1930s houses had a very typical layout with a room off the front hall with a second living room and kitchen at the rear. Upstairs in these small homes were usually two bedrooms, a small room and a bathroom with a toilet. There would also be a detached garage.
The early 1930s were the years of The Depression and the later years a period of uncertainty as developments in Germany unfolded. Many of the 1920s trends in house design and constructions continued; most homes were servant-less.
Bungalows were also rising in popularity during this period. The new homes of 1930s suburbia featured a bathroom, inside toilet and a third bedroom. They also tended to be dry, better insulated, light and airy. The homes of this era featured a new style kitchen in which the cooking and washing were both done.
The Art Deco style with its smoothly finished wall surfaces and distinctive ornamentation of chevrons, zigzags and other geometrical motifs, led to the development of a new, more streamlined, less ornamented style of architecture, the Moderne style of the 1930s.
1930s houses had a very typical layout with a room off the front hall with a second living room and kitchen at the rear. Upstairs in these small homes were usually two bedrooms, a small room and a bathroom with a toilet. There would also be a detached garage.
Craftsman style flourished from about 1905 into the 1930s and remains a very desirable style of residence today.
In the main, a 1930s home is an excellent property type to live in. They are spacious compared to most other homes built in the Victorian era and post Second World War. Not only are they internally large, but many have much better sized gardens than you would see in pre and post-1930s properties.
While a house bought in 1930 for around $6,000 may be worth roughly $195,000 today, when adjusted for inflation, the appreciation is not as impressive as it seems. Since 1930, inflation-adjusted home values have increased by a modest 127%, or less than 1% each year.
During the 1920s and 30s foundations remained much the same. Text books from the 1930s suggest that in clay soils foundations should be 3 feet deep (900mm) - guidance in fact not much different from today.
Does your house have cavity walls? Most houses built after 1930 have cavity walls. It is very rare for houses build before 1920 to have cavity walls, while most houses built after 1985 will have been constructed with cavity wall insulation built in. Most older houses will have solid walls.
Edwardian Properties
The Edwardian period was short, lasting only from 1901 to 1910.
The 1939 house tended to be terraced or semi-detached, with council housing being uniform in design. The private owner-occupiers opted for a design that showed their individualism.
So, unlike the smaller, darker Victorian homes, Edwardian houses were more squat, wider and roomy, with bigger hallways and more windows. It's common for an Edwardian property to have a front garden and be set back from the pavement, as there was an ever-increasing desire for privacy at that time.
The high ceilings of Victorian properties, like most design features, were another way to display wealth to visitors. Creating a spacious environment, high ceilings provided a stark contrast to the low-ceiling cottages and houses that were associated with the more modest abodes.
Although known as 'the Roaring Twenties', the period mixed post-First World War optimism with years of economic depression. Many of the 1920s houses were in suburban developments in the countryside around existing towns and cities.
$100 in 1930 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $1,721.58 today, an increase of $1,621.58 over 92 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.14% per year between 1930 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 1,621.58%.
Those who were able to afford a “comfortable” shelter were fortunate to have homes that were heated by coal-burning furnaces. These were often located in the basement of homes, close to an outside wall where coal could be fed directly into the furnace via a stoker.
House building was responsive in the 1930s for two reasons. First, the supply of mortgage finance grew rapidly and became more affordable in an economy in which there had been no financial crisis that curtailed lending.
Victorian homes are usually large and imposing. Wood or stone exterior. The majority of Victorian styles use wood siding, but the Second Empire and Romanesque styles almost always have outer walls made of stone. Complicated, asymmetrical shape.
Ranch-style architecture can be found everywhere in the United States, from California to New England. By the time of the 1950s building boom, ranch homes symbolized America's frontier spirit and new growth as a modern country. The ranch was developed for mid-twentieth-century America.
A bungalow is a one-story house, cottage, or cabin. Bungalows are generally small in terms of square footage, but it is not uncommon to see very large bungalows. Bungalows were originally designed to provide affordable, modern housing for the working class.
1930s - The Great Depression, FDR's New Deal & Culture - HISTORY.
At home or in public, women most commonly wore dresses with wide shoulders; puffy sleeves; modest necklines; higher, belted waistlines; and mid-calf flared hemlines. Frilly bows, ruffles, buttons, and other details often decorated dresses.
The 1930s: A new era of owner-occupied homes
There were approximately 4 million homes built between 1919 and 1930. Nearly 3 million of these were owner by the occupiers, an unprecedented change from the 750,000 of the early 1920s.