What Style is It?

1. What Style is It? An architectural history tour of Iowa City homes

2. Early Settlers • The log cabin was the earliest method of construction used in Iowa City houses, hotels and places of business. Land clearing made logs readily available. • One early Iowa City log cabin was discovered in 1926, when a house at 514 N. Gilbert St. was being demolished. • The house had been built around a log cabin. • This practice was common many years ago. • The log cabin is described,” a one-room affair, built up of roughly hewn logs mortised together at the corners and the cracks filled with mortar…” Replica: Upper City Park, Iowa City, IA

3. Colonial Style • Some of the very first houses had Colonial style characteristics: • gable roof with a central chimney or chimneys at both ends • a central doorway flanked by one or two windows • floor plans that featured a central hallways with one or two rooms on either side • windows with small panes of glass, • the New England Salt box house form with a lean-to at the rear • The Hutchinson-Kuhl House The earliest house still standing Made of limestone Built in the 1840s 119 W. Park Road

4. New England Colonial Salt Box • The Henry C. Nicking house is a one and a half story interpretation of the New England Salt Box style. • Made of sandstone; built in 1854. • Colonial Characteristics include: • Central doorway flanked by two windows on either side. • Gable roof with chimneys on either end. 410 E. Market Street

5. Greek Revival Style • Popular style from 1820-1860 and varied from region to region throughout the U.S. • Midwestern features included: • Built of clapboard • Less ornamented than those of the East and South • One-story structures • Round pillars replaced by square posts • Low pitch roof with the gable end facing the street • Plain lintels and cornices • Irish Hamilton-Turner House • Has a full double portico • The house was built around a log cabin • The exact date of construction is not known, but plans were ready in 1860 • Double portico supports hip roof and it is composed of 4 square columns. 1310 Cedar St.

6. Greek Revival ( Continued) • Sanxay-Gilmore House • Dated circa 1860 • Features include: • classic entrance porch with Doric columns • Cornice on the side porch has a frieze of dentils and coupled brackets • The original kitchen for this house was probably in the basement 109 East Market St.

7. Gothic Revival Style • Described by steeply pointed gables on the roof lines often decorated with finials at the peak and dormer windows • Distinguishing feature: windows with pointed Gothic arch • Decorative accents include lacelike bargeboards, jig-saw cup brackets under the eaves, elaborate cresting and ornamental chimneys • Reached the Midwest by 1850s • Mostly constructed of wood or brick in Iowa City; many were vertical board and batten • Gothic Revival homes were: • symmetrical and asymmetrical • had rooms that were octagonal or circular • had bays or oriel windows • included towers, turrets, porches, Porte-cocheres, conservatories 704 Reno Street.

8. Italianate Style • This Anglo-Italian style developed in the mid 19th century • Characteristics of the style include: • Overhanging eaves supported by single or paired brackets, • Tall windows and doors with rounded-arched headings • Piazzas and verandas • Hooded balconies • Cupolas, widow’s walks, towers • The Oakes-Wood-Miltner-Hayes House • Popularly called the Grant Wood House because the artist once lived there • Built in 1858 • Italian characteristics include: • coupled brackets under eaves • Tall narrow first floor windows with extended framing 1142 E. Court St.

9. Italianate (continued) • The Dey House • Example of Italianate style in a frame house • Built in 1857 • Features include: • Veranda with columns • rounded arched window in the gable • scrolled brackets under the eaves, • iron cresting on the central part of the roof 507 N. Clinton St.

10. Franco-American Style • Style was fashionable in the US between 1860-1880 • Based on French Second Empire • Features include: • Mansard roof cut with dormers • Many decorative features • Iron crestings on the roof • Decorative moldings • Tall French windows and doors • At least two floors; many had three • Carson-Alpha Phi House • Completed in 1875 • Features include: • Mansard Roof • Three stories • Symmetrical facade • Porch across the front 906 E.College St.

11. Queen Anne Revival Style • This style has many names, Free Classic, Modern American Renaissance, Neo Jacobean • Style based upon English architecture from Queen Anne’s time • Popular about 1870s • Features include: • Projecting wings and bays • Different materials for first and second floors • Huge chimneys • Gabled or hipped roof • Turrets or towers • Verandas and balconies • Lindsay-Lake House • Built in 1893 • Features include: • Siding of shingle, brick and stone • Massive chimney • Octagonal tower 935 E.College St.

12. Queen Anne Style (continued) • Musser- Dixon House • Built in 1890 • Good example of the style • Features include: • Siding with half-timbering, fish scale shingles • Octagonal tower • Large porch • Both hipped and gable roof • Tall brick chimney 715 E.College St.

13. Prairie Style • Introduced by Frank Lloyd Wright in the beginning of the 20th century • Design expressed the flat sweeping prairie; low, horizontal house with broad sweeping roof and wide, overhanging eaves • Features include: • Broad, gently sloping roofs with low chimneys, balconies and terraces extending in several directions • Emphasis on natural materials-woods stone • Leaded windows patterned with colored glass • Bands of casement windows • Wood strips to emphasize structural elements 213 McLean St.

