets were considered a good size as they were deep, if not wide. Not a family property since grandmother died in 1977, (I'm 64) only on its third owner in 104 years!
Hey Greg, thanks for the video, I enjoyed it. By the way, I bet you don't remember the "Jim Walter Homes" My family had a Jim Walter Home. The name of the home is "Country Squire" They had two versions of this home. One that was built back in 1960 and the newer model that was built in 1970. We had the 1960 version with the basement. Although the 1970 version is more crisp looking, I like our 1960 version the best.
Many similar elements to my home which was built in 1929 near Pasadena. I’ve been calling it a ‘PseudoCraftsman’. What descriptor would you use for this style?
Check out "Pacific Ready-Cut Home Company" out of I think Los Angeles area for you California residents. They made tens of thousands of kit homes mostly on the West Coast of California and maybe up to the Northwest; shipped by rail as well as by truck - unfortunately only a few of their catalogs survived; so no complete set of literature is available that I know of that would show every home design - but there are books showing I think several hundred examples.
I’ve seen a lot of homes that have similar hardwood features or fixtures in the home I live in how do you know what home you live in especially with modern siding and add-ons that some homes have I live in Ohio if that helps thanks
These are from a kit house catalog from the 1920's, from when kit homes and plan book homes were in their "hay day." I'm sure I know which one it is, and I probably own it. I have a significant collection of catalogs for both kinds. The key to identifying kit home catalogs from plan books, is this one gives a list of building materials that are included when you place your order from the company that sells them. (And letters from former customers singing the praises from the company who sold them the building materials they used to build their home.) Things like floor and ceiling joists, rafters, finish flooring options, kitchen cabinets, medicine cabinets for the bathroom, doors for not only the front, but the (double glass) French doors provided to separate the vestibule and the living room that are listed with the Avon. These are listed at the bottom of the page, in the center, and would not be listed like this if they weren't included. There are different lists included for most homes, depending on what kind of features were included. Like, the Charlotte lists two medicine cabinets, as this is one of the few homes shown that have two bathrooms - one downstairs with the downstairs bedroom at the back, and one upstairs with the other bedrooms. Kind of unusual to have more than one bathroom in homes of this type, and at this time, but it's possible that the designer was considering the need for this feature to accommodate an elderly relative which would need to come live with the family. That was much more common during that part of the early 20th century, since Nursing Homes were not nearly as common then as they are now, and multigenerational households were quite common. A smaller bedroom and a private bathroom was the perfect solution, particularly avoiding the need to navigate stairs for an elderly person, and a separate doorway at the dining room, to provide a little extra quiet and privacy for that bedroom. Alternately, it might also be considered for accommodating a housekeeper/cook/nurse, even if it's just for a temporary family illness or recovering from surgery, or helping out a new mother and baby, or even just a guestroom, since the family has three bedrooms and another bath upstairs!
I've heard from a variety of different people that homes like these are all over the United States, but whether or not they are exactly like the ones shown in the video, would be difficult to say.
I live in a "kit house", in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN. The house was probably built for the minister of the church, next door. Some parts of the house are built well and some parts are barely to today's code. The floors and interior trim work were well done. The roof has 2x6 cut rafters and wouldn't be sufficient for a builder, today. All of the exterior sheathing is underlaid with 1" plank and building felt. Of course, there was no consideration of insulation and vapor barriers back in the '20's.
The homes were produced by a regional kit home company called Bennett Homes. They were located in North Tonawanda, New York. Their sales area was primarily concentrated in and around that particular area of the State, but there were some built further away, if the area wasn't too far away from the factory. I don't remember specifically, but it seems like they operated within about a 200 mile radius of their plant. You will find their homes primarily in the northern New England area.
So interesting how the bedrooms on many of the floor plans were off a main room instead of a hallway. Access bedroom 1 from the living room, bedroom 2 from the dining room. Wouldn’t that have been weird even back then?
Yeah my friend lived in a bungalow from the 30’s and there was one bathroom situated between two bedrooms, so you had to through a bedroom to get to it. She hated it because she always had to keep her room clean in case company was over.
