![]() ![]() Next time someone says, “I love Victorian architecture,” show them your smarts by asking, “Which style?” To get technical, even though Queen Victoria reigned from 1837-1901, the Victorian era in architecture refers to structures built between 1860 to 1900, which includes Second Empire and Romanesque Revival styles. Gingerbread, wrap-around porches, patterned shingles,Īnd multi-colored paint schemes. When people refer to houses as Victorian, they usually are referring to Queen Anne-style homes with Italianate commercial buildings also line the Main Streets of small towns and big cities. Even vernacular forms such as gable-fronts and I-houses embraced the Italianate craze. You’ll find picturesque rural examples as well as urban mansions. New railroads, improved roads, and larger farms made Indiana’s population swell by over one million people between 18. Italianate architecture enjoyed a long run of popularity and remains the most common of the nineteenth-century high styles in Indiana, primarily due to rapid population growth during the period. Downing’s villas often included a tower or cupola that added drama and proclaimed the wealth and status of the owner, in addition to offering a spectacular view and releasing heat during humid Indiana summers. Downing’s pattern books also depicted designs inspired by the Romantic country villas of the Italian Renaissance. ![]() The Italianate style reflects Americans’ continued love of early European architecture. The introduction of the mechanical scroll saw to the United States in the 1860s made these intricate wooden details more affordable and prevalent. Gothic Revival-style churches exhibit delicate stone tracery, translated in residential buildings to woodenĪnd porches. In some examples,įurther emphasizes verticality. In residential architecture, Gothic Revival remained fashionable in Indiana from 1850-1870, and its popularity for religious buildings continued well into the twentieth century. The great Gothic cathedrals of Europe inspired verticality, which in houses meant steeply-pitched roofs and The construction of the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) in London from 1840-1870, and James Renwick, Jr.’s 1855 “castle” for the Smithsonian Institution-both Gothic Revival-helped popularize the style. Alexander Jackson Davis and later Andrew Jackson Downing harnessed the feeling in Gothic Revival-style architectural designs for country cottages published in oversized plan books that reached a large audience. The late Middle Ages-think castles and crusades-looked inexplicably attractive to a nineteenth-century society made anxious by factory work, political corruption, and financial crises. The most elaborate Federal houses have a three-part The windows typically have flat trim, perhaps with a simple keystone as decoration. If the house still has its original windows, they’re probably double-hung sashes with small panes of glass, often in a 6-over-6 pane pattern. Maintain the symmetry (and provided warmth in the days before central heating). ![]() Surrounding the main entry that provided natural light into the center hallway, a necessity in the days before electricity. ![]() Refined and balanced, Federal houses in an I-house form generally have a The Federal style spread from the east coast to Indiana-the first architect-designed style the state-where it remained popular from roughly 1810-1845. Though Americans threw off British rule, we happily borrowed the Adams brothers’ architecture for our Federal style, named after the Federalists-an early American political party that favored a strong federal government and close ties with Britain. Robert and James Adam (1728-92) heavily influenced British architecture in the late eighteenth century. ![]()
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