1928 bungalow...is it deco?

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I just purchased a house in Harrisburg, PA. I'd like to solicit your help in determining if it's deco or not. It was built in 1928, and it's a small bungalow. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, finished 1/2 story upstairs, living room dining room kitchen, and 3 season porch. The exterior is a waffle textured brick, and the porch is wood. Interior details are: fireplace has corners of bricks above the fire, but below the mantle jutting out in a criss-cross fashion. There are 2 stained glass windows, one on either side of the fireplace. There are bookshelves (I'm told they were added later) on either side of fireplace below windows. The ceilings are 9' high or so, and the moulding is a simple grooved wood with round rosettes in corners of doorways. It's a forced air home, and the heating vents are in the wall. They look like old radio speakers...gold cloth beneath a black metal grille. Anyway, in researching these bungalow homes I have found that most of them were built earlier. They are also more ornate, in a craftsman style. Mine is much simpler. It is not streamlined, and not arts & crafts either. I would describe it perhaps as a "modest art deco" style. Just wondering if any of you afficianados out there have any insight into this. Is this technically a deco home? It doesn't jump out at me as fitting into any one category very well. Any insight would be great. Thanks!

-- Edward Fox (efox1999@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002

Answers

I would consider your home definitely art deco. Art deco was the architectural and industrial design style popular between the two World Wars 1920 through roughly 1945. Depending on where in this period something (home, etc.)was designed it may be more ornate (early art deco) or streamline which would be from roughly 1930 until the end of the art deco movement during the war.

-- M.Marshall (petaler2003@yahoo.com), October 30, 2003.

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