The Bungalowcraft Company
California Bungalow Homes
Though the Bungalowcraft Company was in business for more than 50 years, little is documented apart from the many ads the company ran in national publications like House Beautiful, National Builder, and Keith's Magazine for example.
The company produced hundreds of house plans that established the firm as an early player in the bungalow movement from 1905 through the 1910s. The plans in our earliest catalog come from an undated copy of the Bungalowcraft California Bungalow Homes (Fourth Edition).
After the Arts & Crafts movement began to fade just after WWI, Bungalowcraft like many architectural plan book companies began to shift its focus to small houses in a variety of styles like the Romantic cottages represented with English, Spanish, and French details. The plans themselves tended to be single-story with marked bungalow-style floor plans that continued the open living room-dining room configuration with easy access to outdoor terraces and porches even as the front porch began to vanish.
As of today, we have very little information about the company or the principals behind it. We know that Hermann August Eymann owned the company and was probably the original financial backer. He was one of the founders of Moundridge, KS and in the lumber business prior to 1900. He moved to California around the turn of the century and with Henry L. Menken established Bungalowcraft. The first catalog of plans designed by Menken was published in 1908. Eymann died in 1911. Menken continued to run the company until his death in 1916. Rex Weston ran the company until the 1950s when the last catalog was published. These are the spartan facts.
The plans speak for themselves and fall into the midrange of popular bungalow plans similar to those produced by West Coast competitors like Victor Voorhees of Seattle and E. W. Stillwell in Los Angeles.
Sources
- --. Bungalowcraft California Bungalow Homes. The Bungalowcraft Company, Los Angeles, CA. c. 1913.
- The International Studio, June 1910.
- House Beautiful. Ads. 1914.
- Keith's Magazine. 1912.
- National Builder, 1911.
- 1900, 1910 US Censuses
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