House styles in the U.S. developed from its unique history, starting with the simple necessity for shelter when the continent was being settled to adopting and modifying popular styles of European houses. The various nationalities that settled in the U.S. brought with them their building talents and traditions that have provided us a wide range of aesthetics, probably more than most other nations.
Many, if not most, houses in the U.S. don’t belong to any one defined style. They instead incorporate various elements of those styles or create new looks based upon available regional or new materials and techniques, creating their own unique style.
This series of articles will focus on historic and recent easily-defined architectural styles that have been established as the definers of their era and that have influenced American house design even today. Many styles are sub-styles of broader categories that reflect differing eras in time.
The Time Sequence of the Styles
House styles in the U.S. became more complex and detailed over time until the new styles of the Twentieth Century became popular. The popularity of various styles sometimes occur over differing periods, some styles being popular at the same time as others, and some periods of popularity overlapping.
The earliest styles of the houses we’ll discuss are those of the early colonies established on the continent. These houses were simple and straightforward in their design. These include the Adobe, Cabin, Log House, Colonial, Saltbox, Cape Cod, and Dutch Colonial styles.
Once the nation was founded, newer styles developed such as the Federal style influenced by the ancient Greeks and representing the style of the newly-formed nation. This became a prominent characteristic the the Antebellum style of the southern states. The Georgian style, based upon British architecture of the time, became popular as well.
The decades of the post-Civil War and into the early 1900’s brought a flurry of new styles from simple to ornate. The simple Shotgun House became common as inexpensive housing in the South along with the Bay and Gable style in the growing cities of the Midwest and West.
The Neo-Classical styles of the era include the continuation of the Federal and Antebellum styles from before the Civil War along with the grander Classical Revival and Greek Revival styles of the post-war period into the early 1900’s.
The ebulliently detailed houses of the Victorian period of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s include the Queen Anne, Italianate, and Gothic Revival styles. During this period we also saw the less common French Second Empire style which is often associated with the broader Victorian era of house design.
The grand Shingle style and the unique Chalet-influenced Adirondack style began in the American northeast in the late 1800’s, while the quaint Cottage and Rustic styles were used into the early 1900’s.
The early 20th Century saw a continuation of the popular European styles along with the Shingle style. The Craftsman style took root in the western states and influenced its little brother, the Bungalow.
The French Revival and Tudor styles also began their popularity in this period, as did the fanciful Storybook style, the Spanish style houses of the Southwest, and the Mediterranean style in California and Florida.
The Chalet’s of Switzerland influenced various house styles in the U.S., and subtle Asian influences filtered into U.S. houses through the 20th Century.
During this period, however, some stirrings of uniqueness began. Frank Lloyd Wright began to create his truly American house style: the Prairie Style. These houses broke away from the historically-inspired and ebullient styles that were popular at the time. Wright’s houses created a new look, feel, and lifestyle never seen before that continue to influence house designers even today.
Another influence on house style is the Art Deco movement. This style started as an art movement in Europe that eventually brought about the futuristic Streamline Moderne style of houses.
The Post-World War II era saw an explosive growth in housing that reflected new lifestyles.
The International style grew out of Europe’s Bauhaus art movement in the early part of the century, leading to an architecture stripped of all historical precedent. This created houses of glass and steel that had never been seen before. This new idea would influence later contemporary styles.
The growth of suburban America brought about the dynamic Mid-Century Modern and the common Ranch style houses. These were influenced by Wright’s Prairie Style open planning and his Usonian style cost-effective designs.
The styles mentioned above are described and shown below, listed alphabetically across three separate articles.
The Styles – ‘A’ to ‘C’
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
In this article we’ll cover the historic Adobe, Colonial, and Cape Cod styles; the simplicity of the Cabin and Cottage styles; the Antebellum and Classical Revival styles that are based on the ancient Greeks and Romans; the fanciful Adirondack and Chalet styles; the finesse of the Craftsman, Bungalow, and Asian styles; the Bay and Gable style of the fast growing cities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the sleekness of the Art Deco / Streamline Moderne; and the current aesthetics of the Contemporary style.
