Ranch House

RANCH HOUSE INTRODUCTION

A rapidly growing post-WWII population bloated cities beyond borders into vast tracts of suburban houses, block after block, mile after mile as far as the eye could see.  Nine out of ten houses built between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s were ranch houses.  These ranch houses recalled the Western settler and pioneer houses, the open range, American expansion, cowboys, self-reliance, freedom and adventure.  Alike the 19^th Century pioneer ranch, the 20^th Century suburban ranch might be brick or board and batten, or some variety of local materials.  Whatever the material, the ranch house was efficiently, inexpensively constructed.

From the 1950s until today the ranch house assumes both local characteristics and modish fashions.  A ranch house might partake of the vogue for efficient machined design, as in the Mid-Century Modern metal ranch whose characteristics recall mass production with WWII military efficiency.  A ranch house might assume qualities of pedimented temples, as in the houses of our Founding Founders.  Recently, ranch houses admit the paper cutout quality of CAD program artsy, flat designs.

 

 

It is worth mentioning that the once regionally unique ranch house, by uniform building codes, pattern books compliant to code, and standardized big-box products caused conformity of house and community until Raleigh came to look like Detroit, Boston like Dallas.

The Minimal Traditional ranch house (pictured above and below) is likely the most common form of the national Ranch House style.  Unique interpretations of the ranch by F.L. Wright, E.H. Fickett and many another fashionable architect have followers, even collectors, and each has some charm, though few have the broad appeal of the Minimal Traditional and the Western Rambler.  Here I must caution that some house style bloggers, eager for clicks, easy with accuracy, misidentify any old moderny looking house with the American Ranch, a style with a unique pedigree through many family branches.

Official and casual surveys of American house styles suggest that some 70% of American houses are ranches.  Among Ranch House variations, the already mentioned Mid-Century Modern, Minimal Traditional, and Western Rambler, and too the Colonial Ranch, the Storybook Ranch, the Spanish Ranch, the Craftsman Ranch, the Split-Level Ranch, and something called the Modern Ranch (contemporary, a hodgepodge of inarticulate designy features).  In fact, most any American house style can be and has been metamorphosed into a ranch house.  You might test your knowledge of period styles be identifying the style that gives each American ranch house its unique character.

 

 

RANCH HOUSE CHARACTERISTICS

Space and Floor Plan
A ranch house is commonly one story, occasionally a story-and-a-half in split-levels with long-low ranch characteristics.
Ranch houses will often have an attached garage or contiguous carport (an innovation).  Before the 1940s, automobiles were rare and a garage was known as a “stable” suitable to livestock, incompatible with houses.
Among split-levels, the sidesplit and raised ranch are most common.
You will often find over-sized second story additions added to ranches to accommodate growing families or homeowner ambition.
Roof Features
Low-pitched shingle roofs are most common, though occasionally roofs are tin or tile if some period style is wedded to the ranch.
Eves are tight to corners or overhanging; the tight, traditional, the overhanging, modern.
Chimneys tend to be broader and lower than use requires.
Fenestration
Picture windows are a feature, almost an innovation of the ranch house, as are horizontal windows which on modish houses might wrap around corners defying structure – here, fad before form, before function, and after, leaks.
Structure and Materials
Wall-cladding of brick, stone, or wood, or two or all in combination.  Sometimes the clads are balanced as in a Mondrian picture; sometimes like a Picasso when the artsy architect is eager for attention.  Best cladding examples are modest, honest as would be found in a slowly growing ranch whose additions were added by need, whose materials came from the surrounding landscape.  Late last century, entire neighborhoods clad their ranches in aluminum or vinyl siding, post construction, because people grew lazy and materials grew cheap, and too, people believed in the progress of plastic.
Proportions
As in the original prairie ranch, “I”, “U”, and “L” shapes are typical, and these shapes are universally long, low, and stretching.
Technically, a ranch house is modern because strictly horizontal.  A classical house balances the horizontal with the vertical.  A classic ranch recalls the prairie’s low stretched plain.  The Classical ranch recalls 3,000 years of Classive temples.
Ornamentation
Untutored facades are sincere, stripped of period decorations.  If contractor designed, there is a tendency to pretentious hodgepodge.  In best examples, period style ornament is adapted to the ranch form.  In unfortunate examples, period styles are pinned-on as if by someone blindfolded. 
Surroundings
Bushes enhance the well-designed ranch house, and bushes often disguise imperfectly conceived transitions part to part, house to ground.  The trimmed lawn green and straight and weed-free is most typical and most appropriate.  In hot climates shell or stone for drive and borders is suitable.  Everywhere around the ranch you will find concrete, especially in backyards surrounding the pool.  Pools and shrub boarders tend like kidneys to undulate, some notion equating wavy lines with freedom and originality – in this “originality”, most ranch house backyards are just like all the other ranch house backyards.   

