We see hundreds of them every day. Houses are everywhere, just like cars. Yet most of us are better at identifying Subarus and Chevys than we are at figuring out whether that place on the corner is a bungalow or a Cape. Which is ironic, since it’s the houses we live in, not the cars.
Well, just like your older brother who schooled you in the finer points of Camaro identification, UVA professor of architectural history Richard Guy Wilson is here to help. ABODE took a spin through several Charlottesville neighborhoods, with Wilson as our guide, and got educated on five of the house styles that are most common around here. Which one looks like home to you?
Style me this
Houses, like the people who live in them, are tough to categorize. “The idea of a purity of style” rarely shows up in the real world, says Wilson. The definition of a “colonial” house, for one, has changed over the years and is now an umbrella term that covers various styles characteristic of the early American years. (Cape Cods, which have their own place in our story, are actually a subset of colonials.) That’s technical talk, though. In common usage, a “colonial” house has a fairly recognizable look—and one that’s widely copied in houses being built right now.
Richard Guy Wilson |
Meanwhile, the lines routinely blur as styles borrow from each other and the origins of certain architectural elements are lost over time. For example, Wilson explained to us the difference between various classical orders of columns–Doric, Ionic, Corinthian—before acknowledging that, to most people nowadays, classical columns are more for “decoration and pretense” than about signaling the qualities of strength, beauty and wisdom those orders originally represented. Classical columns might show up flanking the entrance of a ranch house built in the 1960s, functioning purely as ornament.
Another example: Wilson teaches his students that “Victorian” refers to an era, not a style. Yet most Americans, when they say “Victorian house,” mean the type of Queen Anne confections that line the streets of San Francisco.
Identifying a house style means asking many different questions. What are the proportions of a house’s façade and how do its windows and doors relate to each other? Is it symmetrical? How many stories does it have? What’s the shape of the roof? Does it have elements like porches, dormers, chimneys? Is it oriented more toward the front yard or the back yard? Is the kitchen in the front or back? What is the layout of the rooms inside? Does it feel formal or casual? Are the details more classical or contemporary?
Colonial
“Most Virginians are more comfortable with traditional buildings,” says Wilson. If you doubt that statement, just notice the number of colonial-style houses around town. Traditionally, colonial houses were laid out with rooms opening off a central hall; those built more recently might have less formal plans. In Charlottesville, look for colonials in nearly every neighborhood, from traditional examples in the University area to contemporary takes on the style found in the newest developments.
• Symmetrical and orderly façade, with windows arranged around the central front door
• Often, ornamentation has classical origins, as in columns and pilasters
• In Virginia, very often made of red brick with white trim
Foursquare
This American form, says Wilson, “began to appear very early” in the country’s history. “It has carried many names,” he says, but is “ubiquitous” in Virginia and elsewhere. It’s a solid, familiar, basic-looking form. North Downtown and Belmont include lots of examples of foursquares, often built from brick.
• Square footprint
• Two stories
• Hipped roof sloping down to eaves on all sides
• Often, full-width front porches
Cape Cod
Technically a subset of the larger “colonial” umbrella category, Capes are simple, humble, appealing homes with (as their name suggests) New England roots. In their most traditional form, Capes have very little ornamentation on the exterior, but—as with most styles—they’ve been adorned in various ways since they began to be mass-produced around the United States. Both prewar and postwar Charlottesville neighborhoods include Capes, as they were built for middle-class homeowners through much of the 20th century.
• One or one and a half stories
• Strongly pitched roof with little overhang, sometimes with dormer windows
• Often, symmetrical façade
• Large chimney
Ranch
“If there’s a revolution in American housing since World War II, it’s the ranch house,” says Wilson. The now-ubiquitous ranch was innovative for its indoor/outdoor connection, its orientation toward the back rather than the front yard, and its informal interior layout where dining and living spaces often merged, and the eat-in kitchen became common for the first time. It’s the iconic house of the American suburbs. Charlottesville’s outer neighborhoods, built in the 1950s and ‘60s—think Greenbrier Heights—are the place to find ranches.
• Low-slung, horizontal profile
• Picture windows
• Usually, one story (though split-level ranches and raised ranches are common, too)
• Often, a side door or garage functioning as main entrance, with the front door more for show
• Often, flanked by carports (which in turn have sometimes been converted to indoor rooms since the houses were first built)
Bungalow
The term bungalow, Wilson explains, has changed considerably in meaning since 18th- and 19th-century British colonialists used it to describe the single-story structures with huge verandahs which housed them in India. When the term arrived in the U.S. in the late 1800s, it was applied to seaside cottages and connoted resort homes; it caught on as a style of inexpensive primary residence—a chance to enjoy “summertime delight,” as Wilson says, year round—in the early 20th century. Designer Gustav Stickley’s patterns, published in his magazine The Craftsman, established many of the details we now think of as typical of bungalows—banks of windows, flared porch columns, shingled exteriors.
There’s no Charlottesville neighborhood primarily made of bungalows, but they are sprinkled throughout town in areas like Belmont and Woolen Mills.
• One and a half stories
• Low-rise roof, often with a prominent central dormer window
• Often, a large front porch
• Unassuming and casual
• Interior plans often feature a tight foyer and an open flow between living and dining rooms
