By Gwendolyn Wright from the Mercury News

The perfect home for an American family, as imagined by "National Builder" magazine in 1886, would look familiar in any photo spread of dream homes on newsstands today. Set on a lush, well-manicured lawn, it's a house of a distinctive yet stylish design, with a wide, welcoming porch and bay windows. We're certain that a loving family thrives here, safe and happy in the home it owns.

There is no archetypal "American house," except in our imaginations. Yet this graceful manor - now generically known as a Victorian - does capture the idea. It's large, for one thing, and the dream home has always boasted a feeling of spaciousness. Nature is in the picture, too, in the form of a large yard, a patio garden or even just a potted plant. And indoors, surely, is the latest technology. Real estate ads from the 1880s already touted an acronym, AMI - All Modern Improvements. At the time, this meant a good furnace and indoor plumbing, rare amenities in most buildings.

But American homes aren't just laboratories or greenhouses equipped with the latest gadgets. They reveal a desire for personal expression. Within the confines of what's broadly acceptable, every homeowner wants to assert a unique individuality, "who we really are" - or want to be.

For three decades, I've tried to understand domestic architecture in terms of culture and the emotions it evokes. Never has it been so challenging as it is today, when that perfect home may be festooned with a foreclosure sign.

The mortgage crisis and its aftermath may destroy the possibility of attaining the American dream house. But what does this elusive phrase really mean? Is it a tangible building or a fantasy? A collective aspiration, or one that varies among individuals and groups, from one decade to the next?