Ranch houses

Ranch houses at the time Ray Tinkham built his was a extremely modern home and different from his previous home on his farm house that once belonged to his father. Ray Tinkham and his wife planned his new home which is considered a ranch house in today's standards. The Tinkham's wanted a few specific things about their homes and this included:

• A one story home that was functional for family needs such as cleaning and cooking. The Tinkham's felt that leisure time was rare because of school for the children, work for Ray and cleaning for his wife Shirley. They realized that if they did have leisure time, they spent it in their car.




• The location of the home was also important, previously the Tinkham's lived in a farm house not very close to the school or shops for Shirley. The Tinkham's wanted to move closer to the school about four blocks from the school, so the children could walk and Shirley could shop at supermarkets not far away from her home, so she could get back to her housekeeping duties faster than before.




• Another appeal of the ranch house to the Tinkham's is that it does not need constant care like a farm. The Tinkham's could go on vacation or relax on the weekends with out worrying about the upkeep of their home/livelyhood such as a farm.




• The Tinkham's wanted simplicity something different from Ray Tinkham's father's house. The Tinkham's did not want to show off their wealth through their home, they could show off their wealth through their car, their clothes, and their profession. This was something relatively new compared to Ray's father's generation where it was to believed that the home said it all. The home became practical for everyday life for the family not for their guests who would come over a few times out of the year. Shirley Tinkham said it best when asked why she did not have a separate dining room for guests in her home, she stated "Its more mouths to feed". The Ranch home really focuses on the family not company like other homes such as the victorian homes in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Ranch homes and other small less extravagant homes were a product of the post war movement to give Americans especially in suburbs more options and help the overcrowding in homes and in urban areas. Places such as millersport highway or even streets in tonawanda have very small homes and some of them look almost identical except for the paint color or an addition added later on. I always wondered why these homes look the same and why anyone would want a tiny home. My aunt and uncle live in one of these small post war houses in North Tonawanda and after reading Jackson, I would describe their home functional. They have two floors, no basement and no attic. Upstairs, has three decent sized bedrooms. Downstairs has a living room a kitchen/ dining room, one bathroom, a room used for washing clothes and a small room used now as a computer room. Six people and a dog today live in this house, which surprises me since my home is bigger and we only have four people living in it. My victiorian home that my family used to reside was about twice as large as my aunt and uncles home but less people lived there. At this time of post war homes, the phrase less is more was evident in the homes. Cheap housing after the war was extremely needed to boost the economy and help create more families. Also at this time there was a shortage of homes, and some families were not happy with their current living situation of living with extended families. Homes now were created for the nuclear family not the extended family such as double homes.