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66and76

Can you identify the style? Folk Victorian??

66and76
17 years ago

Our house in Georgia was built in 1910. It has a wide center hall with most rooms entering into the hall. There are large, pocket doors leading into and out of the living room. The ceilings are 12 feet tall, and there is a very large, unfloored attic space. Brick pillars support the house. The oval, stained glass window is original. I have looked in some books but cannot decide what to call the style of the house. Can you help? Thanks.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

Comments (11)

  • dally099
    17 years ago

    hi pink, i would venture to say vicorian, i live in a home that was built in 1917 and we have the same square pillars off the front porch and the roof line is the same. hope this helps!

    thanks nadine

  • cotehele
    17 years ago

    Hi Paula,
    Your house style is vernacular (common) victorian. It look like the front porch may not be original. It would be a bit unusual to have a porch over the bay on the right side. Hope that helps. c

  • 66and76
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Nadine and cotehele: Thank you for the comments. I am going to try to locate any old pictures of the house to see if the porch was ever different. Since the floor of the porch is poured concrete, you are probably right in thinking the porch may have been altered. Normally, a porch on a house this age would have a wooden floor. Family members of some of the earliest owners still live in our town. They may be able to give me some information. Thanks again.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

  • cotehele
    17 years ago

    Paula,
    Is there an addition on the back of the house? Anymore pictures? c

  • aprilwhirlwind
    17 years ago

    Some might also call it a Queen Anne style bungalow.
    During that period people were building many one story houses of different styles and referring to all of them as bungalows. Even some 2 story houses were called bungalows.
    Yours is a very typically southern house for its era. That's what makes it vernacular, really. It's a house suited to its locality.
    Even if the porch is a replacement, the original posts could have been very similar in style. Many houses similar to yours showed a bit of Colonial Revival influence. Two identical houses could have been built on the same street,in the same year differing only in in the fact that one owner might have gone with plain, Colonial revival style posts, while the other selected turned posts with a bit of fretwork and brackets.

  • 66and76
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    c: The back of the house used to be a small porch. It was enclosed around 1970 and turned into a second kitchen with "lovely" avacado metal cabinets, which are now in our tool shed. At that time, the house was subdivided into two apartments, the ceilings were lowered to 8 feet, and the original heart pine floors were covered with green shag wall-to-wall carpet. When we bought the house a few years ago, we restored the original floor plan. I do not have any more exterior pictures, but I have attached a picture of our recently renovated kitchen. It is not finished, however. The work continues and will probably never end!

    kennebunker: Thanks for the information. I LOVE having a "typically Southern house"! Charming! You are exactly right in describing other homes in our neighborhood. One can see past the details and identify the same structure beneath. Will you please explain what would make some call our house a Queen Anne style bungalow? Thanks again!

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

  • 66and76
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    This is our front hall after raising the ceiling from 8 to 12 feet, opening the far wall (which had been a solid wall to separate the apartments), installing french doors and new light fixtures, and refinishing the heart pine floors.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

  • lovesjazzycat
    17 years ago

    pinkpaula, I love your house. Great job! Please post more photos. I live in South Carolina. We're hoping to move into our old house this summer. I'll try to figure out how to post some photos when we get more done.

  • aprilwhirlwind
    17 years ago

    I do really like your house.
    OK, trying to work out why I said your house could be called a Queen Anne bungalow.
    It's a bungalow. Some may want to call it cottage, but it isn't cottagey, it's bungalowish, and bungalows were very popular in that era. many think of Craftsman and Arts and Crafts when they hear bungalow, but a bungalow can come in any style.
    The reason it can be called Queen Anne has to do with its mass, in other words, the pyrimidal shape of the roof and the slight irregularity where it juts out in the front. There are folk Victorians, and Four Squares and plain ole no style at all just 4 walls and a roof houses with pyramidal roofs too, but it's other details that sort them out. The front bay, the cute elliptical window, all fit it with Q.Anne. We generally think of lots of gingerbread with Q.Annes, but they come with simple colonial touches or a bit of Arts and Crafts too.
    I often shy away from giving houses labels, anymore, because so many overlap styles, but your house looks to me like a Queen Anne bungalow. 1910 was pretty much the tail end of the Queen Anne period, and the Victorian age ended with her death in 1901.

    You may find my blogs of interest, if you haven't checked them out.I'm giving the link for one, you can find a link there to the Victorian one, and to all sorts of pictures etc.

    Here is a link that might be useful: early twentieth century homes

  • 66and76
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    lovesjazzycat: Thank you! I'm so glad you like my house. I would love to see pictures of your house, too. Are you in Charleston? Renovation is a challenge, but the rewards outweigh the sore backs and broken nails. I will try to take more pictures to add to this blog as soon as I can.

    kennebunker: Wow!!! The links are terrific! There is so much material to read, and I love all the pictures. I should be able to get many ideas to incorporate into our house. The additional description of the Queen Anne style helped me open new research avenues.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

  • christie
    17 years ago

    Hello, pinkpaula. Just wanted to say I, too, love your house -- you've done an amazing job restoring it to its former beauty. You must love living there. Congratulations!

    Christie