In the late 40's/50's there were scads of houses built in the US without basements...I had one in suburban Chicago (neighborhood built 1953, as I recall) and found the original newspaper advertising which was a hoot. One of the key selling points was the fully equipped kitchen (mind you, this was a GE kitchen...refrigerator, separate upright freezer, stove, dishwasher and washing machine all crammed (!) into a good-sized kitchen footprint (the main casualty was counter space which was seriously lacking). This was a key selling point to those people buying their first house (in the city they would have walked to the laundromat, and the rest belonged to the landlord.
JL
) They had forced air gas heat (suburban Chicago) and gas HWH in a utility room off the bathroom (actually a very ingenious design because ensured a good draft carrying away moisture and smells, but also a bit noisy). My house had been converted after being built (about 6 years afterward) to have a boiler with radiant convectors. That was the best upgrade which the house could have had...the boiler and circulator were silent--all you heard was the whoosh of the boiler lighting up--the circulator pump was so low-toned that it was inaudible--and eliminated the noise problem of the FA-G heat. The duct work was there to add central air, but I never did--had a honking big window unit at one end of the house that I ran just like central air (i.e. continuously) and the house was fine for me (wouldn't have been with a family, but was fine for me)
