Ari Rothman relishes the moments when passers-by ponder the year his 1920s-style home was built. No one has guessed correctly.
That’s because the two-story yellow house, with its deep front porch, white columns and rows of windows, looks every bit as historic as other renovated bungalows in the Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa, Fla.
But Ari and Trish Rothman’s 2,366-square-foot home is less than a year old and stuffed with modern conveniences such as three bathrooms, a second floor and an updated kitchen.
“We have the old look without any of the old house headaches,” said Ari Rothman, 35. “If people aren’t really savvy about building, they just don’t believe it’s not old.”
The Rothmans moved into their $259,000 home after selling their two-bedroom condominium.
The same month, a couple moved into a nearly identical new home next door, and a new bungalow is under construction on the same street.
The popularity of restoring central Tampa’s bungalows — typically small, turn-of-the century homes — has spurred a growing business for look-alike bungalows with modern additions.
Dozens of bungalows have been renovated in recent years, but few new bungalows have been constructed. A few local builders are changing that.
The new homes are filling up vacant lots in historic districts such as Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights and south Tampa. They offer an alternative to buyers who want character but not the headaches that come with an old home.
“Even when you remodel a bungalow, you still have an old house with settling, termite damage and below hurricane standards,” said Quinn Mitchell, of Q&L Enterprise LLC, a two-man company that designs and builds bungalows. “People like the feel of old but the convenience of modern.”
Most of Tampa’s new bungalows — about a dozen — are in Seminole Heights, which was developed in the early 1900s and was hit hard by suburban flight in the 1960s and 1970s.
Seminole Heights has attracted trendy urban pioneers who have brought life back to the neighborhood’s rich stock of 1920s- and 1930s-era bungalows and pushed up property values.
So what makes a home a bungalow?
“A definition is impossible,” said John Brinkmann, publisher of American Bungalow magazine. “Someone once said a bungalow is a frame of mind, and I think that is very true.”
The status of the bungalow hasn’t always been positive. Brinkmann, who bought his bungalow in 1987 in Sierra Madre, Calif., decided to start the magazine in 1990.
He informed officials at the National Trust, a non-profit preservation organization, and was shocked at their response.
“Sixty-percent of the people at the trust said, “Why would you want to start a magazine for those awful houses? They are just horrible, little places to live,'” Brinkmann recalled.
And when he called an advertising agency, the response was: “How can I promote that? Aren’t bungalows those awful little homes?”
In its heyday, the bungalow was the darling of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Most U.S. bungalows were built between 1880 and 1930.
Coming off the considerably more ornate Victorian age, homeowners wanted simple, practical dwellings. There may be no clear description, but most people agree that historic bungalows typically have one to 1 1/2 stories, large front porches, few hallways, lots of windows, hardwood floors, a fireplace and clean architecture such as exposed trusses and arches.
Most have two to three bedrooms, are less than 1,400 square feet and have just one bathroom.
The term bungalow comes from India, Brinkmann said. It became popular as a vacation home in England and then the United States.
By 1908, he said, the craze caught on to use bungalows as permanent homes. The small homes fell out of favor after World War II when many city dwellers fled to ranch-style homes in the suburbs.
The bungalow’s image as a small home then became negative, Brinkmann said. But now that there’s a push for urban living, Tampa’s bungalows have become a hot commodity.
Most of the builders of new bungalows are small companies that build one home at a time. Q&L Enterprise LLC, of Tampa, run by Mitchell and Larry Rushing, has renovated about 50 bungalows in the last 22 years.
About three years ago, they decided to build them new. The men target old bungalows on oversized lots in Seminole Heights and south Tampa. They restore the existing house and build a new one next door.
They plan to start building their fourth bungalow soon. All of their homes feature large closets and bathrooms and have three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Trying to be true to the historic character of bungalows, Mitchell said he won’t build one larger than 1,700 square feet.
Bungalows used to be known as a home for the middle class. But many of the renovated ones are selling for upward of $200,000, with multiple bidders.
All of Mitchell and Rushing’s homes have sold for about $300,000.
The city prohibits homes in its historic districts from being demolished to make room for new homes. And any new construction must be approved by the city’s Architectural Review Commission, which recommends ways for builders to make their bungalows look more authentic.
Brinkmann, the magazine publisher, noted, “a few die-hards have said building new is contrary to the historic spirit,” and have raised concerns that there could be too many new bungalows in historic areas.
