Building the Dream: 1950s Model Homes
“Any model house worth its name is more than attractive space to be admired and forgotten. It must be a house you can examine room by room, detail by detail, to take from it anything it expresses in the way of better living for you and your family--this fence detail, that kitchen plan...an idea for a family room...or, something as simple as a smart, new way to hang draperies....It tells you something new about building, decorating, landscaping.”
--Better Homes & Gardens, September 1956
During the 1950s, Johnson County was becoming the leading source for new middle-class housing in the Kansas City area. Real estate developers places model homes at strategic points in the new suburban neighborhoods to attract future residents. Local utility companies and national magazines hired well-known architects and builders to create “dream homes” that would set the standard for middle-class housing. Area residents swarmed to tour these exhibition homes, examining them “room by room, detail by detail.” Visitors went away with some ideas to use in their own homes and abandoned others that perhaps were considered too modern, costly or impractical. Now, four decades later, these model homes have a story to tell about an entire generation.
Certainly, model homes can reveal once novel building techniques and trends in decorating and landscaping. On another level, they communicate the ideals and expectations of a hopeful era. These were the homes in which families hoped to realize their dreams. The new, carefully planned homes offered suburban residents a fresh, carefree lifestyle. All that was needed were modern, time-saving appliances and functional interior spaces that combined family togetherness with individual privacy. The majority of post-World War II home buyers preferred a new house located in the suburbs, were the family could live in a safe environment among neighbors who shared their values.
Home builders, real estate developers, and magazine publishers surveyed and analyzed middle-class consumers’ housing preferences. Together, they built model homes that incorporated home buyers' dreams and the latest household products.
Building an Industry
Home builders and developers began creating model or exhibition homes to promote and sell their services during the 1920s. Potential buyers were free to tour the homes, where modern appliances and home furnishings were displayed for their inspection. Visitors learned about the latest decorating and design techniques as well as advances in electric or gas appliances, building materials and technology. Real estate developers used the model homes to attract additional builders to a new neighborhood.
By the mid-1950s, the industry had grown in stature from “a small and scattered business to one that competes with the automobile and agriculture industries.” Professional home builders were represented by a national professional organization, the Home Builders Association (HBA). According to the HBA, the industry contributed between fourteen and fifteen billion dollars to the American economy in 1956.
The HBA's annual Parade of Homes and similar model home shows helped to reinforce the patriotism that was associated with owning a home. The organization's literature quoted former presidents Grover Cleveland and Franklin D. Roosevelt to reassure home buyers of the stability of their investment. President Roosevelt appealed to buyers saying, “A home of your own cannot be lost or stolen... It is about the safest investment in the world.” The patriotic theme was incorporated into essay and model building contests the HBA sponsored to stimulate interest in National Homes Week activities. In 1954, junior and high school students were challenged to write an essay entitled “Why Home Ownership Builds Good Citizenship.” The HBA's model home tour programs were substantial undertakings: nearly $100 million worth of new homes were displayed in cities across the country in 1954. Over one million people participated in tours and related activities.
Living Models
During the 1950s, national magazines such as Better Homes & Gardens sponsored model homes throughout the country so that readers could examine a “living model” of the plans published in the magazine. Furniture stores and utility companies continued to participate in these model projects as well. Better Homes & Gardens encouraged readers to visit the magazine's “Idea Homes” and to patronize the local merchants whose goods were featured in the model homes. The September 1956 issue encouraged readers to visit a recent Five Star Home, where “you'll find fresh ideas for leisurely new ways to enjoy indoor-outdoor living; step saving planning; along with clever decorating tips. Also, you will want to visit the store furnishing the home for further decorating ideas.”
Better Homes & Gardens claimed to have gained “Amazing insight into the most representative home-hunting audience in existence” with its Five Star model home series. The magazine consequently developed the “Idea Home of the Year.” Working with an outstanding residential architect, the magazine designed one special home each year, making the “effort toward one end: a house filled with things for you, that is truly the Idea Home of the Year.”
Readers could write the magazine for a copy of blueprints and specifications to build their own Idea Home. They were also encouraged to visit the “living models” of these homes; addresses were listed at the end of the feature article. Model No. 2609 was built for the magazine by local architect-builder Mike O'Neil in Mission, Kansas, in 1956. Furnished by Mehornay's, the home featured the latest kitchen appliances, including a space-saving wall refrigerator and pull-out freezer.
Dream Homes
Model home projects in Johnson County also attracted nationally recognized architects and designers who built their own version of the “dream home” and then promoted them in popular magazines and on national television. California-based architect A. Quincy Jones and local builder Don Drummond built a 1955 dream home, a three-bedroom ranch in Prairie Village. Jones' residential designs included practical solutions for small tract homes. He developed a simple structural system that allowed for spatial flexibility, providing more variety than was typically found in most suburban housing developments.
Multi-purpose rooms with easy access to the rest of the house were advertised as the break-through design innovation of the ranch-style home. Living rooms often featured sliding glass doors that opened onto a backyard patio to “open-up” the interior space and provide access to the outdoors. The Prairie Village dream home designed by Jones featured an open interior, and “an artful blending of outdoors and in,” a key element of the “California life-style” promoted during the 1950s.
