Some History

Domestic building in the United States virtually ceased between 1941 and 1945 due to WWII. When construction resumed, houses based on historical forms were largely forgotten, replaced by modern forms using minimal ornamentation and simple repeatable construction. The ranch house was built beginning in the early 1950’s, and is the most common housing stock in the United States. Due to its simple construction and low costs, the new GI bill enabled throngs of returning vets and their families to purchase the ranch as their first home. These one-story houses had very low-pitched roofs and open floor plans, making them easy to access and maintain. In most cases they had an attached garage, but the Chicago variation had to accommodate the alley system and used a separate garage. Ranches sparsely dot the Chicago landscape, used to infill torn down buildings and fill empty lots, however they were very common in the collar suburbs of the city.