@@five10queen yeah she got stuff stolen when her roommate had parties so I hear you! I wonder how people back in the day felt about them? Because they were really popular it seems
@@rayodelsol80- These were such an improvement over the type of housing the folks came from, whatever that was, that I doubt seriously they really minded. Having a private bathroom of their own, with a door you could close, and keep other people from bothering you, was really a blessing. This, over living in a big Victorian style home with only one bathroom, but two or even three generations in residence; or a boarding house with a bathroom at the end of the hall that was shared by ALL the "paying guests" was a decided challenge for everyone. Remember, houses built from kits in the 20s were distinctly new and modern at the time. And they were made accessible to thousands of people who, before, never dreamed of being well off enough to own their own home, given the convoluted, expensive design of mortgages at that time, before FHA came along in the mid 30s and turned that process on its head, in favor of the borrowers, plus the private financing many kit companies offered. Sears application did not ask you what your job was, what your gender was, or what your race was. Those things did not matter, only if you had the funds at hand to pay for the house, or participate in whatever payment plan they offered at the time. Many folks were able to secure a home of their own from kit companies, but who would never be given even the time of day in a bank, or a savings or building and loan, etc. We are looking at them now through the lens of 100 year old homes that have people, in many cases, still living in them!
What might help to explain some of the smaller dimensions of these houses: I believe that on average that people were shorter and smaller than now. Better nutrition and over eating in the interim have ballooned the size of the average person - necessitating larger steps and new building code dimensional requirements
![Yeat & Summrs - GO2WORK [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NEFEwfPcXRA/mqdefault.jpg)
Here's a longer version of the same video for those who want to slow down the video, but you can also use the pause and play buttons to view each picture a little longer. ruclips.net/video/QksBZgynZwA/видео.html
My current business plan. Build these houses with insulation and modern utilities. These houses are the ones that people want to live in.
Thanks for this video! Even after 40 years of an architectural career I still love looking at house floor plans!
Avon, Hamilton and Aberdeen are my favorites of all. Thank you
Living in LA I have become fascinated with different eras and the apartment building styles. Kind of obsessed with them would love more videos like these 😃
I agree and will try to make more.
Too much square footage in modern house design is wasted on bathrooms and over-large closets. You don't need room-sized walk-in closets for every room, nor bathrooms for every room. I grew up in a 1920s design with one bathroom for 4 people and it was never an issue. It's one of the things I love about these designs. The emphasis on economy of space with a distinctive visual and architectural flare that makes these designs FEEL like a home.
Yes most modern cookie-cutter designs don't seem to have the aesthetic appeal of some of the older homes that were taken care of.
I think they've gone from a little small on average to getting too big. The average house of the 1920's had big enough living / dining rooms, but often small kitchens and bathrooms and not much closet space. (like my house). Luckily mine was built with a toilet in the basement. One bathroom for 4 people isn't too bad but the average family then was 5-6 people. So we've gone from smaller houses with big families to big houses with small families.
Great video! Love these old houses.. but I had to pause and re-watch or rewind several times, because it goes by so so fast before you can fully see the whole photo.. (I like to oooowe and aaawe and ponder over old houses).. you can really see just how these houses were really meant to be like in their beautiful prime
I also would have appreciated a little more "dwell" time to appreciate/ inspect the images.
Glad you liked it and I was going to slow it down, but figured that viewers could pause the video if they found something they liked.
@@thefreeak You asked for it, Here's a slower version with music. ruclips.net/video/QksBZgynZwA/видео.html
@@gregvancom - I like both videos. I slowed down this one by using the "Pause" feature when I want to take advantage of any extended viewing time. The music on the other version is also very nice, and even so, I still use the "Pause" feature when I want to view something in more detail.
I can do this on my big screen TV when I view RUclips on the Firestick/Amazon programing; or on my smartphone; or my tablet. It just depends on what I feel like doing at the time. The only thing I miss by using Firestick is access to everything below the actual screen, like any links that may be included with the description, and the ability to read, respond to, or add comments. But, when I want to do that, I can just use the other formats like I'm doing here!
(My phone here, since it's after official "bedtime" for my husband, who is still working and needs his sleep! The only thing acceptable on the TV at this hour is any of the "sound scapes" with a black screen, like rain storms on the ocean, or something similar, which means I can still use my phone, since I am a "confirmed, card-carrying night owl!") And I no longer have had any gainful employment to go to, for the last 9 years. 😟😞
I’m Sears Catalogue collector from Finland and have always liked those houses. My dad was a carpenter and his brother in Canada is a constuctor. I’d like to buy more cats but the shipping to here is $45 per catalogue so it’s tooexpensive. Postages were much cheaper some 20 yrs ago.
Love the 20's style homes. Need to update with more baths, wider staircases. The newer homes have so much wasted space.
Yea a big disadvantge to buying an older home is the lack of bathroom and its kinda hard to make impovments to current bathroom and kitchen with existing layout. In our home built in 1922 we had to close off a doorway to the hallway to improve our kitchen. And when it comes to bathrooms its pretty hard to keep the existing layout since most old home bathrooms have a sink and toilet on one side and a shower on the other.
