Cuz, I’m posting this from a house that was built in 1935. It’s a three bedroom home and it originally only had one bathroom! (It now has two. The original was split into two separate bathrooms so the master bedroom could have its own private bathroom. Luckily, the original bathroom was juxtaposed in a way that made this possible.)
According to this, it’s been only the past 25 years.
Nah, I was born in 1970 and have lived in several houses (My parents moved a lot) and have never lived in a house that didn’t have a MB.
My parents home was built in 1965, based on design ideas my father found from 1962 or 1963. It has a master bath. However, IIRC there were several “Parade of Homes” houses that predate this in our neighborhood, pushing the date back as far as 1960.
My house was built in 1950. Colonial, basement and 2 above-ground floors, small footprint (about 18’ x 24’), one original bathroom on top floor. Previous owner added a 2nd bathroom in the basement.
So you had rich parents.
The house my parents bought new in 1960 had a master bath. Pretty ordinary 3BR ranch house, lots of similar houses in the neighborhood. The previous house, ca. 1950, did not have one.
Some houses, including the one I live in now, have what you might call a semi-master bath. The bathroom on the bedroom floor has two doors. One leads directly into the mater bedroom and the other leads to the hall. So from the master bedroom you can get to the bathroom without going into the hall, but you cannot do this from the other two bedrooms. Actually our house has been remodeled to have a true master bath now, but what I described was the original 1923 plan. I have seen this in other houses as well.
I’ve also rented a house that did have a private master bath and that certainly looked to be part of the original (1900-1910) design.
The house my parents bought in 1960 had a MB. The house they bought in 1945(?) did not.
I think the concept quickly became widespread close around 1960. Perhaps not in starter homes, but certainly in the next step up.
Two houses that I have lived in were built about 1955, and half half baths off the Master bedroom, a full bath down the hall.
We looked at a house on Wednesday, that was built in 1956 that had a master bath. My wife and I have been house hunting in an area that was built in the 1950s and 1960s and almost all of those houses have had master baths.
My parents lived in a condominium in Rio de Janeiro built in the late 1940s and early 1950s which also had a master bath.
My house was built in 1960 and does not have a master bath.
I grew up in a suburban neighborhood that was built in the late 50’s/early 60’s - it was a 3-bedroom with a master bedroom and attached bathroom, but it only included a toilet and shower, not a tub. All the houses in the neighborhood were similar.
I’m 54 and I’ve only lived in three houses my entire life and all have had a master bedroom. I think the first house we lived in New Orleans had the extra bathroom added on.
The house I grew up in in the Bay Area was built in 1970 and had a master bathroom. It was very small, just toilet, sink shower all in one little room. The main bathroom in the hall only had a bathtub so everyone used the master bathroom for showering.
My mother told about visiting an English castle built around the 1500’s that had a primitive bathroom privy (‘garderobe’) built into a corner of the master bedchamber. Does that count?
House plans in recent years all seem to include particularly lavish master bathrooms, even if the house itself is relatively modest. Apparently the idea has grown up around the philosophy that if the real world is busting your chops, at least you can be Emperor (or Empress) while luxuriating in your giant marble whirlpool tub.
My parents old house had a separate entrance to the hallway bathroom. It really wasn’t their master bath because the rest of the family used it too. But it was nice having that extra door directly from their bedroom. It vas a little awkward because you had to remember to close both doors before using the toilet or showering.
This house was built in the mid 1960’s.
My subdivision was built around 1955-56. Ordinary suburban ranch houses - all of them with either a half- or full bath private to the master bedroom.
I think this is gojng to vary a lot by location and by what one means by an “ordinary” house. I have been househunting and some of the houses pre-1950 have been extraordinarily small. We looked at one suburban home the other week with two tiny bedrooms, a living room that would fit little more than a love seat, a square little kitchen and a tiny little bathroom in between. Even in to the 50s having a garage instead kf a carport would be a selling point.