Victorian House Styles

During the 19th century there were many distinct styles of actual Victorian homes, ranging from seaside cottages to Italianate villas, Queen Anne cottages to romantic stone castles, brownstones, octagon houses, and mansard-roofed mansions. Victorian house styles were the product of an era rather than a specific idea about house design, resulting in a variety of both interior and exterior layouts and uses of material.

The Carson Mansion in Eureka, Ca features several architetural styles including Queen Anne, Eastlake, Italianate, and Stick attributes. [PHOTO CREDIT: PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE CAROL M. HIGHSMITH ARCHIVE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION] (ARCHITECTURAL dRAWING)

In Victorian America, people placed great importance on the style, size and decoration of their homes, always striving to over-achieve and impress. Mass-production and factory-made building parts carried over a system of rail lines enabled the building of large, elaborate, affordable houses throughout America. The features of Victorian house architecture were more eclectic and diverse in nature as opposed to owning rigid and exclusive characteristics.

A variety of Victorian styles emerged: Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Stick Style, and many others. There were no single set of features which specifically defined the Victorian house. Pictures of Victorian houses, such as the Carson Mansion, will illustrate the endless combinations of structural characteristics of Victorian architecture in American residences. Labels such as Queen Anne, Italianate or Eastlake are terms which refer to the use of certain decorative elements, but not necessarily an indication of a specific Victorian architectural style. You will find that many Victorian houses are a combination of several style traits. (See the Carson Mansion - the ultimate Victorian)

Styles: Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Stick Style

Gothic Revival

Roseland Cottage, located in Woodstock CT, epitomizes the Gothic Revival architecture of 1846 with its steep gables, decorative bargeboards, and ornamented chimney pots. [PHOTO CREDIT: PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE CAROL M. HIGHSMITH ARCHIVE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION]

The mid-19th century Gothic Revival featured picturesque and romantic architectural elements, manifesting the American Victorian’s taste for structures inspired by medieval design. The most common features include:

• Steeply pitched roofs, at times with steep cross gables and deeply overhanging eaves
• Pointed arch found in windows, doors, high dormers, porches
• Lacy bargeboards or vergeboards, a unique wooden trim referred to as “gingerbread”
• One story porch with decorative turned posts or slender columns

• Castle-style towers and turrets on high-style houses (e.g. Hammond House architectural drawings)

[Photo Credit: Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division]

A 1977 photo of The Abbey (John B. McCreary House) in Cape May New Jersey, built in 1869 for State Senator John B. McCreary, a Pennsylvania coal baron. This is a notable Gothic Revival clapboard villa with elaborate trim designed by Architect Stephen Button. The Victorian house features lancet-arched windows, square casements, polygonal bay window, rectangular windows; Tudor-arched entrances; drip-stones; elaborate bargeboards; patterned shingles and siding on gable ends. It is 2-1/2 stories with 4-story (60 foot) corner entrance tower. (Architectural drawings of this Gothic Revival)

Lake-Peterson House, a Gothic Revival house in Rockford, Illinois, was built in 1873. [Photo Credit: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division]

Italianate

The 19th century Italianate architecture James Ryan Mansion features 10 private baths, 12 marble fireplaces and parquet floors. [PHOTO CREDIT: PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE CAROL M. HIGHSMITH ARCHIVE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION]

Like the Gothic Revival, the Italianate or Italian Villa style featured picturesque and romantic architectural elements. The Italianate style was fashioned after the medieval farmhouses and villas of the Italian countryside. This style house was designed to fit naturally into their rustic settings and were irregularly shaped. The most common features include:

• Two or three stories in height
• Low-pitched, sometimes flat roofs
• Tall, narrow windows with elaborate surrounds
• Cupola or square tower with bracketed cornice
• Double door with glass panels
• Wide eaves supported by brackets
• Single story full width porches, or entry portico
• Quoins  