I’ve collected a wide range of images from my own photos along with other sources in order to give you a broad understanding of these styles.
Photo credits for the images below are listed at the end of each article.
Adirondack
The Adirondack style was created from the use of raw natural materials found in upstate New York. Wood and stone were readily available, and the focus of the style was integrating these in their most natural form. Wood columns, railings, and other decorative elements were created from logs and branches rather than cut lumber, using these to express its unique aesthetic.
The style emphasized a hand-built aesthetic that was a major component of the Arts & Crafts movements of Britain and the U.S., and is an older cousin to the Craftsman house style found primarily on the West Coast.
Adirondack style was used primarily for large summer homes and camps for the wealthy, and were built generally from the 1880’s and as late as the 1920’s. Camp buildings would include large lodges and various related buildings such as boat houses.
Adobe
The Adobe style is found primarily in New Mexico and into adjacent states, especially Arizona. It’s aesthetic was created by early Spanish colonists who learned from the pueblos built by Native Americans in the region.
The style originally used available natural materials, mainly hand-formed sun-dried mud bricks covered by mud plaster and timber logs used for roof framing. The aesthetic is defined by unrefined wall surfaces the same color as the local earth, rounded corners and forms, typically small windows, heavy wood door, and flat roofs. Exposed stone was sometimes used instead of plaster-covered bricks where available.
This style has been built in the region for centuries, and is still used extensively today, though with more modern materials. The greatest collection of historic and new adobe houses can be found in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Antebellum
The Antebellum style is a formal style used extensively in the American South. It is based on the Neo-classical and Greek Revival styles. The style is defined by the following elements:
- A rectangular form, typically two stories high, with gable or hipped roofs. A gable roof has two sloped surfaces creating triangular tops to the end walls. Hipped roofs has a slope on all sides of the house.
- Deep broad or wrap-around porches, often on two levels
- Large Greek columns
- Symmetrical design centered on a large formal entry
- Uniformly-sized large windows evenly spaced to either side of the entry, with the upper windows aligning with the lower windows.
- Active shutters (as opposed to decorative) were used at each window.
- Wood siding painted white, white columns and eaves, and dark-colored shutters.
This style was commonly used for the main houses of plantations built before the Civil War.
The Antebellum style remained influential into the twentieth century, often used for larger houses of the well-to-do.
The top left house has a hipped roof, while the others have gable roofs.
Art Deco / Streamline Moderne
Art Deco is an artistic style that exploded in popularity in the 1920’s. It used a dynamic visual style that was perceived at the time as new and forward looking. Art Deco was integrated into art, clothing, furniture, building, and transportation design. Art Deco buildings tended to be built for commercial or public uses, and became popular for home interior design.
The Art Deco style was more influential for house design starting in the 1930’s with the development of the Streamline Moderne style.
This style is a simpler form of the Art Deco style and is influenced by aeronautical design. The style is defined by curving forms integrated into simpler geometric building forms, strong horizontal lines, flat roofs, and the use of simple materials with minimal decoration, typically using white or lighter pastel colors and tones.
Asian
Asian design style is a pretty broad descriptor as there is a wide variety of cultural styles from that region. In the U.S., this style is used less in the literal tradition as shown in the top left image below, but more in its subtle use in more modern style houses.
Asian influence in design can include the inference of Japanese Shoji screens in the windows in the top right image, the subtle Chinese-inspired detailing for the railing and landscape wall in the lower right image, or the style and use of the wood at the entrance to a modern style house in the bottom left image.
Bay and Gable
The Bay and Gable style was commonly used in older urban areas, especially in cities like Chicago and San Francisco. This design stems from the narrow lots they were built on.
The first floor is typically raised up from the street with the entrance on one half of the main floor facade. Bay windows are placed on the remaining portion of the facade, aligned on the first and second floors, to allow for air flow into the house. A simple gable roof is used with the gable end facing the street.