My home, built in 1925 has 3 fairly large bathrooms and 2 walk-in closets. I love my 1925 home. I will never buy one of the new homes they build today. They are so horrible.
Love the first one. Love them all. So much character.
Grew up in suburban Philly and these house are everywhere. Great video. Thank you
Absolutely stunning how house design thinking has changed in 100 years.
Yes or even the past 200 or 500 years.
I liked the Charlotte, Harvard, Raymond & Aberdeen. Reason: they're more of rectangular, with the front of house on the narrower side. My lot is rectangular with narrow frontage, so those designs would fit. Thanks for the vid!
Interesting!
@@gregvancomooh, I also liked the Avon. I like these type of houses more than the contemporary ones. I'm writing this comment for posterity, in case I need to return to the vid. Lol. Cheers!
The house i live in was build in exactly 1920 but the house was pretty small it only had a living room and a small kitchen and 2 bedrooms but some time later they renovated the house to make it bigger by adding 2 more rooms and a garage. So basically only the front side of my house was build in 1920 but the other half was probably build like in the 80s
My husband and I live in a small Victorian house here in southern Iowa built on 1928 by Van Tine Homes based in Davenport, Iowa.
Glad to hear it's still standing.
9-12-2024-It's interesting to see the homes of the decade my grandparent's apartment building, bought new, was built ($25,000 in 1928), 6 apartments in the building. The rooms I grew up in were 2/2-bedroom apartments joined together (six kids) about 900-950 sq. feet per apartment (brother is an architect and recently did the math, about 22 ft wide/95 ft front to back) taking the common hall/stairs into consideration) it was attached to an identical building with an alley for each to be separated from the next two identical buildings. The closets were considered a good size as they were deep, if not wide. Not a family property since grandmother died in 1977, (I'm 64) only on its third owner in 104 years!
Hey Greg, thanks for the video, I enjoyed it. By the way, I bet you don't remember the "Jim Walter Homes" My family had a Jim Walter Home. The name of the home is "Country Squire" They had two versions of this home. One that was built back in 1960 and the newer model that was built in 1970. We had the 1960 version with the basement. Although the 1970 version is more crisp looking, I like our 1960 version the best.
Love these home plan. Todays house plans are so ugly. And they have garages on the front, and no front porches.
Do you have all these designs as images on your website? I can’t seem to find them.
Many similar elements to my home which was built in 1929 near Pasadena. I’ve been calling it a ‘PseudoCraftsman’. What descriptor would you use for this style?
Feel free to email me a picture of your home for more information, but if not, simply keep calling it whatever you want. I like pseudo-craftsman.
Check out "Pacific Ready-Cut Home Company" out of I think Los Angeles area for you California residents. They made tens of thousands of kit homes mostly on the West Coast of California and maybe up to the Northwest; shipped by rail as well as by truck - unfortunately only a few of their catalogs survived; so no complete set of literature is available that I know of that would show every home design - but there are books showing I think several hundred examples.
LOOKING FOR BOOK WITH ALL THE INFO IN IT .ARE THERE ANY BOOKS OUT THERE THAT COVER ALL HOUSES AND COSTS THEY OFFERED IN USA .
Here in NJ here are 1000s of those types of homes
Thanks for sharing.
Cool
I’ve seen a lot of homes that have similar hardwood features or fixtures in the home I live in how do you know what home you live in especially with modern siding and add-ons that some homes have I live in Ohio if that helps thanks
Nice, would you post a link to this treasure!
I will post a link to it, when I finish building this section on my website.
@@gregvancom thank you :)
Entering a house immediately into a living room, especially in bad weather is never a good idea.
So true!
I agree. That's how my ranch is. I'm tired of tracking in wet sand on my shoes. Every house should have a mud entrance room.
The "New Hartford" is common in Minneapolis - Saint Paul. 1:39
These are all nice I can’t say that about modern houses
The house I live in was built in 1923 it’s a old family home. It was remodeled in the early 60s. It’s a old farmhouse
I was looking for my house built 1919/1920. Sadly it’s not shown here.
Don't worry I will be posting more of these in the future and maybe you will find your house on one of them.
These are from a kit house catalog from the 1920's, from when kit homes and plan book homes were in their "hay day." I'm sure I know which one it is, and I probably own it. I have a significant collection of catalogs for both kinds.
The key to identifying kit home catalogs from plan books, is this one gives a list of building materials that are included when you place your order from the company that sells them. (And letters from former customers singing the praises from the company who sold them the building materials they used to build their home.) Things like floor and ceiling joists, rafters, finish flooring options, kitchen cabinets, medicine cabinets for the bathroom, doors for not only the front, but the (double glass) French doors provided to separate the vestibule and the living room that are listed with the Avon. These are listed at the bottom of the page, in the center, and would not be listed like this if they weren't included. There are different lists included for most homes, depending on what kind of features were included. Like, the Charlotte lists two medicine cabinets, as this is one of the few homes shown that have two bathrooms - one downstairs with the downstairs bedroom at the back, and one upstairs with the other bedrooms.
