What is a Victorian House?
The term ‘Victorian house’ may conjure images of turrets, gables, porches, and gingerbread trim, but in reality ‘Victorian’ refers to an era, not a style. The Victorian era owes its name to the reign of Britain’s Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. There isn’t, therefore, one single Victorian architectural style, but many individual styles that all became popular during the Victorian era. Here’s an overview of Victorian-era houses, all of which owe their look to the tremendous changes taking place in everything from art, science, technology, and industry to design and architecture.
Design Changes During Victorian Years
The entire Victorian era is known for its transformational innovations—railroads enabled suburbs and commuting; factories replaced small workshops, and the telephone, electric lighting, and indoor plumbing were all invented. For house design and construction, the years 1860-1900 were particularly important. That’s when balloon framing began to replace heavy timber framing, a change that helped liberate houses from their box-like shapes into more asymmetrical structures. House components such as doors, windows, roofing, siding, and decorative details could all be mass-produced for the first time and shipped by rail. Also, more pattern books were being published with drawings of facades, details, and even house plans.
All these changes led to a new look for the houses that were built, and although architectural historians recognize numerous individual styles that all date from the Victorian era—Second Empire, Stick, Queen Anne, Shingle, Richardsonian Romanesque, and Folk Victorian—there are common Victorian architectural features.
What are the Characteristics of Victorian-era Houses?
Victorian-era houses share commonality in elements ranging from overall building shapes to interior details.
Exterior
- Asymmetrical facades—not the simple symmetrical look of colonial homes
- Steeply pitched roofs with multiple gables—even turrets and towers
- Bay windows
- Front porches, either full width or wraparound
Ornamentation and trim
- Decorative wood trim (“gingerbread”), brackets, and spindlework
- Textured shingles or patterned siding to articulate surfaces
- Turned posts and balustrades on front porches
Windows and details
- Tall, narrow windows, often grouped or with decorative trim
- Colorful paint schemes
Interior features
- Narrow plank or early hardwood floors
- Staircases with turned balusters
- Tall baseboards, crown molding, distinctive window trim
- Pocket doors
- High ceilings, often 9-10 feet on the first floor
What is a Queen Anne Victorian?
Of all the individual house styles that fall within the Victorian era, the most popular is the Queen Anne style. According to ‘A Field Guide to American Houses,’ by Virginia Savage McAlester, Queen Anne “was the dominant style of domestic building during the period from about 1880 until 1900.”
Features of Queen Anne houses include steeply pitched roofs, front-facing gables often with textured shingles, full width and wraparound porches, bay windows, towers, and turrets. It’s the type of house many people equate with a romanticized Main Street life, in which people would sit on their porch and watch the world go by, greeting neighbors, watching a parade, and keeping up with news.
Although the profession of architecture began to develop during the Victorian era—the first architecture program in the country was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1865—Queen Anne wasn’t popular because of architects, who actually weren’t enthralled with the style.
“Instead, the style owed its popularity to the public’s enthusiastic embrace and the pattern books and mail-order house plans that allowed them to build a Queen Anne house. The expanding railroad network expedited this process by making pre-cut architectural details conveniently available throughout much of the nation,” notes McAlester in ‘A Field Guide to American Houses.’
One reason Queen Anne houses have become synonymous with Victorian houses is that they were ubiquitous. Queen Anne houses were built across the country, in small towns, coastal resorts, big cities, and more—everywhere from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Biloxi, Mississippi; from New Haven, Connecticut to Atlanta, Georgia; and in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco.
What is a Suburban Victorian?
The 1896 house whose renovation TOH TV is documenting during Season 47 is considered a suburban Victorian, which is also known as a simple or vernacular Victorian.
Simpler than a fancy Queen Anne, vernacular Victorians appeared in neighborhoods that were taking shape as the era of suburban life became more common in Needham largely because of the arrival of a train line. These are practical houses that still have Victorian decoration, in many cases because the railroads were making decorative millwork affordable and widely available.
Vernacular Victorians can be front gable or side gable. Instead of turrets and towers, they have lighter touches, including front porches, turned wooden posts, straight versus patterned shingles, and bay windows. They are more restrained than a Queen Anne, but still charming and historic.
Needham has numerous vernacular Victorians because the town was growing with railroad access in the late 1800s and middle-class families were moving in, so builders were putting up lots of affordable homes quickly. Instead of elaborate houses, the vernacular Victorians were simple but with fashionable trim to keep them stylish. Interior features included hardwood floors, staircases with turned balusters, and simple but tall baseboards and window trim.
In Needham, vernacular Victorians are a big part of the town’s historic character and are often what people mean when they describe an ‘old Victorian house’ on a favorite street.
No matter the exact type of Victorian-era house—whether it is Queen Anne, vernacular, or one of several other types—the overall effect of these historic houses is to lend charm and character to a street, and to inspire homeowners to keep these beauties at their best.
