This is 2500 block of Q Street in Midtown Sacramento. It's called Bungalow Row. With me is William Burg. He's an historian with the state office of historic preservation. Burg says in 1910, bungalows were the height of fashion.
Burg: If you were a designer, you wanted a Craftsman bungalow to show Sacramento's most modern architectural style
Bungalow. That's a funny word. It's Hindi, and it describes a
house in the Bengali style, much like the one we're looking at on Q
Street.
Burg: The first thing you'll notice about a
bungalow is that it tends to have a very broad low-pitched roof
with overhanging eaves.
Perfect for shade in a hot climate. Across Q Street, Burg
points out houses that are older, taller and … ornate.
Blend in: The bungalow was a reaction to that. It was spread out and the idea was to blend in to the landscape.
The Q Street bungalows are set back from the sidewalk, to give the impression as you approach the porch, of walking through a bit of nature … from the outside world to the inside.
Hi!
Burg and I and exchange introductions with the young owners of
this old house.
Dennis: My name is Dennis Beck and I live here in
my 100-year-old Craftsman home with my wife Jenny and our son
Franklin. I work for the state, Jenny works for the city and
Franklin doesn't have a job because he's just under 4 months
old.
Jenny: When we were
house hunting, we loved the big front porch, the windows just
because they're so beautiful.
Dennis: It needed a
little bit of upkeep, but we could tell it that it was structurally
very sound. The floor was in good shape…
The floors squeak, as if to gently remind us how long they've
been at work. As we walk to the kitchen, Dennis tells us it was
remodeled once, probably in the 1930s. That makes the kitchen
Depression-era.
Dennis: We've tried to make it less
depressing.
It's got mellow-yellow walls and a ton of morning sun from
typically big bungalow windows. Jenny's 1950s Wedgewood stove is
set with 50's-looking pink pots and pans. As much as the Becks love
living in a 1910 house, Dennis says there are
drawbacks.
Dennis: People back in 1910 probably didn't have
as many clothes as people today. Soooo, the closet space is very,
very small.
So he added on, which presented another drawback - negotiating
the Historic Preservation Process with the City. Beck paid
thousands of dollars in fees. The biggest attraction of this
hundred-year-old house?
[toilet sound]
The toilet's chain flusher has been restored to its 1910
glory.
The bones of bungalows were always made with rustic LOCAL
materials. That makes bungalows green -- but rare. That's why the
Becks are letting strangers traipse through their bungalow for a
glimpse, on Sunday's home tour. And when their baby Franklin is
school age, Dennis Beck says the family will probably stay
put.
Dennis: We'll stay here as long as the house will have
us.
Historian William Burg is waiting for us in the dining room.
It's the biggest room in the house, a gathering spot for family and
friends.
EC: They don't build them like they used to, do
they?
Burg: It's a federal crime to build them like they
used to. This house was built out of old growth
redwood.
Burg says redwood is impervious to anything but fire. He sees
no reason why this bungalow couldn't last another 100 years.
