FRONT PORCHES NO LONGER IN BACKGROUND

The Sudermans enjoy their downtown front porch.

 

If the world had a front porch like we did back then,

We’d still have our problems, but we’d all be friends.

Treatin’ your neighbor like he’s your next of kin

Wouldn’t be gone with the wind If the world had a front porch like we did back then.

— From singer Tracy Lawrence’s “If the World Had a Front Porch”

It was a warm summer evening in the mid-1950s. Charlie and Marie were enjoying their daily after-dinner ritual of sitting in overstuffed chairs on their front porch, watching their world go by. A wave to Mr. Rossi, who lived across the street; a sympathetic shake of the head and a whisper to Charlie about the neighbor’s son being “in trouble again.” Both robustly harangued the Ford motor company for firing the “old man” next door.

I was just a little kid visiting my grandparents, Charlie and Marie, in Detroit. But my memories of sitting with them on their front porch are still vivid. They seemed to know and care about everything that was happening on their tree-lined suburban street. Their front porch was the center of their life. It was the busy intersection of the outside world and the privacy of their home. It was a time when air-conditioned homes were rare. So when summer temperatures climbed, Charlie and Marie found relief in the cool evening breeze trapped by their porch. By the mid-1950s, my grandparents owned a black-and-white television, but they weren’t convinced it was worth watching. Instead, they preferred to end most days relaxing on their front porch.

But they were part of a dwindling majority.

After World War II, the American front porch started disappearing with lifestyle and architectural changes. Air conditioning replaced evening breezes. Automobiles replaced family-centric recreation. And people gathered around their television sets, instead of on their porches. People turned inward, hunkering down inside their homes. And for outdoor recreation, they preferred to use patios and decks built behind tall fences on the side and back of their houses.

But new home developers are seeing a rebirth of the American front porch as families seek a “sense of community” in their neighborhoods and are attracted by the nostalgia of a simpler time.

“Quite a few of our homes have front porches,” said Mike Miller, Central Valley Division president of Lennar. “I own a Lennar home [in Clovis] and it has a big front porch. I love how it looks. It gives architectural appeal to the neighborhood.” Miller admits that the valley’s often triple digit temperatures make it “hard to enjoy a porch” year-round.

“We use ours more for decoration. It is more about how our house looks.”

Miller also noted that municipal development standards can influence whether including a front porch makes sense. When standards call for deep front-yard setbacks, builders forgo including front porches because they would have to push their houses back on the lots. That leaves homeowners with smaller backyards.

In the same way, a standard that calls for greater neighborhood density — the essence of “smart growth” and “walkable communities” — can encourage the inclusion of front porches. A smaller lot usually means a smaller backyard and a house placed closer to the roadway. A front porch can be used to separate the homes’ living space from the roadway, provide an additional entertainment area and create a pleasing, cozy streetscape for the neighborhood.

Lennar has included covered front porches in some floor plans in its Summerlyn tract at the intersection of Allen and Reina roads in northwest Bakersfield. Kelly Jarboe, Lennar’s new home consultant at the tract, said homes with front porches are very popular.

“People are buying them mainly because they like the look. They are not necessarily buying them for sitting outside.”

When Betsy and Patrick Wadman went looking to buy an existing home in 1999, they knew they wanted it to have a front porch. Unable to find something they liked, they decided to build a new home with a front porch on Greystone Court in northeast Bakersfield.

“Our builder, Dave Packer, really embraced the idea,” said Betsy Wadman, explaining that he researched Craftsman-style bungalows and took the Wadmans to turn-of-the-century Southern California neighborhoods, such as those in Arcadia, to help adapt the design to their Bakersfield house.

The house the couple built on a cul de sac features a large front porch that Betsy said serves as a gathering place for the neighborhood.

“When the neighbors had young children, we would all sit on the front porch and watch them play. Our grandchildren now come over and they love it.

“Our nephew made us a swing in woodshop. It faces where you can sit and watch the moon rise. If we ever built another house, it definitely would have a front porch.”

The dwellings of primitive man had front porches. They were often formed by the outcroppings of cliffs. These early porches evolved with regional architectural styles and the emerging industrialization in Europe, Asia and Africa. The melting pot of America replicated and blended these diverse styles. Advances in building techniques reduced construction costs in the mid-1800s and spread the popularity of the American front porch. It remained an architectural mainstay and cultural focal point until after World War II.

That is why local residents will find the largest selection of grand front porches near downtown Bakersfield, where many homes were built at the turn of the century and today’s residents have dedicate themselves to restoring and maintaining them.

Bonnie Suderman loves porches so much that she and her husband, Dave, restored three porches attached to the home they bought on 20th Street. The home now has a small front porch at the entrance, a side porch and an enclosed porch that can be used year-round.

“There’s no better way to meet your neighbors,” said Suderman.

One of Suderman’s neighbors is Monsignor Craig Harrison, whose house across the street features a wrap-around porch, where a table and chairs have been set up to provide space for entertaining and meditating.

“I watch the sunrise out there every day and do my morning prayers,” said the pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. “Front porches build a sense of neighborhood and community. I know almost all my neighbors. If I didn’t have this [porch] I would be in the house all the time.”

In January, Jenny Barker and her husband, Sean, moved into a 19th Street house built in 1917.

Only the second owners, Barker said the house had been so well-maintained that it needed only a little bit of paint and fence repair. She said the covered, wraparound front porch was “a dream we wanted, but did not think possible” in a house for their growing family, which includes an infant, 3-year-old and 5-year-old.

“When we have people over, they gravitate to the porch. We sit out here and just let the kids run.”

Two blocks away, Allen Craft has lived for 35 years in a Victorian house he restored on 19th Street. The retired junior high school teacher said he used a book featuring American “Painted Ladies” to select the color scheme of his brightly colored house, which he calls the “hippie house.” Its focal point is the front porch.

“I use the porch several times a day to sit out with friends, or just sit by myself to watch the cars go by.”

This article appeared in The Bakersfield Californian on Oct. 24, 2015.

https://www.bakersfield.com/archives/front-porches-no-longer-in-the-background/article_260dda4f-a64c-5b01-925b-fc7421c70040.html

Allen Craft shows off his "Painted Lady" porch.