U.S. Home Architecture: Classic Houses

By: Alexandra Bandon, This Old House magazine (Page 1 of 6)

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

DUTCH COLONIAL
Time: 1650-1710. Place: New York's Hudson Valley, New Jersey.
The gambrel roof built by Dutch settlers provided extra attic space.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

SALTBOX
Time: 1670-1780. Place: New England.
The distinctive catslide roof sloughed off heavy snows and rain.

Illustration Tom Hennessy

CAPE COD
Time: 1710-1850 Place: New England.
Abundant timber encouraged the expansion of a traditional one-room English cottage.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

GEORGIAN
Time: 1720-1780. Place: East Coast to South
Builders copied from carpenter's manuals the classical designs favored in England.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

FEDERAL
Time: 1780-1820 Place: East Coast to Midwest.
After the Revolution, Americans gave the Georgian style a simpler look.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

GREEK REVIVAL
Time: 1825-1860. Place: East Coast.
Pride in democracy, first espoused by the Greeks, led to the popularity of ancient forms.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

ITALIANATE
Time: 1840-1885 Place: Midwest.
Pattern books promoted this picturesque, informal design, a change from the classical trends.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

SECOND EMPIRE
Time: 1855-1885 Place: Northeast to Midwest.
The French mansard roof gained the world's attention at exposition in Paris.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

QUEEN ANNE
Time: 1880-1910 Place: All areas, especially the South and West.
This ornate style is what people most often refer to as "Victorian."

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

SHINGLE
Time: 1880-1900 Place: Seaside New England.
Today's architects have revived this hybrid of Colonial Revival and Queen Anne.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

COLONIAL REVIVAL
Time: 1880-1955 Place: All areas.
The Centennial celebration of 1876 popularized the house forms of the country's founding days.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

TUDOR REVIVAL
Time: 1890-1940 Place: All areas.
An asymetrical, English-manor look to counter its boxy Colonial Revival neighbors in suburbia.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

PRAIRIE
Time: 1900-1920 Place: Midwest.
Low-slung designs by Frank Lloyd Wright and others echoed flat prairie landscapes.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

CRAFTSMAN
Time: 1905-1930 Place: All areas.
The Arts and Crafts movement embodied simplicity, handiwork, and natural materials.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

SPANISH REVIVAL
Time: 1915-1945 Place: California, Florida, Southwest
Romantic revivals celebrated Mediterranean and native heritages.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

RANCH
Time: 1935-1975 Place: All areas.
California architect Cliff May's vision of Spanish ranches was simplified by suburban builders.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

INTERNATIONAL
Time: 1930s-1990s Place: California, Northeast.
The unadorned geometry, too austere for housing, influenced public buildings.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

POST-MODERN
Time: 1970s-present Place: All areas
An attempt to make modernist design more human by incorporating historic references.

Illustration: Tom Hennessy

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What You'll Learn:

American domestic architecture came into its own in the 20th century. Architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Greene & Greene, and Philip Johnson created true homegrown styles. But an equally important development never showed up on a blueprint — the preservation movement. Laws now protect the finest period neighborhoods, owners of old houses maintain their original facades even as they update interiors, and architects turn to the past for inspiration.

This desire to hold on to the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries ensures that future generations will experience American history in its most intimate form: the homes we lived in. From the simple log cabin brought over by Swedish settlers in the late 1600s to the sophisticated geometry of 20th-century modernists, the rich variety of homes reflects the melting pot of people and cultural influences that have shaped this country. "Each one of us has an ancestry, we have a genealogy — and so do houses," says John Milnes Baker, author of American House Styles. Next, a timeline of our architectural history.