The Queen Anne style typifies the movement to build architecturally
elaborate houses in the late 19th century. Changes in building
technologies and construction methods contributed to the popularity of
the style. For example, more frame elements were mass-produced and
could be purchased out of printed catalogs; brickmaking was
standardized, reducing the amount of mortar (thus giving brick
buildings a darker red color); and increasing availability of slate of
varying colors provided opportunities for roof decoration. Complicated
roofs were a common feature of the Queen Anne style, including towers,
cross-gables, L-shaped houses, octagonal bays that rose to the attic
level, and decorative dormers and chimneys. Wall decoration continued
the patterns from the Stick style and added brick decorations, rounded
and polygonal elements, and polychromatic brick and paint color
schemes. Porches were a common decorative feature of Queen Anne houses;
they usually had a hipped roof and often wrapped around a front corner
of the house; porches often displayed types of details such as
gingerbread, spindlework, turrets, decorative balusters, and spandrels.
In the very early 20th century, the design of Queen Anne houses shifted
as the style was being phased out. Two houses illustrate these changes.
The house at 519 West 9th Street, Erie (built 1901), retained some
Tudor traits that had been found in Queen Anne (and Shingle Style)
house of the very late 19th century, including the rounded bays, simple
sprockets supporting the jettied second floor and attic levels, and
decorative chimney design. This house represents the transition from
the Queen Anne to the Tudor Revival style. The house at 36 South
Street, Union City (built 1906), exemplifies the transition to the
Colonial Revival style; it has a Queen Anne style massing but Colonial
Revival details. The Queen Anne features include the front gabled
pavilion, hipped dormer, and 2-story bays; the Colonial Revival
features include the Palladian window on the pavilion, the use of a
frieze board below the eaves, and a streamlining of the overall
decorative approach.
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