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I saw a film about Frank Lloyd Wright a few years ago, in which he was credited with changing front porches to side porches.
As soon as I saw this, I realized that he alone was responsible for ruining much of what was good about American culture . . .as I understand it, when different minorities came to New York, they would sit on their front porches and stoops and engage with each other. The porch aesthetic was alive and well in the Midwest, too, until Frank Lloyd Wright turned houses sideways and put the front porch on the side . . .I believe that was the beginning of "suburbia isolation."
Don't be silly. FLW probably designed only about .00002% of the homes in this country so it would hardly be fair to blame him for the disappearance of the porch.
Instead, blame TV, the rear patio/deck and air-conditioning. They were all factors that made large numbers of people move back indoors during the summer.
BTW... I live in a teens era Prairie style house (the style invented by Wright) that also sports a huge front porch... so if Little god Frankie was trying to kill the front porch he seems to have failed within his own style... much less all homes!
Don't be silly. FLW probably designed only about .00002% of the homes in this country so it would hardly be fair to blame him for the disappearance of the porch.
Instead, blame TV, the rear patio/deck and air-conditioning. They were all factors that made large numbers of people move back indoors during the summer.
BTW... I live in a teens era Prairie style house (the style invented by Wright) that also sports a huge front porch... so if Little god Frankie was trying to kill the front porch he seems to have failed within his own style... much less all homes!
McMansion design depends on local. Wrap around porches here are extremely uncommon. Everything is built on slab. The architecture is often called "neo-eclectic" which is suiting as it's really a smorgasbord of stuff packed into cheap mass construction with no apparent rhyme or reason. Exhibit 1: Tuscan Villa, found predominantly in suburban American. Don't know what's Tuscan about a stucco-clad OSB suburban home or how it captures the spirit of the Renaissance... 4080 Kingsbarns Dr, Roseville, CA 95747 | MLS# 12031319
Not really McMansion, not gaudy enough, but man does that dormer window look stupid. I wonder if it's blind? Or maybe to an upstairs landing? If blind, I think that qualifies it as McMansion alone. 3150 Orchard Park Ct, Loomis, CA 95650 | MLS# 12040055
Okay, so it's got Prairie roof (a bit exaggerated and tasteless, would help if the roof was at least somewhat cohesive) and a half-assed attempt at Craftsman (although I don't know that drywall and veneer cabinets qualify)... 4506 Carmen Dr, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762 | MLS# 12032196
Those are truly awful!!!! The first one looks like a gigantic mausoleum.
In the North East though the Carolinas , Middle Atlantic and Mid West, they likely look like Victorians - or a hodge podge of Victorian, Post Modern and Colonial. Porches are common.
I took leave of my scenes in 2004 and I bought one of those monstrosities in NY.
Not far from the house that was posted in Huntington, although it was not nearly as ostentatious.
But it cost a fortune to heat and cool and the neighbors were far less than friendly. They were awful up-start social climbers.
All of the nine homes on the Cul de Sac had massive empty front porches.
His work is brilliant. I believe television destroyed neighbors hanging out on their porches communing. You don't see kids playing outside much anymore either.
I think that there is an interplay between architecture and social change. It's a synergistic relationship and nothing happens in a vacuum.
The last person who I'd blame for the "demise of the front porch", as the OP sees it, would be FLW who stove to build in an organic way that was a stark contrast with the formality of the Victorian style home.
There is something "elitist" about Victorian architecture, and democratic about FLW and the homes that he influenced.
One can't point to Frank Lloyd Wright, television or the automobile as a single reason that society changed, and that porches went out of favor for a time.
Before television, people gathered to listen to radio!
I grew up in the 1960s and 70s and we had television, automobiles and we all played outside. In fact, if this were the summer of 1967, I'd probably still be outside catching fire flies, playing hide and seek, splashing in the pool or telling ghost stories.
Around right now all of the eight through twelve year olds would be being called home. And I'd be among them.
We didn't watch TV in the summer. It was all re-runs, remember?
I now live in a Victorian house - a real one, that while sweet, is less than accommodating to 21st century needs. We are sort of urban pioneers and we live in a Recovering Rust Belt City. But we are looking for a large Craftsman or Four Square.
I can also assure you that children here do play outside. But few white, or middle to upper middle class ones do. That is the change you have noticed.
My children didn't play outside much either in our neighborhood, even when we lived in the 'burbs. Everyone did something in the summer that took them off the streets. Mine went to day camp. Then sleep away camp. And we took family vacations. Now they are counselors at a day camp one of the three that exist for middle class and above children. Even in my rust belt city.
Fear of abductions and a more transient society has changed all of that. Just because someone lives next door to you it doesn't mean that they have anything in common with you.
This was once a Slovak- Ukrainian neighborhood, and now it's a mix of college students,large Hispanic families, Hipster families, Urban Pioneers, College Professors, aging Eastern European folks, their extended families, and hospital personnel and first time home owners. Quite a mix. As you might expect, block parties are not big anymore.