Ryerss Victorian Mansion, an Italianate style villa, was built in 1859 on 85 acres in Burholme Park, Philadelphia. Villas appealed to the tastes of the middle class which was rising to affluence in America. [PHOTO CREDIT: PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE CAROL M. HIGHSMITH ARCHIVE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION]

The 1889 Italianate style Bauer Mansion, constructed of red bricks with low pitched roof, corner quoins and elaborate surrounds on windows and door. [PHOTO CREDIT: Gates Frontiers Fund Colorado Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division]

The two-story Ferrell-Holt House, built in the Italianate style in 1877, features an almost flat low-pitched roof and elaborate window surrounds. [Photo credit: West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division]

Second Empire / Mansard Style

The Second-Empire-style Evans-Webber House in Salem, Virginia built in 1882 by John Evans. [Photo Credit: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division]

The Second Empire, or French Second Empire style, was also called the Mansard style. This architectural style, with its popularity peaking between 1865 and 1880, originated in France. Some of the great hotels built in the late Victorian era featured these architectural elements. But the most striking feature of Second Empire architecture is the Mansard, or “French” roof. The Mansard roof, named after the 17th century Parisian architect Francois Mansart, provides light and headroom in the upper story attic. It was found on not only the mansions of the wealthy but on ordinary houses, including row houses in American cities. Characteristics of the Second Empire include:

• Mansard roof
• Projecting tower
• One story porch
• Balcony with iron railings
• Bay windows
• Diamond-shaped slate hooded dormers
• Side veranda
• Quoins
• Balustrades
• Iron roof crest

[PHOTO Credit: West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division]

Woodburn Hall, first known as University Hall, on the downtown campus of West Virginia University. The predominantly red brick Second Empire style building under a mansard roof was built between 1874 and 1876. It is considered one of the finest examples of Second Empire architecture in the State of West Virginia.

Mansard Roofs on historic row houses in Washington, D.C. [Photo credit: The George F. Landegger Collection of District of Columbia Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division]

Queen Anne

Queen Anne Victorian House in Ouray, Colorado. [Credit line: Gates Frontiers Fund Colorado Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division]

For many, the Queen Anne stands out as the unequivocal “Victorian house.” With its towers, turrets, wrap around porches and other superfluous architectural elements, the Queen Anne is the most extravagant and the most unconventional of Victorian architectural styles. The Queen Anne is often recognized for its bright and avant-garde color schemes of which San Francisco’s celebrated “Painted Ladies” are a representation.

The peak period of the Queen Anne style was 1880–1900, and Richard Norman Shaw and other English architects are credited with advocating its widespread success. The most common features include:

• Asymmetrical two or three-storied
• Projecting upper floors
• Towers, turrets, balconies
• Steeply pitched roof w/ patterned shingles
• Roof finials and crestings
• Projecting bay windows
• Stained glass windows
• Spacious porches and verandas
• Turned post porch supports
• Decorative spindlework
• Lacy ornamentation (gingerbread) on porch entries and gable ends
• Built of stone, brick and wood siding.
• Rainbow of bold paint colors

Above house is Elmhurst Mansion, also known as the House of Friendship, in Wheeling, West Virginia. Samuel S. Bloch, the founder and president of the Block Brothers Tobacco Company, built this Queen Anne-style house in 1891. The mansion boasts Queen Anne features: steeply pitched roof, towers, turrets, balconies, spacious porches and bold paint colors. The large Victorian mansion was named “Elmhurst” because of the large elm trees which were planted by Mr. Bloch himself. Also located on the estate were a home for the grounds keeper, a small playhouse used by the Bloch children, a well that furnished fresh spring water to the estate, and a bungalow which was chiefly used by Jesse and Harold Bloch to entertain college friends.

A Queen Anne-style house, built in 1895, at 718 Main Street in Sistersville, West Virginia. [Image Credit: Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division]

[Photo Credit: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division]

This 19th century structure is an exceptional example of the Queen Anne style of Victorian architecture. Known as the J. Milton Carson House, and locally known as The Pink Lady, it is situated across the street from the famous Carson Mansion in Old Town Eureka, California.