Talmadge Architectural Styles
The primary architectural styles of Talmadge are Minimal Traditional and Spanish Colonial Revival. As can be seen in the timeline below, Spanish Colonial Revival was the primary style at the time that the district was established. Spanish Colonial Revival homes continued to be built through the Depression, but this style of architecture fell out of favor by the end of the 1930s, replaced by Minimal Tradition style homes. Minimal Traditional homes could be built within the maximum loan amount constraints of FHA loans. Conforming to FHA’s building guidelines, as exemplified in their “Principles of Planning Small Houses” publications, also ensured easier approval of loans.
The FHA program was a key selling point for Talmadge, as reflected in the “Talmadge Park Estates Homebuilders Guide” (1940) produced by Guy Lichty, who was the sales representative for Talmadge Park Estates and who was responsible for creating the gates and lights as the unifying feature for the district.
Minimal Traditional homes also met the need for building homes quickly to accommodate the rapid expansion of San Diego’s aircraft industry prior to WWII. Accordingly, Minimal Traditional became the dominant architectural style in Talmadge by 1937 and continued as the primary architectural style throughout the remainder of the buildout of the district.
Within the Minimal Traditional style, the key subtypes that apply to Talmadge include Streamline Moderne, Colonial Revival, and Tudor Revival. The building of houses with Moderne influences peaked in 1938-1939 and then tapered off as that style went out of vogue. This was followed by a lesser trend towards Colonial Revival houses as a distinct subgenre within Minimal Traditional architecture, peaking in 1940-1941.
Spanish Colonial Revival houses in Talmadge include a distinctive set of California Ranch houses, starting with the first Cliff May house and then elaborated by The Dennstedt Company and other builders in Talmadge.
The map below shows where different styles of houses were built in Talmadge Park Estates.
The characteristic features of the various architectural styles, as expressed in Talmadge, are detailed below. Click here to see more examples of each architectural style.
