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The first Italianate houses in the United States were constructed in
the late 1830s, popularized by the pattern books of Andrew Jackson
Downing similar to the Gothic Revival. By the 1860s however, the
Italianate style surpassed the slightly earlier Gothic Revival in popularity.
In the United States, two separate approaches can be seen in domestic
examples. One was more directly inspired by the traditional Italian villa
with its masonry construction, square towers, and irregular massing and
floor plans.
This is distinguished from a more formal, symmetrical, and familiar
townhouse or detached Greek Revival box to which Italianate
ornamentation such as eave brackets and arched windows were applied.
The combination of a familiar form and the “picturesque” decoration
helped the style maintain its dominance through the third quarter of
the nineteenth century. In fact, vernacular examples developed into a
truly American style with only passing reference to Italian models.
The financial panic of 1873 and the subsequent economic depression
directly led to the decline of the Italianate style.

Second Empire: 1855-1885

A textbook example of the Stick style for the average family is this house in
Albany, Oregon, with its gable end nicely delineated by pronounced stickwork.
photo: Kenneth Haversen
the preceding Gothic Revival with the subsequent Queen Anne. All
three were inspired by the building traditions of Medieval English half-
timbered construction with its visible structural elements, steeply
pitched roofs, and projecting gables. Unlike the Gothic Revival, the
Stick Style stressed the wall surface itself rather than applying decorative
elements merely at windows, doors, and cornices. Various patterns of
wood clapboards or board-and-batten siding were applied within
square and triangular spaces created by the raised stickwork. This
detailing was applied to a variety of nineteenth-century building forms,
making it the defining element of the style.
This example is in the historic Lafayette Square neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, The Stick Style is a celebration of wood construction and in many
home to one of the nation’s largest concentrations of French Second Empire ways, the “structure” as defined by the stick work is the decoration. The
architecture. photo: St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission undecorated, square-milled lumber gives a precise, geometric quality to
Stick Style homes. Advocates additionally promoted the Stick Style’s
Following the Civil War, a population explosion in the cities and structural “honesty” because the stick work was meant to express the
towns of the northern and western United States naturally led to a huge building’s internal structure; however, unlike true half-timbering, stick
demand for new housing. At the same time, house design books and work was merely applied decoration with no true relation to the
building parts catalogs were becoming available nationally and underlying balloon-frame construction. During the 1880s the Stick
streetcars and trains brought newer, more distant suburbs with space Style was rapidly replaced by the related Queen Anne movement,
for large new houses within commuting distance of major cities. These which was both more widespread and influential.
factors along with postwar industrial and economic energy resulted in Examples survive primarily in the northeastern United States and
the flowering of a variety of new architectural styles. Overall floor plans date from the 1860s and ‘70s. It is likely that many original examples
and forms became more varied and complex, with styles increasingly are now obscured, as their characteristic wall patterns and detailing,
defined by the shapes of door and window openings and applied susceptible to deterioration, have been removed rather than repaired
decoration at windows, doors, porches, and particularly front entries. or replaced.
The Second Empire (or French Second Empire) style was considered
to be the modern fashion of the late nineteenth century, mimicking the
latest French building styles. Its distinctive mansard roof was named for Queen Anne: 1880-1910
an early French architect, Francois Mansart (1598-1666), and was used
extensively during the reign of Napoleon III (1852-1870), France’s The standard for domestic architecture during the Victorian era in
Second Empire. Exhibitions in Paris in 1855 and 1867 helped to the United States, the Queen Anne style is difficult to define, encom-
popularize the style internationally. The mansard roof became passing a wide range of architectural elements and borrowing and com-
particularly popular in urban areas where it provided a full attic story of bining features from multiple stylistic traditions. The initial inspiration
living space and was also commonly used in remodeling older came from England but developed into something uniquely American.
buildings. Houses in the Second Empire style are essentially defined by American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886)
this distinctive roof type, with other detailing reflecting a number of designed the first Queen Anne home in the United States in 1874, the
different fashions (most commonly Italianate details) or even a Watts-Sherman House in Newport, Rhode Island. The style also
combination of several different styles. gained popularity as a result of exposure at the Philadelphia Exposition
The Second Empire style rapidly faded from popularity following of 1876, promotion in the country’s first architectural magazine, The
the panic of 1873 and the subsequent economic depression. American Architect and Building News, and in new plan books available
by mail order nationwide. Advancing technology also played a role in
spreading the Queen Anne style across the country, with pre-cut
Stick Style: 1860-1890 architectural details readily available and affordable thanks to mass
production and railway distribution.
The Stick Style is often considered to be a transitional style, linking The defining feature of the American Queen Anne style is the use

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