Living in the Outdoors
Year-round access to nature was the principal theme of a model home in Lake Quivira. Household magazine built a house on a lake-site property that offered a view of the lake from every window. Lake Quivira was initially developed as a resort community in the late 1920s, but in the 1951 article, the resort was promoted as a year-round alternative to city living. The model home was a three-level plan designed to fit into a sloping lot. Residents could reach the outdoors from any level of the house.
Native materials and natural colors were used throughout the house to complement the rustic atmosphere. The exterior was faced in native limestone and red cedar siding. Brown and green with rose accents dominated the interior decor; a sandstone fireplace wall in the living room reinforced the natural theme and surroundings. The master bedroom and a combination guest bedroom/study were located on the first floor; the second floor housed a third bedroom with an adjoining sewing room.
The Lazy Man's Paradise
Technology was of keen interest to home buyers during the 1950s, when wartime materials and mass-production techniques were applied to home construction, appliances, and furniture. Utility companies, appliance and furniture manufacturers, builders, and real estate agencies were eager to display their goods and services to educate consumers and, ultimately, to sell their wares. And American families had more money to spend--median family incomes increased an average of 50% between 1949 and 1959. The rapidly expanding middle class provided a ready market of potential buyers who could purchase new homes.
In 1954, Kansas City area home buyers seeking the latest in time-saving technology could visit the All-Electric Home in Prairie Village's most desirable neighborhood, Indian Fields. Kansas City Power and Light Company (KCP&L) built this model home to showcase “the most sensational apparatus...the year-round air conditioner ...known as the ’heat pump.’” KCP&L dubbed this model the “Magic House,” and portrayed it as “a house of many new applications and developments in electrical research ...a home for modern American family living--comfortable, and up-to-the-minute in every respect.” The Herbert V. Jones realty company promoted the model home as “A Lazy Man's Paradise, the ultra-modern ranch...with push-button service in every room for easy, luxury living.” Spectacular lighting and electrical features were located throughout the five room, ranch home. The lighting and temperature systems could be operated from remote control panels located in the master bedroom, kitchen-laundry room, or living room. The built-in television was hidden behind a slide-away panel above the living room mantle. A remote control stored in an end table adjusted the television, radio, and stereo system. The Backyard patio featured speakers for outdoor entertainment.
The All-Electric Home was designed for “functional living,” characteristic of the relaxed, family-centered lifestyle promoted during the 1950s. (See floor plan on page 6.) The “conventional plan” offered “spacious, comfortable rooms and a central foyers [to] permit easy access to any part of the house.”
The all-electric kitchen and adjoining laundry room were the essence of modern efficiency and convenience. The multi-purpose area featured an array of modern appliances, including a dish-washer, garbage disposal, freezer, clothes washer & dryer, and an electric water heater. From this modern laboratory, the woman could run the home with “the flick of a switch,” while she tended to the children who were playing in the adjoining living room or outside on the patio.
Ideal vs. Reality
How ideal were these model homes? How well did the modern ideas and technologies presented in the exhibition homes serve the subsequent owners? A look at how families have lived in these homes over time and elements of contemporary homes suggest some answers to these questions.
Many of the appliances and utilities installed in these model homes continue to work or have served homeowners until very recently. For example, the wall refrigerator in the 1956 Idea Home in Mission operated until one year ago. The furnace in the All-Electric Home was used until the 1970s, when the owners converted to a gas heating system because the heat pump did not sufficiently warm the home during the winter months.
The “remarkable, innovative” designed introduced in 1950s ranch-style homes essentially transposed traditional family roles onto a new floor plan. For example, most of the model homes featured separate spaces for each member of the family. Women's activities were typically centered around the kitchen, while the garage or a “tool room” was set aside for men. Children's areas were found in the bedrooms, living room, or a separate “rec room” or family room. This division of space by gender and age was a traditional approach to home design practiced since the nineteenth century.
Many of the new ideas introduced in 1950s ranch-style homes are standard components of today's homes. The kitchen is an integral part of the home; open interior spaces allow easy access to the family or “public” areas. The multi-purpose living room, usually adjoining the kitchen and dining room, was introduced during the 1950s.
The ranch house's open floor plan also encouraged informal entertainment in the home. Neighbors and friends could drop by to watch a favorite television program. The hostess preparing refreshments in the kitchen was no longer removed from her guests in the living room.
Many of the high-tech gadgets featured in 1950s model homes have become standard fare in middle-class homes. Multi-purpose family rooms, exterior motion- or light-sensitive flood lighting, automatic garage door openers, remote-controlled appliances, dishwashers and clothes dryers are but a few “modern” conveniences that made their debut in model homes. Today's home theatre system had its origins in the “hidden” television-stereo unit of the All-Electric Home. Other innovations, such as heat pumps and wall refrigerators, did not catch on as widely.
Model homes, the parade of homes, and other special exhibition home tours continue to be a vital part of the home building industry and continue to serve as sources of ideas for interior design, new building technologies, and landscaping projects. The themes are similar: “Easy Living, Wide Open Spaces and Gracious Living” are among the headlines found in today's home magazines. Classic Colonial and True Ranch styles continue as the most popular. Today's homes, however, are built for a different kind of family: “the empty-nester” or the single-parent family. Nature trails, pools and spas are important amenities, while Jenn-Air ranges, heated garages and a convenient, “prime” location are becoming modern essentials. Just as 1950s model homes tell us about the dreams and hopes of an earlier generation, today's model homes will preserve the dreams of the 1990s for future generations.
--ALBUM vol. 8, no. 3 (summer 1995)