Hidden Plainfield: Classic Postwar Elegance

Plainfield's architectural heritage includes elegant postwar ranches.

Plainfield may be most frequently cited for its neighborhoods of magnificent Victorians and other grand homes, but to be found in the mix are a large number of elegant postwar homes, such as today's Hidden Plainfield example.

This single-floor classic, often referred to in marketing literature of the time as a 'rambler' rather than the more prosaic 'ranch' was a spacious, upscale example of the millions of ranches that helped ease the significant post-World War II housing pressures.

A new home was the 1950s 'prelude to happiness'.

Though mature plantings somewhat obscure the facade, there are the signature broad front facing the street (here with a covered walkway to shade from the sun, and a massive stonework chimney which contained flues for both a fireplace in the living room and the furnace in the basement.

Most of these homes, regardless of expense, were selected from planbooks, which provided complete architectural drawings for the builder. As can be seen from a 1952 National Plan Service offering below, customers were given many options, including roof type and exterior wall treatment --

Buyers were given options to help individualize the plans.

The fireplace wall in the living room of today's example might originally have resembled this 1957 beauty as imagined by the Armstrong Cork & Tile designers --

A living room with fireplace wall, as imagined by Armstrong Cork & Tile designers, ca. 1957.

Do you know where this home is?

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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