I am super fascinated by the archaic features and fixtures of midcentury houses…. Things that have been superseded by something more modern, or which simply faded from fashion. Quick! We better get them on the blog fast, so’s we don’t forget them. Stuff like hudee rings, and push-button plumbing, and appliance centers, and today: Dovecotes in storybook ranches. No, these are not “birdhouses”. The are: Dovecotes. Vestigial ones, that is.
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These photos both come from Tiki Lisa’s flickr photostream. You can click directly on either photo or on the link just prior to see her whole set — it’s pretty fantastic, the houses in the neighborhood are all sweeties like these two.
Dovecotes: According to Wikipedia, dovecotes are used to house pigeons and doves which “were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung.” The dung was for fertilizer. They add, “In some cultures, particularly Medieval Europe, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law.” Dovecotes could be free-standing or, as in the above mid-century examples, built into the ends of houses.
Here (below) is a dovecote from yee-old times:
This photo’s (above) caption says: “The doocot (dovecot) at the new stables, Eglinton Country Park, Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, Scotland.” (Public domain/Wikipedia). Below: Another photo from Tiki Lisa’s set:
So now to the “why”. I am not a PhD historian, but from my studies and general exposure, I speculate the following:
- In the 1920s and especially the 1930s, there was a “romantic revival” in housing styles in America that gave us Tudors and Spanish Revival and the like… Homes that harkened back to old Europe and included sentimental “romantic” features. This all kind of died down during the depths of the Depression and WWII.
- After WWII, housing began booming again. But, we evolved to new styles — and on the west coast, especially, to ranch houses.
- Now that you have the context, here is my hypothesis for why-dovecotes: I suspect that on the west cost, which has always been full of fruitcakes (just testing to see if you’re reading this; just kidding; I am a born Californian, so I can kid), I mean, which was beginning to lead in design innovation, the so-called “merchant builders” — who were responsible for building the gazillions of tract house subdivisions across America — adapted the basic mid century modest ranch house box design to add some “romantic” features, as they had done in the 20s and 30s. Only this time around, the one-story plan was amenable to Hansel & Gretel type houses — “storybook ranches” — also known as “cinderella ranches” — or even, “swiss chalet ranches.” The dovecotes were included, in this spirit, along with other flourishes that, when you analyze them, look pretty easy to execute… they were mostly decorative.
- For example, see this storybook ranch house, which by the shrubbery appears to be one the west coast.
- But note this storybook ranch also, which I stumbled upon just a few miles from my house — in Pittsfield, Mass. Surrounded by basic colonial-ranches… someone had a different vision!
- Note, that Wikipedia also says that dovecotes went out of functional use late in the 1800s…but that there was a revival in the 20th century among pigeon fanciers. They don’t say when in the 2oth century, but if it was around the middle of the century, then perhaps this archaic style was back in the public consciousness.
Thanks to Tiki Lisa for permission to feature the photos and for documenting this very fascinating feature.
Along with that California theme, maybe Walt Disney had some influence on this design? Now I’m going to be on the lookout for dovecotes in my area.
Judi, that’s brilliant! Yes, maybe so. “It’s A Small World, After All”
How funny you should mention dovecotes today. I am currently in the process of designing and adding a dovecote to our yard. I will be placing ours as a separate structure. My plan is to try and incorporate the doves as they once were used. Many country houses and estates in UK had not only dovecotes on building roofs, but many had pigeoners or Pigeon Houses for this purpose of meat and dung. They were beautiful structures, usually built in the style of the main house. They were sometimes part of the stable block as here in Ballywater :http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/48/83/1488315_ebe46518.jpg Or they were stand alond buildings such as this
here: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_gaSUIGFAznU/SGWiNCs-fnI/AAAAAAAAEN0/0CmTZQNIw04/IMG_0070.JPG You can see how the pigeons go in and out through the top, their natural tendency to be up high (as they are natural cliff dwellers thus making them perfect ‘city birds’). The door at the bottom was for the servant/game keeper to access for cleaning and Bird care.
