The Comfortable House: North American Suburban Architecture, 1890-1930

Between 1890 and 1930, more houses were built in the United States than in all its previous history. The Comfortable House provides the first full treatment of this large body of domestic building. More than half of the book is devoted to classifying these houses into categories that can help guide preservationists, architectural historians and homeowners through the great profusion of "post Victorian" styles - Bungalow, Saltbox, Shingle, Tudor, Gothic, and the like. Aided by over 200 illustrations taken from contemporary catalogs of ready-cut houses, and photographs of actual houses, The Comfortable House classifies each style, notes its vintage, and documents its source. Alan Gowans is Professor of History of Art at the University of Victoria, British Columbia and he author of 15 previous books.