Hello all...I recently found a very cool picture of the house I grew up in on Vashon-Maury Island, Washington. It has since been remodeled into total submission, but it used to look like this:
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was wondering if anyone out there could tell me the style of the house, ie. Craftsman, whatever. It was built in 1910. Also, what would you call the architectural detail above the angled (bay?) window? Anything anyone can tell me would be much appreciated.
Vernacular ? In UK architectural langauge, that would be pretty much the opposite of anything ordered centrally, like Sears. Vernacular (as we use it) isn't a mixture, it's a local specialisation, often based on the use of local materials.
As to the detail by th ebay, I'd describe it as "gingerbread" and a hangover from the Victorians, who went crazy for this stuff in huge quanitities.
"The term "vernacular architecture" applies to traditional domestic and agricultural buildings, industrial and commercial structures, twentieth-century suburban houses, settlement patterns and cultural landscapes. The Vernacular Architecture Forum was formed in 1980 to encourage the study and preservation of these informative and valuable material resources."
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"In 1914, Aladdin started publishing "Homecraft Market Place" catalogue which included home furnishing products. This catalog only lasted until 1918. Later, in 1949, Aladdin offered furnishings, such as kitchen cabinets, oak flooring and such, through the mail. The catalogues published by Aladdin "provide a record of the century?s vernacular architecture?the styles that dominated farming communities and factory towns" (Roth)."
It's of Victorian style. A modest, middle-class home of the time. The Victorian influences are the spindle series above the entrance and the corner bracket on the bay. By 1910 the Victorian style was well on its way to being phased out, which may account for the lack of the typical decorative wall shingle treatments and more brick-a-brack mouldings - also those things added to the cost of the home so may have just been omitted for economic reasons.
There are no Craftsman, Bungalow or Prairie influences in there that I can see.
Houses that opened on the end (gable end like the one in the photo) were called "Gothic Revival" (GR) and were built all over New England (lots of other places, too but this is where I've seen lots of them). In my family we call them "the houses that were designed before architects had to have master's degrees." That "front door" opened onto a small square space and you could either go directly upstairs to the second floor or a little to the left and into a central hallway or further left into the parlor or music room. There were two rooms on the left that often opened into each other and may have had pocket doors at one time. One might thave been "The Front Parlor" and the other the sitting room.
If you went down the hallway you'd probably be in the kitchen or maybe a dining room, if you were in the kitchen that second parlor may have been your dining room. If you were in the kitchen it was probably an add-on or an "L".
Often times there was a tiny room tucked between the back of the staircase and the kitchen just about useless space that seemed like a architect's error. Sometimes this was a small closet-like space that lead to the cellar stairs. Sometimes the only way to get into the cellar was an outside entry.
Upstairs the area that was above the stairs and NOT used as a stairway into the attic was another very tiny room that seemed like another architect's error. In my aunt's house this room was about 5x7' and had two doors. In another's house this room became a bathroom with a nice private staircase to the attic.
It's my understanding that many had some gingerbread type decorations on the outside as your picture shows but most of the gingerbread was removed as the houses got older and never replaced. Eventually the houses got extra porches and add-on "L"s and other structural changes that make them harder to identify at first glance but if you see a house with the front door on the gable end - you're looking at "Gothic Revival".
These houses often had stained glass windows, I've seen them off that tiny room behind the stairs and at the top of the stairs, too. Your bay window in front wasn't unusual in more citified locals and another bay window on the side if the second parlor was used for a dining room - I've seen that, too. The insides of these houses always seemed dark to me, lotf of doors, too.
In a New England farm house this would have been connected to other buildings and they usually followed a form that went like this: Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn.
So the big house was the house itself the little house might be storage or an indoor spring well the back house was the outhouse and the barn, the barn.
Are there buildings connected to the back of this house?
Anyway, look up "Gothic Revival" on Google and you will see how your house has the doorway, lines and basic structure of the real McCoy.
Must have been nap time - it's not "Gothic Revival" but late "Greek Revival" and I had a very hard time finding the house style under either name. The houses with a Google search for "Greek Revival" showed the larger and fancier houses built before 1860 or so. Try:
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