berwyn time capsule house
Added 2024-09-01 14:41:59 +0000 UTCIf you've ever driven through Berwyn, Illinois, you've probably thought something like "damn, this would be the perfect place to shoot some cheesy fifties movie starring John Travolta after he got into Scientology. "
Berwyn is a suburb of Chicago that was on the historical Route 66. Like many Chicago suburbs in its cluster (such as Lyons), it's got a certain working class patina that resists change. This shows up in the housing stock, hence it's a place I regularly go to see if there are any time capsule houses on the market. This one is perhaps the best I've ever found.
Built in 1957, this classic ranch has, essentially, never been touched.
(Since Zillow Gone Wild got sued, I've decided to make these posts with McMansion Hell-style captions to further enforce that these images are being used within the boundaries of Fair Use.)
At any rate, this is about as typical a ranch house as you'll ever find. Straight out of A Field Guide To American Houses. Because ranch houses were so technologically forward-facing, amenities we now take for granted such as attached garages and central air were often added by myriad competing developers trying to compete for a large, new market share.
Those floors, my god.
I've seen these curtain screens in plans before but this is the first time I'm seeing one intact, in person.
LOOK!!!! AT THE TOASTER!!!!!!
If anyone touches this bathroom, they're dead to me.
Random white guys were never more into weird, colonialist depictions of Polynesia.
Anyway, here's the last interesting room in the house, which also shows a new phenomenon: an excess of space.
I hope you enjoyed this time capsule house. If you see any new ones, please drop them in the McMansion Hell Discord Server!
Happy Labor Day,
Kate
Comments
My parents had parquet floors like that in their home (also built in the 1960s - unfortunately they fell victim to water damage around 2010)
Zachary DeVore
2024-09-03 15:16:57 +0000 UTCOk, so I'm not going crazy? Although I wondered if she meant the warmer under the oven.
John W. Moore-Weiss
2024-09-03 14:19:05 +0000 UTCCame here to say that.
David Smith
2024-09-02 15:48:53 +0000 UTCCurrently sitting spitting distance from here at the Cermak Plaza shopping center, former home of the Berwyn Spindle sculpture! We live just a little further north in a not-as-well-preserved 20s Tudor.
Jessi Moths
2024-09-02 02:03:39 +0000 UTCWow!!!!
Debra Lary
2024-09-01 22:19:57 +0000 UTCRadio/Cassette player! With cassette on top!
allanfranta
2024-09-01 17:04:22 +0000 UTCQuality workmanship, it's lasted so well!
allanfranta
2024-09-01 15:31:09 +0000 UTCDefinitely a radio
Jessica Seigel
2024-09-01 15:02:41 +0000 UTCYou have taken me back to my Midwestern (60s) childhood. Having grown up in a postwar housing tract in suburban Kansas City, I eventually found such ranches and such tract housing very depressing. You have at least made me appreciate what they offered in the suburban realm. One queer touch, though: double sinks in the bathroom? Seriously? Never ever saw that growing up.
NotASheep
2024-09-01 14:58:53 +0000 UTCI don’t see a toaster. I see a radio.
Keena Q
2024-09-01 14:57:29 +0000 UTCA 60s flashback, and not the fun kind.
Kai Matthews
2024-09-01 14:48:27 +0000 UTC