Kind of unusual to have more than one bathroom in homes of this type, and at this time, but it's possible that the designer was considering the need for this feature to accommodate an elderly relative which would need to come live with the family. That was much more common during that part of the early 20th century, since Nursing Homes were not nearly as common then as they are now, and multigenerational households were quite common. A smaller bedroom and a private bathroom was the perfect solution, particularly avoiding the need to navigate stairs for an elderly person, and a separate doorway at the dining room, to provide a little extra quiet and privacy for that bedroom.
Alternately, it might also be considered for accommodating a housekeeper/cook/nurse, even if it's just for a temporary family illness or recovering from surgery, or helping out a new mother and baby, or even just a guestroom, since the family has three bedrooms and another bath upstairs!
My stair treads measure 7 inches WITH carpet on them!
That's amazing. Just make sure you're holding onto the handrail while using those babies.
Do you know what city or state any of these houses are in? Specifically lookin for New York
I've heard from a variety of different people that homes like these are all over the United States, but whether or not they are exactly like the ones shown in the video, would be difficult to say.
I live in a "kit house", in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN. The house was probably built for the minister of the church, next door. Some parts of the house are built well and some parts are barely to today's code. The floors and interior trim work were well done. The roof has 2x6 cut rafters and wouldn't be sufficient for a builder, today. All of the exterior sheathing is underlaid with 1" plank and building felt. Of course, there was no consideration of insulation and vapor barriers back in the '20's.
The homes were produced by a regional kit home company called Bennett Homes. They were located in North Tonawanda, New York. Their sales area was primarily concentrated in and around that particular area of the State, but there were some built further away, if the area wasn't too far away from the factory. I don't remember specifically, but it seems like they operated within about a 200 mile radius of their plant. You will find their homes primarily in the northern New England area.
I love old homes. The one I purchased 22 years ago was $78,000 now it’s worth $289,000
Nice investment!!!
My house is a 1927 shotgun bungalow 20' wide 700 sq. ft . low taxes in South Jersey
Nicccccccccccce
So interesting how the bedrooms on many of the floor plans were off a main room instead of a hallway. Access bedroom 1 from the living room, bedroom 2 from the dining room. Wouldn’t that have been weird even back then?
It is hard to imagine, when looking at homes built today.
Yeah my friend lived in a bungalow from the 30’s and there was one bathroom situated between two bedrooms, so you had to through a bedroom to get to it. She hated it because she always had to keep her room clean in case company was over.
@@rayodelsol80 she had a jack and Jill bathroom. I e been house hunting and specially overlook the houses like that. I do t like people in my room
@@five10queen yeah she got stuff stolen when her roommate had parties so I hear you! I wonder how people back in the day felt about them? Because they were really popular it seems
@@rayodelsol80- These were such an improvement over the type of housing the folks came from, whatever that was, that I doubt seriously they really minded.
Having a private bathroom of their own, with a door you could close, and keep other people from bothering you, was really a blessing.
This, over living in a big Victorian style home with only one bathroom, but two or even three generations in residence; or a boarding house with a bathroom at the end of the hall that was shared by ALL the "paying guests" was a decided challenge for everyone.
Remember, houses built from kits in the 20s were distinctly new and modern at the time. And they were made accessible to thousands of people who, before, never dreamed of being well off enough to own their own home, given the convoluted, expensive design of mortgages at that time, before FHA came along in the mid 30s and turned that process on its head, in favor of the borrowers, plus the private financing many kit companies offered. Sears application did not ask you what your job was, what your gender was, or what your race was. Those things did not matter, only if you had the funds at hand to pay for the house, or participate in whatever payment plan they offered at the time. Many folks were able to secure a home of their own from kit companies, but who would never be given even the time of day in a bank, or a savings or building and loan, etc.
We are looking at them now through the lens of 100 year old homes that have people, in many cases, still living in them!
What might help to explain some of the smaller dimensions of these houses: I believe that on average that people were shorter and smaller than now. Better nutrition and over eating in the interim have ballooned the size of the average person - necessitating larger steps and new building code dimensional requirements
I've thought about that, but there were still some large folks who lived in some of these homes, but still good points.
@@gregvancom Yes of course there have always existed large people - its just that now a much higher percentage of our population are big
@@gregvancom yes I noticed with estate jewelry the rings are always so tiny.
FREEE!!!!