Dream Home: Remodeling American Expectations with Model Houses

In the years immediately following World War II, the model home became more than a simple promotional tool. During an era of social transition in which women's roles were in flux, technology and manufacturing were making rapid advances, and returning troops dramatically increased the demand for homes, houses and housing became important topics nationally, and the built environment responded to these conditions. Even with these trends, though, the popularity of model homes at this time is striking. While the model home had served as a promotional purpose for decades, the phenomenon exploded along with the housing boom of the 1940s and 1950s. Model homes became increasingly accessible. Neighborhoods and whole communities such as the Levittowns sprang from the concept. Not only were hundreds of model homes available to visit, they were also extremely visible in printed media, including a wide variety of magazines. Model houses played a significant role in an evolving domestic ideal as Americans' expectations for their houses changed profoundly. The American-built landscape changed dramatically during the post World War II era. The GI Bill allowed thousands of returning veterans opportunities for home ownership that would have been inconceivable in earlier eras, and their return from war increased already significant demand, which spurred the construction of thousands of new houses around the country. Such unprecedented development offered broad economic opportunities and competition while also allowing increased interest in and discussion of domestic space and its meaning for Americans. This wide-scale focus on the acquisition of domestic space redefined expectations. Domestic appliances that were unusual before the war became de rigueur in this era, raising demand among American consumers. While certainly houses had embodied meaning beyond shelter, houses gained new cultural significance. Spending on household furnishings and appliances increased disproportionately relative to consumer spending in general (May 147). The standards of the preceding decade were overtaken by the media, developer-driven expectations, and shifting cultural values. The concept of the "Dream House" began to take a more central place in the American psyche. The propagation of these exemplary images was widespread. Evidence of the proliferation of the "Dream House" ideal took many forms. Visiting these idealized domestic environments became a leisure activity in its own right. Houses were increasingly depicted as objects to be admired. For instance, two model houses displayed at Minneapolis' Walker Art Center and at a similar exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art exemplified this new attitude toward domestic space. This idea of the "Dream House" resonated in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Similarly, the 1946 book Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House was a bestseller and became a movie blockbuster in 1948 with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy as the hapless homebuilders. At the same time, the term "Dream House" was becoming more prominent in periodicals. Articles such as House Beautiful's "The Low-Down on Your Dream House" from 1945 served to whet the public appetite, suggesting that a custom built home was an accessible route for first-time home buyers (Colean 138). With the proliferation of model houses, the paradigm linking ideal lives with houses was established. Clearly, the prevalence of model homes cannot be explained by economic conditions alone. The period in which model houses came to the fore was also defined by shifts in the social status quo. The relationship between model houses of the era and women's roles is particularly revealing. In an era of potential dramatic cultural change, model houses suggested an antidote to the social unknown by creating self-contained, seemingly controlled domestic environments. During World War II, women were encouraged to join the workforce. After the war, though, perceptions of working women were more ambivalent as family and domestic life gained social capital. …