The most prominent feature of the bungalow was its front porch. Nestled under the heavy eaves, the front porch jutted toward the street. Architects and designers urged bungalow owners to think of the porch as more than just a sheltered passageway to the front door, encouraging.families to incorporate the porch into their everyday'lives. Chairs, tables, even beds should be set on the porch, they said, so that parents and children could eat meals, read, and sleep in the healthful outdoors. Blinds and screens could be added so that the family could use the porch in less than ideal weather. Some writers called the porch by the names of its foreign equivalents — the veranda or the piazza— . to suggest that the porch would allow bungalow occupants to experience sensual, casual Mediterranean life in the comfort of their own American homes. At the...