The Rise, Fall, and Return of the American Porch

The Rise, Fall, and Return of the American Porch

The porch, as part of the American home, is more than an architectural feature: It's a viewpoint into the country's changing cultural (and literal) climate. Since the mid-19th-century golden age of this classic U.S. domestic design element, its look and role have revealed wider societal fluctuations, from the car's impact on suburbia to the more recent push for walkable neighborhoods. The porch is so important that it's the subject of this year'…