EVERY house on my street has a front porch, but it seems the middle class people prefer their decks and gazebos.
In the back yard.
It's more of a class thing. A safety thing, than a racial thing. The home owners have gas grills and pools, and swing sets - albeit small ones because it is a city. They tend to be the hang out in the back. My Latino next door neighbors never sit on the porch. We occasionally do.
The renters hang on their front porches and play music, laugh talk and drink beer. Nothing wrong with it, but that's what they do.
This sounds a lot like the description of another poster, Kevx (sp) of a NY neighborhood that he fondly remembers.
They also by and large, do not have air conditioning.
Society changes and homes respond to it, and we respond to our homes. Occasionally, there is a "stop and chat" on our really diverse block usually involving the weather, a cute dog, my garden or a baby. But lemonade? No.
I am far more likely to enjoy my front porch in the Spring when things are cooler and more quiet, and my rear deck ni the Autumn when the leaves on the Endless Mountains turn to orange and gold.
Things have changed and I could never blame the turning of the porch on that.
I asked my husband if people sat out on their front porches in Omaha when he was a kid (50s/60s). He said yes, until people got air conditioning. He went on to say that the kids did play outside. Now Omaha is like a steam bath in the summer, temps of 100 degrees with high humidity are not uncommon. So yeah, lots of things contributed to people not "sitting out" any more.
I think that there is an interplay between architecture and social change. It's a synergistic relationship and nothing happens in a vacuum.
The last person who I'd blame for the "demise of the front porch", as the OP sees it, would be FLW who stove to build in an organic way that was a stark contrast with the formality of the Victorian style home.
There is something "elitist" about Victorian architecture, and democratic about FLW and the homes that he influenced.
One can't point to Frank Lloyd Wright, television or the automobile as a single reason that society changed, and that porches went out of favor for a time.
Before television, people gathered to listen to radio!
I grew up in the 1960s and 70s and we had television, automobiles and we all played outside. In fact, if this were the summer of 1967, I'd probably still be outside catching fire flies, playing hide and seek, splashing in the pool or telling ghost stories.
Around right now all of the eight through twelve year olds would be being called home. And I'd be among them.
We didn't watch TV in the summer. It was all re-runs, remember?
I now live in a Victorian house - a real one, that while sweet, is less than accommodating to 21st century needs. We are sort of urban pioneers and we live in a Recovering Rust Belt City. But we are looking for a large Craftsman or Four Square.
I can also assure you that children here do play outside. But few white, or middle to upper middle class ones do. That is the change you have noticed.
My children didn't play outside much either in our neighborhood, even when we lived in the 'burbs. Everyone did something in the summer that took them off the streets. Mine went to day camp. Then sleep away camp. And we took family vacations. Now they are counselors at a day camp one of the three that exist for middle class and above children. Even in my rust belt city.
Fear of abductions and a more transient society has changed all of that. Just because someone lives next door to you it doesn't mean that they have anything in common with you.
This was once a Slovak- Ukrainian neighborhood, and now it's a mix of college students,large Hispanic families, Hipster families, Urban Pioneers, College Professors, aging Eastern European folks, their extended families, and hospital personnel and first time home owners. Quite a mix. As you might expect, block parties are not big anymore.
EVERY house on my street has a front porch, but it seems the middle class people prefer their decks and gazebos.
In the back yard.
It's more of a class thing. A safety thing, than a racial thing. The home owners have gas grills and pools, and swing sets - albeit small ones because it is a city. They tend to be the hang out in the back. My Latino next door neighbors never sit on the porch. We occasionally do.
The renters hang on their front porches and play music, laugh talk and drink beer. Nothing wrong with it, but that's what they do.
This sounds a lot like the description of another poster, Kevx (sp) of a NY neighborhood that he fondly remembers.
They also by and large, do not have air conditioning.
Society changes and homes respond to it, and we respond to our homes. Occasionally, there is a "stop and chat" on our really diverse block usually involving the weather, a cute dog, my garden or a baby. But lemonade? No.
I am far more likely to enjoy my front porch in the Spring when things are cooler and more quiet, and my rear deck ni the Autumn when the leaves on the Endless Mountains turn to orange and gold.
Things have changed and I could never blame the turning of the porch on that.
I blame FLW for this economy, high gas prices, political corruption, and large number of foreign cars being sold in this country.
tee-hee, giggle, snort
I've probably examined hundreds upon hundreds of 19th century house plans over the last 40+ years.
Not counting row houses, I've seen houses with front porches, houses with wraparound porches, houses with separate front and side porches, houses with just side porches, houses with no porches, just a little bit of a roof over the front door to keep the rain off your head while you're waiting.
I've heard that Frank used to design everything for someone about his own height, 5'8 1/2". He didn't like tall people.
I've read that FLW houses have one flaw. Apparently he wasn't very good when it came to roofs, they all leaked.
Last edited by 2cold; 07-20-2012 at 05:20 PM..
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and I bought one of those monstrosities in NY. 
