As men and women returned to the United States from World War II, real estate developers were eager to sell dreams of homeownership. Advertising flyers romanticized family life in planned communities such as the Levittown subdivisions in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Suburban tract houses were built quickly using precut lumber and standardized floor plans.
A favored housing type of the 1950s was one that originated in Colonial New England. Developers seized on the historic Cape Cod house style and promoted it as an all-American ideal. Within a decade, these compact, efficient homes could be found in nearly every part of the country.
Of course, the Cape Cod homes of the 1950s were not replicas of historic Cape Cods. Builders borrowed features of the Colonial style and added mid-twentieth century modernizations. In this gallery, you’ll find a sampling of 1950s-era Cape Cods sold in communities across North America. Each plan offers a different version of the Colonial idea.
Source: The Spruce
