When it comes to housing in the older neighborhoods in Colorado Springs, a little discussed but widely found architectural style is the bungalow. These homes may look small from the street but can be deceptively roomy once you get inside them.

By definition a bungalow is a one-story or 1½-story house with a large front porch. If a bungalow has a half story, the second floor is typically built under a slanted roof (gable roof ). Extra upstairs space can be gained by having large dormer windows pop out of the slanted roof.

The word “bungalow” comes from the Bengali region of India where it means “house in the Bengal style.”

Most people think of bungalows as being very small in terms of square footage, but in Colorado Springs there are many large bungalows. Bungalows often stretch backward on a long lot, thereby providing lots of space for additional bedrooms and bathrooms.

Bungalows are the result of a national architectural movement that swept across the United states in the 1920s and 1930s. They were originally designed to provide modern and affordable housing for the working class. Because they were well-built and often located close to the downtown area of a city, bungalows have evolved into a reliable source of middle-class and upper-middle-class urban housing.

Most American cities thus have a “bungalow belt,” and Colorado Springs is no exception. Our bungalow belt is located north and east of downtown. The southern boundary is East Platte Avenue, and the northern boundary is East Fontanero Street.

Neighborhoods in the bungalow belt include mainly Middle Shooks Run and Patty Jewett. There are also plenty of bungalows to be found scattered throughout the Westside.

The bungalow movement fit perfectly into the economic history of Colorado Springs. From 1891 until about 1920, the productive gold mines of Cripple Creek and Victor we’re funneling large amounts of money into the Springs.

Much of that money was used to build large 2½-story Victorian-style homes decorated with large wraparound porches and big bay windows and, sometimes, Victorian towers. The Victorian neighborhoods are mainly found north of downtown along North Cascade and North Nevada avenues in the Near North End and the Old North End.

The gold boom in Cripple Creek and Victor slowly came to an end in 1920, cutting off the gold money and creating a need for more moderately priced housing in Colorado Springs. The 1920s national movement toward bungalows fit the new economic conditions in the Springs perfectly.

One of the characteristics of bungalow housing is the wide variety of architectural styles. Some bungalows are little more than four walls with a gable roof and a small front porch. Others, called Victorian cottages, are smaller versions of the large Victorian houses and have simplified Victorian details, such as big front porches and bay windows. There are even some local bungalows with properly sized Victorian towers attached to them.

Also popular are Spanish style bungalows, some of them complete with red tile roofs and simulated adobe walls made of stucco.

Considered particularly desirable are Craftsman bungalows. They are named for an early 20th-century magazine called the Craftsman that boosted the idea of building small homes and filling them with beautifully crafted woodwork.

A Craftsman home customarily is a single story and has a low-slung gable roof with a “gable end” facing the street. There is always a full-length front porch, often built of stone. Inside the Craftsman house are ample opportunities for beautiful woodwork, such as false rafters in the ceilings of the living room and/or dining room. Wooden shelves and cabinets for storing fine linens, dishes and silver are also present.

A number of the bungalows in the city were pre- manufactured in distant cities and shipped as “kits” by train to Colorado Springs. Professional home builders would quickly assemble the precut lumber into a finished home.

In some cases, skillful homeowners would assemble the homes from the kits themselves.

Many Springs residents frequently drive through our bungalow neighborhoods. Coming into downtown from the east, streets such as East Platte Avenue, East Boulder Street, East Willamette Street and East Cache La Poudre Street are lined with bungalows (from North Hancock Avenue to North Wahsatch Avenue).

We have already discussed in this column how the post-world War II miniranch-houses of the Bonnyville neighborhood offer a possible example of how to build badly needed affordable housing for working-class people in Colorado Springs. We think it is also time to look at the bungalow movement of the 1920s to see if, with U.S. government financing similar to the GI Bill, there might be cues as to how to build affording housing in the 2020s.

Bob Loevy is a news columnist and retired professor of political science at Colorado College. To see 48 photographs showing the variety of sizes and architectural styles of bungalows in Colorado Springs, search the internet for “Bob Loevy home page.”