Colonial Revival architecture
Encyclopedia
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
, garden design
Garden design
Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Garden design may be done by the garden owner themselves, or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expertise...
, and interior design
Interior design
Interior design describes a group of various yet related projects that involve turning an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities are to take place there. An interior designer is someone who conducts such projects...
movement in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement
Colonial Revival Movement
The Colonial Revival movement was a national expression of early North American culture, primarily the built and artistic environments of the east coast colonies. The Colonial Revival is generally associated with the eighteenth-century provincial fashion for the Georgian and Neoclassical styles...
in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own heritage and architecture. This also came after the Centennial Exhibition of 1876
Centennial Exposition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was officially...
reawakened Americans to their colonial past, and was accelerated by the advent of the automobile, which allowed ordinary Americans to visit sites connected with the past.
History
Successive waves of revivals of British colonial architecture have swept the United States since 1876. In the 19th century, the Colonial Revival took a more eclectic style, and columns were often seen.Three localities that feature larger neighborhood tracts of colonial revival style residences are the Windsor Farms
Windsor Farms
Windsor Farms is a 20th-century neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia of primarily Colonial Revival design.Designed in 1926, Windsor Farms is one of Richmond's first planned neighborhoods. The road layout consists of circular and diagonal patterns with English street names such as Dover, Canterbury,...
area in the west end of Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
; the Country Club District
Country Club District (Minneapolis)
The Country Club District is a 20th century neighborhood in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, of primarily Colonial Revival, Tudorbethan style, also called Mock Tudor, Georgian Revival and Mediterranean Revival designs.-External links:*...
of Edina, Minnesota
Edina, Minnesota
Edina is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and a first-ring suburb situated immediately southwest of Minneapolis. Edina began as a small farming and milling community in the 1860s. The population was 47,941 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
, a suburb of Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
; and the Country Club District
Country Club District
The Country Club District is the name of a group of neighborhoods comprising a historic upscale residential district in Kansas City, Missouri, and Johnson County, Kansas, USA, developed by noted real estate developer J.C. Nichols. The district was developed in stages between 1906 and 1950...
in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, a residential district lying south and built around the former grounds of the Kansas City Country Club (now Loose Park), and which the J. C. Nichols Company began developing in 1906 to become what is now the largest master-planned community in the United States. All were built in the 1920s.
In the early 20th century, the books and atmospheric photographs of Wallace Nutting
Wallace Nutting
Wallace Nutting was a U.S. minister, photographer, artist, and antiquarian, who is most famous for his pictures. He also was an accomplished author, lecturer, furniture maker —some of whose reproductions pass as antiques— antiques expert and collector...
showing scenes of New England became popular reflecting public interest in the Colonial Revival style. With the popularity of research-based history attractions like Colonial Williamsburg
Colonial Williamsburg
Colonial Williamsburg is the private foundation representing the historic district of the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. The district includes buildings dating from 1699 to 1780 which made colonial Virginia's capital. The capital straddled the boundary of the original shires of Virginia —...
in the 1930s, the subsequent "colonial" architecture took a more scholarly and less ostentatious turn, and columns fell out of favor. By the 1976 United States Bicentennial
United States Bicentennial
The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to the historical events leading up to the creation of the United States as an independent republic...
, Colonial architecture merged with the then popular ranch-style house
Ranch-style house
Ranch-style houses is a domestic architectural style originating in the United States. First built in the 1920s, the ranch style was extremely popular amongst the booming post-war middle class of the 1940s to 1970s...
design, and created yet another iteration of the Colonial Revival, one that often featured eagle, cannon or drum motifs and sometimes wooden shake
Shake (shingle)
A shake is a basic wooden shingle that is made from split logs. Shakes have traditionally been used for roofing and siding applications around the world. Higher grade shakes are typically used for roofing purposes, while the lower grades are used for siding purposes...
roofs. In the early part of the 21st century, styles evolved again, with "colonial" in the United States suggesting a more Anglo-Caribbean
Anglophone Caribbean
The term Commonwealth Caribbean is used to refer to the independent English-speaking countries of the Caribbean region. Upon a country's full independence from the United Kingdom, Anglophone Caribbean or Commonwealth Caribbean traditionally becomes the preferred sub-regional term as a replacement...
or British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
feel.
In California and the American Southwest, which had been under Spanish and not English colonial rule, revival architecture looked back to Spanish, rather than Georgian prototypes, taking the form of both Mission Revival Style architecture
Mission Revival Style architecture
The Mission Revival Style was an architectural movement that began in the late 19th century for a colonial style's revivalism and reinterpretation, which drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century Spanish missions in California....
and Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture
Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture
The Spanish Colonial Revival Style was a United States architectural stylistic movement that came about in the early 20th century, starting in California and Florida as a regional expression related to history, environment, and nostalgia...
.
Defining characteristics
Colonial Revival sought to follow the American colonial architecture of the period around the Revolutionary War, usually being two stories in height with the ridge pole running parallel to the street, a symmetrical front facade with an accented doorway and evenly spaced windows on either side of it.Features that make them distinguishable from colonial period houses of the similar style of the early 19th century are elaborate front doors, often with decorative crown pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
s and overhead fanlight
Fanlight
A fanlight is a window, semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan, It is placed over another window or a doorway. and is sometimes hinged to a transom. The bars in the fixed glazed window spread out in the manner a sunburst...
s and sidelights, but with machine-made woodwork that had less depth and relief than earlier handmade versions. Window openings, while symmetrically located on either side of the front entrance, were usually hung in adjacent pairs or in triple combinations rather than as single windows. Side porches or sunrooms
Sunrooms
A sunroom, sun parlor, sun porch, or sun lounge is a structure, usually constructed onto the side of a house, to allow enjoyment of the surrounding landscape while being sheltered from adverse weather conditions such as rain and wind...
were common additions to these homes, introducing modern comforts. Also distinctive in this style are multiple columned porches and doors with fanlights and sidelights. To go along with the Colonial Revival style of architecture, owners often sought to furnish the house with furnishings that are preferably antique but often are reproductions
Modern antique
Modern antique can have various meanings. Since customs laws and dealers often stipulate an age of at least a hundred years for any item to be legitimately called an antique, the term is sometimes used to describe a collector's item that is technologically obsolete; for example, an older computer...
.
See also
- Mediterranean Revival Style architectureMediterranean Revival Style architectureThe Mediterranean Revival was an eclectic design style that was first introduced in the United States about the end of the nineteenth century, and became popular during the 1920s and 1930s...
- Dutch ColonialDutch ColonialDutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house...
- Colonial Revival garden
Further reading
- A. Axelrod, The Colonial Revival in America 1985.
- William Butler, Another City Upon a Hill: Litchfield, Connecticut, and the Colonial Revival
- Karal Ann Marling, George Washington Slept Here: Colonial Revivals and American Culture, 1876-1986 1988.
- Richard Guy Wilson and Noah Sheldon, The Colonial Revival House 2004.
- Richard Guy Wilson, Shaun Eyring and Kenny Marotta, Re-creating the American Past: Essays on the Colonial Revival 2006.