So, what style is it?
Excerpts from "Victorian Architecture of Iowa, Second
Edition", William Plymat Jr. Palladian Publishing Company.
Des Moines, IA. 1997.
The characteristics of some of the more common architectural styles are listed below.
Houses, like people are complex and often contradictory. They may begin with a single vision, but an architect's whim or a builder's eagerness to display his talents can lead to unexpected flourishes. Also, many homes are reshaped over the years as owners add rooms, raise roofs, move doors and change details. So what style is your house? Look below, we hope it will help.
If this page doesn't help you identify your house's style, when asked about the style of your house, just smile and say that it's a "baffling mix of traditions, dreams, necessities, aspirations and vanities."
American Foursquare/Prairie Style (1890-1910) is not really a style, but rather a type. If roof edge is close to the wall, and if there are round Tuscan columns holding up the porch - then it is likely called Colonial. If the roof extends well beyond the walls and if porch piers are thick boxes, it may be called Prairie Style.
- Boxy shape
- Wide front porch
- Evenly spaced windows
- A single dormer in a pyramidal roof
Later Foursquare often had Bungalow interiors
with open floor plans, lots of built-ins, and
fireplaces.
Craftsman (1905-1930)
- Low-pitched roof
- Wide, open eaves overhang with rafters
exposed
- Porches with roof supports that are tapered
square columns extending to ground level (with no
breaks at porch floor)
Eastlake (1881)
- Uses rectangular structural shapes and geometrical ornament as abstract decorative treatments, the so called "Gingerbread" house
- Any Queen Anne or Gothic with "Gingerbread"
bargeboards, external moldings, cornices, crockets,
and assorted ornamental devices
Federal Style( 1790-1830)
- Roof lines featured tooth-like dentil blocks spaced along the cornice
- Double hung windows placed symmetrically in
brick walls and topped with flat stone lintels
- Palladian window (tall circle head sash flanked
by smaller rectangular openings
- On the exterior, fan lights above the entry
door.
- Iowa was opened for settlement when Federal Style is considered obsolete, so "Federal Survival" is generally applied to any house built after 1840 that does not include Greek, Gothic, or Italianate forms.
Flemish Revival ()
- Flemish style gables
- Decorative brick motifs or bands of
stonework
- Incorporates Italianate style
Gothic Revival ( 1830-1890 )
- Bargeboards/vergeboards
- fashioned plank of lumber running full length of a gabled roof line, not only helped shelter plaster walls from the elements but its foliated scrollwork is the principal ornamental feature of the timber frame manor house
- May include pointed arched windows with diamond
pane glazing, bay windows, vertical
board-and-batten siding, and assorted ornamental
devices like finials, crockets, and roof
crestings
Greek Revival (1797-1840+)
- Front facing pediment gable, resembling entrance to a Greek temple
- Set of rectangular windows around the entry
door
- Tall first-floor windows
- Maybe columns (often fluted and capitals)
- Heavy Cornice
- Rectangular transom over entrance
- Plain frieze
Italianate (1840-1885)
- Defining element of this style are brackets (L-shaped piece of carved wood tucked up under the eaves around roof line)
- Rooftop cupola (also known as belvedere,
lantern, or observatory - relatively any small
windowed room whose purpose was to facilitate
ventilation) in the center of a shallow pyramidal
roof
- Low pitched flat roofs
Categories of Italianate are Italian and Tuscan Villa, Palladian Style, and Palazzo Style/Renaissance Revival:
Italian Villa - rambling asymmetrical pile with
roofs of various heights around a tall square
tower
Tuscan Villa - cubical symmetry and formal
composition in shape, the elements of Italian and
Tuscan labels were used interchangeably in
America
Palladian Style/Renaissance Revival - sharing
Palladian principles; defined by overhanging roof
cornices (wide eaves) and rows of projected window
moldings
Octagon (1848+)
- Polygonal building employing Italianate features
Queen Anne/Free Classic (1887-1910)
Basically, any freeform composition with
Classical details
- No rules of proportion (house expands in every
direction). A bay window may jut out from a
load-bearing wall only to be superseded by a
pediment gable that looms out farther; a square bay
sometimes cut into a corner at an angle of 45
degrees
- One story porch along one or both sides
- Complicated roof planes, e.g. gables pointing in
several directions or one in front of the other
- Usually has a tower, a cylindrical or polygonal
structure topped with a "candle snuffer"
- Vibrant colors were used to highlight decorative
features
- Eclectic appropriation of ornamental from
earlier periods, e.g. garlands, columns, carved
wood resembling plaster pargetting
- May have triangular wooden gable end perforated
with jigsaw ornament
- May have rows of American stick-and-ball porch
spindles
Neo-Classical ( 1895-1910 )
- Often mistakenly called Colonial Revival based on the idea that the founding fathers were the first Americans to build houses fronted with white columns. The fact is that only a handful of Colonial houses are known to have a Classical portico. Better to call it a Greek Revival Revival.
- Single-gabled Colonial box with attic dormer
windows
- Might include either a Queen Anne porch or a set
of columns supporting a second-story walkout
- The obligatory element, a coat of white
paint
- Typically 2-story with prominent full height
porch
Romanesque ( 1840-1900 )
- Massive stone construction
- High roofs
- Clustered windows
- Deeply arched doorways
- Protruding towers
Second Empire ( 1860-1890 )
- Mansard roofs (concave bell-shaped curve, or bulging convex curve, or S-shaped ogee curve, or flat-surfaced Mansard). The steep slope was usually topped with overhanging cornice, above which was mounted a pyramidal roof shallow enough to be nearly invisible from the street.
