Historical houses in Iran have long been considered the most unparalleled examples of traditional architecture, reflecting a meaningful connection between humans and their environment. In the past, these houses were filled with a sense of belonging for their residents, but unfortunately, a mimetic approach to Western architecture has led to a decrease in this sense in modern house patterns. The beginning of this transformation in Iran can be traced back to the Pahlavi era, due to the modern developments in construction and architecture. Restoring the lost concept of Iranian identity is one of the most important tasks for contemporary architects, which is also one of the main goals of the present research. To this end, initially, the evolution of houses during the Pahlavi era is introduced in order to clarify the concept of sense of place. Then, an investigation into the factors influencing the sense of place is carried out through a comparative study of urban houses in Mashhad. The present research is a combination type study in a survey framework. Firstly, using the MAUT technique, the statistical population is selected. Then, employing a research narrative strategy and qualitative content analysis with MAXQDA, the influential factors on residents' sense of place are extracted. By using qualitative Delphi analysis and Shannon's entropy, the final research model is developed, and finally, the relationships between variables are fitted using the SMART PLS structural equation modeling method. The findings indicate that residents' sense of place has a negative relationship with the evolutionary trends of houses over time. The cognitive-perceptual and environmental-physical dimensions are important with impact coefficients of 8.340 and 8.090, respectively, while the beauty and sensory perception components are significant with importance degrees of 7.794 and 6.562, as they can be influential due to movement, time, and spatial rotation combined with green spaces.