Architectural Styles

Colonial Styles

Early Spanish, French and English
-American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, German Colonial and Georgian Colonial.^[1] These styles are associated with the houses, churches and government buildings of the period between about 1600 through the 19th century.

Georgian 
-The defining characteristics of Georgian architecture are its square, symmetrical shape, central door, and straight lines of windows on the first and second floor. There is usually a decorative crown above the door and flattened columns to either side of it. The door leads to an entryway with stairway and hall aligned along the center of the house. All rooms branch off of these. Georgian buildings, in the English manner were ideally in brick, with wood trim, wooden columns and entablatures painted white.

Early National and Romantic Styles

Greek Revival 
-Pedimented Gable covering entry supported by columns
-Symmetrical Shape
-Bold and Simple Moldings
-Decorative Pilasters

 

Gothic Revival 

-Steeply Pitched Roof
-Grouped Chimneys
-Pinnacles, Battlements, and shaped Parapets
-Quatrefoil and Clover Shaped Windows
-Oriel Windows
-Asymmetrical Floor Plan 

 

Italian Villa

-Pedimented Gables
-Asymmetrical Floor Plan
-Bold and Simple Moldings
-Decorative Pilasters 

 

Victorian Era Styles

Second Empire

-Basically Italianate style/forms with Mansard roof!! Dormer windows, sometimes a square (not round) tower, decorative brackets, molded cornice, similar to Italianate detail on windows, doors; Floor plan often includes pavilions: outward projection of a building's center or side.

Romanesque Revival

-Round arches over windows and/or entryways; thick, cavernous entryways and window openings; thick masonry walls, rounded towers with conical roof; facades are asymmetrical; variable stone and brick façade. On elaborate examples, polychromatic facades with contrasting building materials.

 

 Queen Anne/Stick/Eastlake

-Steeply pitched, irregular roof shapes; dominant, front-facing gable; patterned shingles, bay windows, picturesque massing (see Gothic Revival), polychromatic and decorative ornamentation; partial or full-width porches of one story; multiple gables and dormers; occasional towers and turrets, rounded or square. Differing wall textures are their "hallmark". This is the most eclectic style of the Victorian era.

 

Folk/Folk Victorian

-Porches with spindlework detailing, L-shaped or gable-front plan, cornice brackets, details often with Italianate and/or Queen Anne inspiration, sometimes Gothic. Basically, working-class or middle-class versions of Queen Anne. Simpler details and basic, asymmetrical floor plans.

Period Styles

Colonial Revival 

-Initially inspired by the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial: new interest in American colonial past. Architects studied colonial styles throughout New England by 1890s. A dominant style for domestic buildings nationwide 1900-1940s. Georgian and Adam styles were the backbone of revival ideas, with a secondary influence of Dutch Colonial (with the characteristic Gambrel roof). The Colonial Revival style is sometimes referred to as Neo-Georgian, due to its striking resemblance to the earlier Georgian and federal styles.

Tudor Revival 

-Tudor revival became especially popular with 1920s suburban homes, loosely based on late medieval prototypes. Many are identified with false (ornamental) half-timbering, a medieval English building tradition, often with stucco or masonry veneered walls, steeply pitched roof, cross-gabled plans. A varient of this is sometimes referred to as the Picturesque Cottage or English Cottage, which typically includes a picturesque (asymmetrical) floor plan but without the half timbering. A whimsical variant of the Tudor Revival is the playful Storybook Style, also known as the Cotswold Cottage or Hansel and Gretel Cottage.