A splanch is a type of

single-family home A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelling ...

that was popular in the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...

from the 1950s through the 1970s. The name is a fusion of split level home and

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...

, two architectural styles that influenced the design.

Typical layout

A splanch is not a

, and it is not a split level. Rather, it is a three-level house inside of a two-level skin. Typically, they are a center-hall type of home, built on a slab. On the ground level, there is a

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicle ...

in front, loaded from either the side or the front of the house. Garages were one or two bays, depending on the size of the splanch. Opposite the garage and the center foyer, was a formal

dining room A dining room is a room (architecture), room for eating, consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically ...

and an eat-in

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a ...

. Behind the garage, elevated up half a level, was the

living room In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room (Australian English), lounge (British English), sitting room (British English), or drawing room, is a room for relaxing and socializing in a residential house or apartment. Su ...

, which faced the

backyard A backyard, or back yard (known in the United Kingdom as a back garden or just garden), is a yard at the back of a house, common in suburban developments in the Western world. In Australia, until the mid-20th century, the back yard of a pro ...

. Behind the kitchen, and on the same level as the kitchen, was a

den Den may refer to: * Den (room), a small room in a house * Maternity den, a lair where an animal gives birth Media and entertainment * ''Den'' (album), 2012, by Kreidler * Den (''Battle Angel Alita''), a character in the ''Battle Angel Alita' ...

, often outfitted in wood paneling, and was adjacent to the elevated living room. Stairs rise up from the

foyer A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, reception area or an entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc. ...

to the living room, then turn, and rise up to the second (or third) floor, which contains the

bedroom A bedroom or bedchamber is a room situated within a residential or accommodation unit characterised by its usage for sleeping and sexual activity. A typical western bedroom contains as bedroom furniture one or two beds (ranging from a crib for ...

s. The bedroom

hallway A hallway or corridor is an interior space in a building that is used to connect other rooms. Hallways are generally long and narrow. Hallways must be sufficiently wide to ensure buildings can be evacuated during a fire, and to allow people i ...

is open to the stairs and living room below. Four and five bedroom models are commonplace, yet smaller three bedrooms examples exist. Because the house was built on a slab, the space underneath the family room was pushed down half a level, creating a daylight

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

similar to those found in a split-level or bi-level, and often contained a

recreation room A recreation room (also known as a rec room, rumpus room, play room, playroom, games room, or ruckus room) is a room used for a variety of purposes, such as parties, games and other everyday or casual activities. The term ''recreation room'' is c ...

. The remainder of the first floor sits directly on the slab. The design, which is speculated to have originated on Long Island's South Shore / Nassau County, lacks a full basement because high

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

s existed in the area. Developers were only able to dig down 3 or 4 feet for the footings of the house because of the water table. Though its exact origin remains unknown, the splanch gained popularity in the 1960s. Its range expanded from the South Shore to the North Shore, across Long Island, and into the suburban areas of

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, Westchester, Rockland, and

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

Counties. Splanches can be found elsewhere, but are not common.

Advantages

The main advantage of the splanch is that it contains a large amount of living space, including a garage, with a relatively modest footprint. The raised living room almost always benefits from a sloped cathedral

ceiling A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that covers the upper limits of a room. It is not generally considered a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the roof structure or the floor of a story above. Ceilings ...

. Also, the elevated living room can also benefit from improved views out the back. The den boasts a then-innovative pass-through to the kitchen, and the kitchen has direct access to the dining room as well as the garage. Internal circulation is reduced via the split central staircase, and it eliminates long corridors that often plague other housing styles.

Disadvantages

The main complaint from splanch owners is that the elevated living room is not an integral part of the house. Isolated on its own floor, the living room becomes its own, infrequently used entity. For lack of a better use, owners have converted it into a

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky pool ...

room or even a master bedroom suite. Additionally, since the house does not have a full basement, storage space can be at a premium. Some splanch houses have been modified to the point where the house lacks its original mid-century style or

aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...

Construction

Construction materials This is a list of building materials. Many types of building materials are used in the construction industry to create buildings and structures. These categories of materials and products are used by architects and construction project managers t ...

often consisted of a CMU (cinder block) foundation, and the

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

slab of the main floor.

Wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

construction rose above the slab. The exterior was treated in a number of ways. Typically, the main level facing the street was clad in a

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

veneer Veneer may refer to: Materials * Veneer (dentistry), a cosmetic treatment for teeth * Masonry veneer, a thin facing layer of brick * Stone veneer, a thin facing layer of stone * Wood veneer, a thin facing layer of wood Arts and entertainment * ' ...

, with the second story clad in oversize cedar shakes. The two sides and rear were often clad in a wide-exposure

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

or cementitious horizontal siding. However, any combination of exterior finishes exist, from

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

, to

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

, to

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae *Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona * ...

. The splanch's popularity diminished in the 1980s, and few examples exist that were built in that decade, and by the 1990s, they were gone from the drawing board altogether. Presently, many are updated and renovated to suit the needs of their current owners.

References

* {{cite news, url=http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-historyhome-splanch,0,6342679.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation, title=Breaking the Mold, archive-date=September 13, 2006, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061213055720/http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-historyhome-splanch,0,6342679.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation House types American architectural styles

Typical layout

Advantages

Disadvantages

Construction

See also

References