14. Bungalow Style • Popular throughout the US in the early 20th century as a dwelling for the middle class • Called, “everyman’s small house” • Many plans for bungalows were ordered from Sears and Roebuck catalog • They might have been shipped pre-cut for assembly on their sites • The word bungalow comes from India to designate a house that was one story high and had large encircling porches • Features include: • One and a half stories • Long, sloping roofs • Wide eaves • Deep porches • Natural wood and/or stone • Gable dormers Grant Street

15. Tudor Revival • Style patterned on style elements from 16th century medieval England • Style has an emphasis on steeply pitched roof gables • Became popular in the 1920s through the 1940s • Features include: • Half –timbering, either structural or applied • Mixes of stone, stucco, and wood • Symmetrical façade • Projecting bays • Gothic details River Street

16. Regency Revival • The Regency style follows classic lines like the Georgian style • The revival of the style was popular in the early 20th century • Symmetrical structure with two or three stories • Usually built of brick • Many have an octagonal window over the front door • Features include: • Pilasters • Quoins • Hip roof • Double-hung windows • One chimney at the side of the house 415 Clark

17. Moffitt Stone Cottages • Built by Iowa City’s Howard Moffitt • popular in the years,1920-1930 • Many small homes were built in Iowa City with the theme of frugality and frequent salvage • Features of the Moffitt stone cottages include: • Story and a half bungalow type structure • Massive front or side exterior chimney • Use of salvaged or local materials • Muscatine Avenue Stone Cottages • Stone cladding • Appearance of thatched roofs Muscatine Ave.

18. Lustron House • Created by the Lustron Company (Columbus, Ohio) in 1947 • Manufacture of porcelain enameled steel houses • Represented an experiment in mass- produced, prefabricated housing • Billed as,” the House America has been waiting for” • Features include: • One story • Gabled- roof ranch • Bay window and side porch • Created from porcelain enameled steel • Multiple colors were available 709 Clark

19. American Foursquare • Was very popular from 1895-1930s • Was economical to build • Cube shape made is possible to take advantage of small lot size and small budgets • Most commonly built in wood frame; most popular style was a pre-cut form, “Eastbourne” • Was influenced by Prairie Style • Features include: • Square plan with two floors • Pyramidal hipped roof • Usually had a columned veranda • Front dormer Court Street

20. Ranch • Popular style originating in the mid 1930s in California • Loosely based on the Spanish Colonial house of the American southwest, but modified by Prairie and Craftsman designs • Became a dominant house style in the 1950s and 1960s • One story house with garage or carport on one end • Features include: • One-story shapes with low pitched roof • Rambling facades • Moderate or wide eave overhang • Ribbon windows or large picture windows are common 30 Ashwood Dr.

21. International Style • Became popular after World War II • Emphasizes natural materials of wood and stone • Built to blend into the landscape • Echoed the shapes found in the landscape • Features include: • House nestled into the landscape • Board and batten modules making decorative patterns • Articulated post and beam construction • Wood decks in the treetops • Japanese influences • Skylights, sliding glass doors 551 Normandy Drive

22. Glossary of Terms • Ashlar: hewed or square stone; also masonry of stone • Bargeboard: the vertical face board following and set back under the roof edge of a gable, sometimes decorated • Bay: One unit of a building that has similar units; like the number of window and door openings per floor • Belvedere: an open pavilion built for a view sometimes on top of a building • Bracket: Supporting part of a floor or shelf, or under eaves sometimes in the shape of an inverted L or sometimes triangular • Capital: top member of a column • Cresting: decorative ridge for a roof • Dormer: a vertically set window on a sloping roof; roofed structure housing such a window • Eaves: The projecting overhang at the lower edge of the roof • Façade: The face or front of the building • Finial: a form at the top of a spire, gable, gatepost or other point with some height • Gable: a triangular wall segment at the end of a gabled roof

23. Glossary ( continued) • Gambrel Roof: a ridged roof with two slopes on each side; the lower slope having a steeper pitch • Half-timbering: construction that exposes heavy timbers, with the spaces between the beams filled with brick or stucco • Hipped Roof: A roof with 4 uniformly pitched sides • Leaded Glass: Small panes of glass held in place with lead strips; the glass may be clear or stained • Lean-to:structure with a single pitched roof • Mansard Roof: a roof that has two slopes on all four sides • Masonry: Wall construction of materials such as stone, brick or adobe • Molding: A continuous decorative band that is either carved or applied to a surface

24. Glossary ( continued) • Oriel: a projecting window with its walls corbelled or supported by brackets • Porte- Cochere:A shelter for vehicles outside an entrance doorway • Portico: an entrance porch • Quoins:Stones or bricks ornamenting the outside corner of a building. • Restoration: The process of accurately recovering the form and details of a property and its setting as it appeared at a particular period of time. • Soffit: The finished underside of a lintel, arch or other span; usually overhead • Turret: A small slender tower usually at the corner of a building, often containing a circular stair • Veranda: A roofed open gallery or porch

25. Resources • Keyes, Margaret. Nineteenth Century Home Architecture of Iowa City, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press,1993. • Klein, Marilyn & Fogle, David. Clues to American Architecture,Washington,D.C.:Starrhill Press, 1985. • Lafore, Laurence. American Classic , Iowa: Iowa State Historical Department,1975. • McAlester, Virginia & Lee. Field Guide to American Houses, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1990 • Poppeliers, John& Chambers,Allen & Schwartz, Nancy.What Style is it? Washington, D.C. The Preservation Press, 1983. • Shank,Wesley. The Iowa Catalog, Historic American Buildings Survey, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press,1979.

26. Presentation Created for Friends of Historic Preservation by: • Alice Kurtz • Jeff Schabilion • Jackie Briggs, photography • Jeremy Faden,technical support