- Encompassed Italianate features
Stick Style ( 1860-1890 )
- wood construction
- vertical, horizontal, or diagonal boards applied
over clapboard siding
- angularity, asymmetry, verticality
- roof composed of steep intersecting gables
- large veranda or porch
- simple corner posts, roof rafters, brackets,
porch posts, and railings
So what style is it? Take the quiz, click here.
Architectural Terms
Architrave : The main beam
that sets on column capitals and forms the lowest part of
an entablature.
Balustrade: A railing composed of a
series of upright members, often in a vase-shape, with a
top rail and often a bottom rail.
Bargeboard: A decorative board running
along the edge of a gable (often called vergeboard).
Battlement: A parapet wall at the edge of
a roof with alternating slots and raised portions.
Bay: A unit of a building facade, defined
by a regular spacing of windows, columns or piers.
Bay window: An exterior wall projection
filled with windows; if curved, called a Bow Window; if on
an upper floor, called an Oriel Window.
Bond: The pattern of overlapping brick
joints that binds them together to form a wall (e.g.,
common bond, Flemish bond, English bond).
Bracket: A decorative element supporting
a wall projection, cornice or other exterior feature.
Buttress: A mass of masonry or brickwork
projecting from or built against a wall to give additional
strength.
Cantilever: A projecting structural
member, the end of which is supported on a fulcrum and held
by a downward force behind the fulcrum.
Capital: The top portion of a column or
pilaster.
Carrara glass: Pigmented structural glass
(commonly black) with a reflective finish used commonly in
the 1930s and '40s.
Casement window: Window with hinges at
one side.
Cinquefoil: Decorative element
representing a five-leafed form.
Clapboard siding: Tapered wood boards
lapped one over another to form horizontal siding.
Clerestory: Windows located at the
highest point of an exterior wall, usually for sunlighting
of the interior.
Capital: The top, crowning feature of a
column.
Plinth: The lower square form at the base
of a column.
Fluting: Concave grooves running
vertically up a column.
Corbel: An incremented wall projection
used to support additional weight, most commonly
constructed of brick.
Cornice: The decorative projecting
element at the top of an exterior wall.
Cresting: An ornamental ridging at the
top of a wall or peak of a roof.
Cupola: A small dome rising above a roof,
usually with a band of small windows or openings.
Dentils: Rectangular tooth-like elements
forming a decorative horizontal band in a cornice.
Dormer window: A window, and window
structure, that projects out from the slope of a roof.
Double hung window: Window with two sash,
one above the other, each of which can slide vertically.
Eave: Lower edge of a roof extending
beyond the exterior wall.
Engaged column: A column integral with a
wall surface, usually half-round in form.
Entablature: The larger horizontal form
setting on and spanning column capitals; it includes the
architrave, the frieze and the cornice.
Entasis: The subtle bulge in the vertical
form of a classical column.
Facade: Usually the front exterior
elevation, or face, of a building.
Fanlight: Fan-shaped window usually
located over an entrance door.
Fascia Board: A flat, horizontal board
between mouldings, typically used with classical styles.
Finial: A decorative ornament placed at
the peak of a roof.
Frieze: A decorative, horizontal band
located just below a cornice or gable.
Gable: The triangular section of exterior
wall just under the eaves of a double sloped roof.
Gambrel roof: A double sloped barn-like
roof, often associated with Dutch Colonial architecture.
Hip roof: A roof with slopes in the
direction of each elevation, commonly with roof slopes in
four directions.
Keystone: Center stone in a masonry arch.
Label: A molding over a door or window.
Lantern: A small turret with openings or
windows all around, crowning a roof peak or dome.
Lintel: The horizontal support over a
door or window.
Mansard roof: A steeply sloped roof
covering the exterior wall of the top floor of a building,
named after the French architect Mansart and commonly
associated with the Second Empire style.
Modillion: A series of simple brackets
usually found in a cornice.
Mullion: The vertical member separating
windows, doors or other panels set in a series.
Muntin: Wood pieces separating panes of
glass in a window sash.
Newel Posts: Wooden posts located at the
top and/or bottom of a stairway balustrade.
Oculus: A round window.
Oriel window: A projection from the upper
floors of an exterior wall surface that contains one or
more windows.
Palladian window: Large window unit with
arched-top window in center and smaller windows on each
side.
Parapet: An extension of an exterior wall
projecting above the roof plane, commonly used to hide the
plane of a low-slope roof.
Pediment: The gable form at the top of
the facade of a classical style structure; also used over
windows and doors.
Pilaster: A flat, rectangular partial
column attached to a wall surface.
Pitch of Roof: The angle of the roof
slope, expressed in ratio of vertical to horizontal (e.g.,
6:12).
Porte-cochere: A covered entrance for
"coaches" or vehicles, usually attached to the side
elevation of a building.
Portico: A covered "porch" attached to
the main facade of a building, supported by classical order
columns.
Quatrefoil: A decorative element
representing a four-leaf form.
Quoins: Decorative stones at the corner
of a building.
Rake: The extension at the end of a gable
or sloped roof.
Rustication: Large stone blocks or stone
forms with deep reveal masonry joints.
Segmental arch: A partial arch form,
usually made of brick and located over window or door
openings.
Shakes: Split wood shingles.
Shed roof: A single-pitched roof, often
over a room attached to the main structure.
Sidelight: Narrow windows located
immediately adjacent to an entrance door.
Single hung window: Window with two sash,
one above the other, the lower of which can slide
vertically.
Soffit: The underside of an architectural
element.
Terra cotta: Clay blocks or tiles,
usually glazed, used for roof tiles or decorative surfaces.
Tracery: Traditional intersecting
ornamental work found in windows.
Transom: A small window located
immediately above a door.
Trefoil: Decorative element representing
a three-leaf form.
Turret: A small tower located at the
corner of a building, often containing a staircase.
Vergeboard: See
bargeboard.