The Turkish House is a memory device rather than an architectural form with precise definition. Despite the diversity of housing forms across Turkey, Istanbul’s vernacular timber houses from the 18th and 19th centuries lend their looks to this apparition. Architectural commentaries on the Turkish House in the Republican Period (1923-50) have been the subject of several studies, but its reappraisal starting in the mid1970s and growing popularity until the present day remains unexplored. How can its “return” be explained? What does it mean for the negotiation of socio-political identities that formed around its documentation, protection, branding, and consumption? Based on archival research and analysis of select popular media representations, this paper suggests that the renewed attention was informed by the process of European integration, and heritage discourses actively promoted by institutions such as the Council of Europe. This return is significant to understand the nostalgia for old Istanbul that has framed discourses of the city since the 1980s, and materialized ranging in form from the fictional restoration of urban fragments to plans to freeze historic quarters. Nostalgia for old Istanbul centers partly on the Turkish House, and the traditional neighborhood it constituted. This longing contrasts with the evaluation of the Turkish House in the Republican Period by several prominent local architects where it was upheld for embodying a timeless form on par with principles of architectural modernism, and consequently, turned into an object of typological research. In the immediate post-WWII phase (1950-70s) of rapid urbanization, despite the drastic speed with which old houses disappeared, architects and other environmental design professionals remained dispassionate about the Turkish House. Amongst the general public, too, the renovation of Istanbul’s urban fabric with boulevards and concrete-frame blocks at the expense of the historic fabric of timber houses was celebrated. By the mid-1980s, however, this modernist frame of mind had completely changed. Several associations, organizations, and universities had developed an active interest in the documentation of old houses. At this junction, the relaxation of Turkey’s formerly state controlled audiovisual media enterprise helped popularize the Turkish House and participated in its return as the focus of a nostalgic urban modernity.