Now, as I have said, I want to try and incorporate them as they once were used, for possible meat and for the compost pile. Many still raise pigeons for this purpose today and many also for racing and show. If any of you have had squab, you are eating young pigeon.
Isn’t it interesting how something very utilitarian and also a social rank from so long ago found its way into the bucolic ideal of the ‘story book cottage’? Very fascinating and I am glad to see you highlight them.
It looks like my link didn’t work so here goes again. Here is the stable block Pigeon House at Ballywater http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/48/83/1488315_ebe46518.jpg This is the main manor house of Ballywater Park Estate in Ireland. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1488246
OH MY GOODNESS….I WANT ONE….coo, coo, coo, cooooooo!
We live in a storybook ranch. We not only have a dovecote over the guest bedroom window but also a whole faux birdhouse on the top of our garage. A bit east of us is a whole street of storybook ranches. I love driving through there. A guy named Mellenthin built a lot of these storybook ranches in our part of the country (Las Vegas, West Coast in general). We’ve been trying to find information on him, his company, and the houses he built but haven’t had a lot of luck.
Well, now. Evidently, the upgrades I have planned for my house sounds like it puts it in the Storybook category! In the spring, the gables will be trimmed out with scalloped fasica (just plain-nothing there now) AND I’ve recently got it in my head to build cupolas for the house and garage! One will have a weathervane on it.
Man, that low-slung gable on the front makes my mouth water……hmm……It’s good to be handy!
Pam, I am sure your readers and you are aware of Hugh Comstock who built the adorable Fairy Tale Cottages of Carmel CA back in the 1920′s. Though not mid-century, certainly this played a major role in the affect of the 1950′s storybook ranches. A bit of the idealized American dream version of English Crofters cottage mingled with mid-century modern aesthetics.
Here is a great FLICKR account that features many of these cottages http://www.flickr.com/photos/from_linda_yvonne/sets/72157600130746798/
(sorry for so many links, Pam, but I love cottage style and dovecotes!)
I was going to say, the dovecote was featured on the storybook houses of the 20s and 30s, for sure (I should know, as I am obsessed with them and have been working on plans for building one for about 10 years!). See the book Storybook Style by Arrol Gellner, I’m almost positive some of the homes in there had dovecotes, along with some of the other features later incorporated into the Storybook Ranch style.
And according to my resources, the Disney style was influenced by this subset of Romantic Revival architecture, not the other way around (remember, the movies — namely Snow White — came before Disneyland!).
Aaaww, Pam! So glad you posted this! Our whole neighborhood (Parkway Estates, Sacramento, CA) has these on the houses. Sadly the house we bought already had it’s dovecote removed. I have been trying to strategize a way to have one built and place it where the old one would have been (above the garage). I love them so very much.. thank you for giving them a name, as previously I didn’t know what the term was and just caleld them “birdhouses”.. lol
~Lauren D.
(that50sgal@gmail.com)
Thank you for posting about these, I had completely forgotten about their existance. My grandparent’s rancher had dovecotes on the side of their home, as did some of their neighbors… some of which were located on the front of the homes. The homes that did not have built in dovecotes had birdhouses (large, decorated like motels!) atop 15-20 ft poles in the yards. They really loved birds, I suppose!
I’m pleased to report that many of these can still be seen on Southern California MCM homes both ranch and storybook (ones that have not been “upgraded”). Ours is built of redwood, which means the termites have pretty much left it alone! hooray!
I think in the California style, Disney probably, and Hollywoodland for sure influenced the evolution of the story-book ranches. I grew up in SoCal, Orange County at that, and can assure you that the surviving Mid-Century neighborhoods particularly around Disneyland are abundant in over-the-top story-book houses. An odd feature many have in Anaheim is the over exaggerated lines and materials of the Googie style, combined with the intricately jig-sawed chalet trims and tudor windows of the story-book motif.
