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Ranch Houses

The Ranch style – also known as the American Ranch, Western Ranch, or California Rambler – is an extension in time of the bungalow, but it is an example of a bungalow designed for an upper middle class. The Ranch style was loosely based on the Spanish colonial ranch dwellings of the southwest, but evolved for the automobile and new, open-air lifestyle exemplified by Southern California. By the mid-1950s, sprawling, low-slung Ranch houses began to take the place of the small sized, mass-produced tract houses in new Southern California developments, and the quick replacement reflected the vast wealth and national pride during the postwar era.

Californian Cliff May (1908-1989) is considered the father of the Ranch house. He designed the first Ranch style residence in 1932, built in San Diego. In 1936, May, who was also a builder and promoter, joined the staff at Sunset Magazine in selling the Ranch house as the ideal dwelling for Californians during the post-World War II boom. In 1946, May and Sunset published Western Ranch Houses, an instant bestseller that helped to further popularize modern Ranch houses as the key to the good life.

Although Ranch houses are traditionally one-story, the split-level or raised ranch home may have two levels of living space. Most Ranch houses have the following features:

Single-floor dwellings, sheathed in stucco or board and batten, shingles, clapboard, wood, or a combination of these
Use of stone or brick for accent on front façade, often by the entrance door
Low pitched hip or gable roof with wide overhang
Horizontal, rambling layout: long, narrow, and low to the ground
Concrete slab foundation
Attached two or three-car garage
A rectangular, L-shaped, T-shaped, or U-shaped floor plan
Casement windows, horizontally-proportioned picture windows, and aluminum sliding windows
Use of sliding glass doors to a patio, linking the outdoors with the indoors
Simple floor plans with functional spaces; rooms frequently open to one another and to private courtyards, patios, and porches designed to connect with outdoors
Use of natural materials, including oak floors, wood or brick exteriors
Informal or rustic materials or details (board-and-batten siding, barn door garage doors, Dutch doors, shake roof, exposed rafter beams, high brick foundations, dove-cotes, etc.)
Generally few decorative exterior features
Painted in neutral or earth tones

Ranch houses are the single most prolific residential design in Fullerton and in California. The northwest section of Fullerton – in particular the Sunny Hills area – is noted for its large number of Ranch houses. The following tracts or subdivisions feature Ranch style dwellings: Fullerton West, Fullerton Ranchos, Fullerton House Estates, Sunny Hills Estates, Valencia Park, Country Hills, Chapman Luxury Estates, Chapman Estates, Beverly Terrace, and Berkeley Park. Compared to the earlier post-war tract housing, builders of these tracts offered a greater number of floor plans and exterior designs for the Ranch house.

The Ranch style period ran from the mid-1950s to the 1970s. By 1953, residential tracts in Fullerton were offering larger dwellings in the Ranch style, which superseded the minimal appearance of post-war housing. But in the early 1970s, home buyers began to grow tired of the predictable floor plan, with rooms strung along a central hall. Moreover, the large and flat building sites required to showcase these sprawling homes to its best advantage grew scarcer.

By the mid-1970s, merchant developers began to focus on two-story floor plans in order to accommodate ever-bigger houses on smaller lots. These residences were largely focused on the higher end of the housing market, primarily families trading up from older, smaller houses. Tracts developed in Fullerton after the mid-1970s were usually a mix of single-story Ranch houses along with two-story residences that used the same building materials featured in the Ranch houses of the tract, all constructed on modest-sized lots with the majority of the houses being the two-story variety.

The Ranch home is often dismissed because it is so common. Because the houses are so uncomplicated, critics complain that the Ranch house has no style. The Ranch house, however, has had a recent revival. This renewed popularity has sparked the publication of new books on the style by architectural critics who extol the open, simple, and functional floor plans of these houses. New owners of existing Ranch houses are also enlarging them, creating larger footprints often with extra wings, larger kitchens, and family rooms.

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Ranch Houses