 

THE FERGUSON RANCH HOUSE, FEATURES

This Colonial style ranch house is more Classive than Progressive, more Traditional than Modern, and so it lends itself to family life rather than to the hipster lifestyle.  The home features an open, centralized plan flanked by quiet bedrooms.  The master suite is generous for a home of its size, with extra-large walk-in closets, a private master bath, and space sufficient for reading and study, quiet and rest.  Although designed for a family of four, the home can easily accommodate five with its three bedrooms and two baths.  At the kitchen’s edge there is an island for gathering and centered along the common room wall there is a homey fireplace.  The front porch recalls old-fashioned neighborliness.  The back deck encourages the raucous modernity of party and play.  The slightly larger variation B allows a basement level recreation room, spare bedrooms, and extra storage.

 

Variation A
16’-6”                             Height
51’-6”                             Width
28’ -0”                            Depth
1,442                             Square Feet
3                                     Bedrooms
2                                     Bathrooms
Stucco, Brick, Wood, or a combination

Room Dimensions
Common Room           24’-0” x 18’-0”
Kitchen                         18-0” x 8’-0”
Laundry                        4’-0” x 8’-0”
Bathroom                     5’-0” x 8’-0”
Master Bedroom        12’-6” x 14’-6”
Master Bath                 5’-9” x 11’-6”
Walk-in Closet             6’-3” x 11’-6”
Bedroom 2                   8’-6” x 12’-6”
Bedroom 3                  12’-6” x 10’-6”
Front Porch                 25’-6” x 8’-7”

Features
Energy Efficient Design
open floor plan
economical to build
main floor bed & bath
main floor laundry
covered front porch
back deck
wheelchair adaptable

Square Footage
Heated Sq. Footage  1,142
Main Floor                  1,142   

Ceiling Heights
Ceiling Main               9′-0″

Wall Information
Exterior Wall Construction     brick, SIP or CFR

Roof Information     
Roof Framing             beam and truss
Roof Pitch                   4:12

Foundation
Slab

 

Dimensions
16’-6”                           Height
59’-6”                           Width
28’ -0”                          Depth
1,666                           Square Feet
3                                   Bedrooms
2                                   Bathrooms

Room Dimensions
Common Room         24’-0” x 18’-0”
Kitchen                       21-0” x 8’-0”
Pantry                         4’-0” x 8’-0”
Bathroom                   5’-0” x 8’-0”
Master Bedroom       16’-6” x 14’-6”
Master Bath               6’-9” x 11’-6”
Walk-in Closet           9’-3” x 11’-6”
Bedroom 2                 8’-6” x 12’-6”
Bedroom 3                 12’-6” x 10’-6”
Front Porch                25’-6” x 8’-7”

Ceiling Heights
Ceiling Main               9′-0″

 

*   *   *

Featured image: Ranch House Elevation, The Ferguson, M. Curtis, des.

For more on Ranch House styles, visit The Beautiful Home.

RANCH HOUSE PLAN

*   *   *