The curious thing is many of these neighborhoods were built years prior to Disneyland, so to that end were more influenced by Hollywood romanticism, (which would of corse include Disney) initially, but without a doubt I believe the presence of Disneyland served a role to inspire folks to preserve such houses. Many of these neighborhoods and homes stand today nearly untouched architecturally as they did more than a half century ago. (However most are wearing drab modern “neutral” paints in place of their more vibrant MCM hues)
While they existed everywhere to some extent, for sure the most popular location for the story-book was in fantasy land itself, Sunny Southern California. And I think the most interesting application of the style was in Orange County, particularly around the Anaheim, Buena Park, and Garden Grove border areas. In these neighborhoods, “upgraded” homes are more the exception than the rule, at least for now. Good place for a preservation movement to start up for sure!
Cool! I’m thrilled you could use my photos, Pam. I know I’ve got more to upload to Flickr, so I’ll let you know when I do. I like to document features like these dovecots, as well as garage doors, shutters, trim, window boxes, doors and such – details that seem like they wouldn’t be too difficult to recreate. I hope they can be a resource to someone!
There are many houses in my neighborhood with these dovecotes. I would even say more houses have them then don’t. I’ve been meaning to take a walk around our neighborhood and get pictures of all of the mid-century wonders in it to post on our blog. This is just one more thing I need to get pictures of. Our next day without rain, I’ll make sure to do this.
I live in Downey, California and there are TONS of these features on houses around here. Mine has it.
On a side note, my home style has been described as “Molly Pitcher” by my neighbors. When I Googled this term all I get is information about the American Revolutionary figure by the same name but nothing on this type of home style. Anyone have info on the Molly Pitcher style of home?
To add to my post, here is an old ad from a home similar to mine that makes mention to Molly Pitcher:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_downey_conservancy/2267412069/
This is a fantastic reference, S.G. I’ll have to figure out how to research this. Thanks!
This is so cool! What a charming feature…I’ve never seen this on a home before, but I live in the Midwest, so perhaps it never really took off here?
I’d love to see it come back in style!
Sacramento seems to be a hotbed of dovecotes! In addition to Parkway Estates, as Lauren says, they’re on most of the houses in Cottage Park and I’ve seen them scattered in other midcentury neighborhoods. They’re so common, it never occurred to me to photograph them for Flickr. Now I’ll have to get the camera and go for a walk!
My 1954 house has this feature…I’m in So Cal and there are a lot of storybook houses. I’m not sure what a Cinderella is, but one time in house hunting 10 yrs ago I did see a pink bathroom with Cinderella’s coach on the bath wall tile. I think these houses were called Cinderella as I heard my Realtor say that name. I happen to really love the storybook/chalet/hansel & gretel type houses & wish mine looked more so, but I still have the X window frames as I wouldn’t have them replaced when we did the rest of the house windows (these were not Xs).
I too, am a dovecote devotee. I live in Rossmoor, California where the dovecote achieved a true art form. I plan to add a page to my historic architecture website featuring the beautiful original designs of Rossmoor’s 37 models available when the tract opened in 1957. Rossmoor was built by Ross Cortese and his architectural staff that included Cliff May and Earle Kaltenbach.
There are decorative dovecotes in my early 1960′s midwest neighborhood. These are side-to-side split levels, though, not ranches. It’s just the fancier homes that have them, attached just above the garage.
Wow, I’d sure love to see some pics of these, Amy. If you get a chance can you take a walk and shoot some pics and send them to me????
Just saw a house with one of these on it the other day, and wasn’t sure what it was, but suspected it had something to do with doves or pigeons.
Sometimes I make a lucky guess and I’m right. lol
We have quite a flock of doves/pigeons in our area this year. One pair has nested in our neighbors pine tree for the past couple of years. There is a large flock down the road, which hubby and I suspect to be from a ‘raise and release’, which is a common practice with pheasants in our area as well.