These houses are typically built of wood framing and have wood siding, though some higher-end homes in historic upscale neighborhoods used brick and stone.
These houses range from simple to decorative in their materials and detailing. San Francisco is known for the use of colorful paint schemes on its more detailed houses, bringing about the term “painted ladies”.
Bungalow
The Bungalow style became popular and common in the 1920’s and 1930’s. It was initially influenced by the craftsman movement on the west coast, and then developed into numerous style variations.
The style is defined by its typical one-story design with low-sloped gable roofs. Many have large deep front porches spanning a majority or all of the house width. The houses often use wood siding, but many also use brick or stucco, and some incorporate stone. Detailing ranges from simple to more expressive.
There are variant styles that incorporate different elements, such as the simple porch-free brick bungalow with a steeper half-hip roof in the top right image. Others will have attic space that is used as a second floor by incorporating dormer windows in the roof as in the bottom left image. Chicago bungalows are typically built on narrow lots and have a smaller porch and entrance at one end of the facade with a broad enclosed sunroom or bay window in lieu of the large porch.
Bungalow houses are most common in the central, southern, and western states, but can be found in most areas of the U.S. California and Texas are states with a large number of these homes.
Cabin
The cabin is typically a smaller simple house, typically built in the country rather than in towns. The form is usually rectangular with a simple gable roof and can have one or more floors. Regional materials are typically used to build the house such as wood or logs, and sometimes stone or brick.
Cabins are commonly used for weekend or vacation houses on lakes, bays, and ocean fronts, in forests, and in resort towns.
Cape Cod
Cape Cod houses stem from the simple houses historically built in New England.
Cape Cod houses are smaller homes, typically one story and rectangular in plan, with the length parallel to the street. A simple gable roof runs across the length of the house.
They’re usually built of wood and covered with wood siding, with minimal or no detailing except around the front entry, if there is any. The front door is typically centered on the front of the house and usually has no covered porch, though small covered porches are sometimes used.
These houses became popular in the 1930′ and through the early 1950’s as inexpensive housing built during the depression and war years and for early post-war housing.
Larger houses can also utilize the simplicity of the materials and compositions of the Cape Cod as shown in the bottom left photo.
Chalet
The Chalet is a Swiss-born design that uses a simple rectangular plan and a simple broad gable roof with large overhangs used to shed snow, and is often two to three stories in height.
Common design elements include wood roof joists exposed beneath the roof eaves, and the large extension of the roof at the gable end supported by large decoratively-profiled wood brackets. Other wood detailing characteristic of the region is used in balcony railings, shutters, and sometimes around windows and doors.
Though there are few literal chalet’s in the U.S. except in a few mountain resort communities, they’ve had an influence on other American house styles. This style influenced Adirondack, Craftsman, and Shingle Style house design, and is occasionally used as a smaller variant known as the ‘A-frame’.
The A-frame is a smaller version of the Chalet, using a small footprint, steeply-pitched roofs, and a small second floor underneath the roof. This style is often used as a weekend or vacation cabin.
The top right image shows a traditional Swiss chalet house.
A-frame cabins are shown in the top right image.
One type of traditional railing detailing is shown bottom right.
Bottom left shows an American craftsman house with a strong chalet influence.
Classical Revival
The classical style comes from the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. This style is defined by the use of simple rectangular plan forms, rigid symmetry, and large porticoes (porches) using large columns holding up large triangular pediments. Detailing can be simple to ornate, using the detail components found in the ancient buildings.
In the U.S. the Classical style was used to define the image of the Federal government in Washington, D.C., and was also adopted by many states and communities to represent their public buildings.
The classical style is most often found in larger upscale housing due to the imposing nature and cost of the design.
The variants within the classical style include Antebellum, and Greek Revival.
Colonial
The colonial style is one of the earliest styles used in the U.S. This style was the predecessor to the Cape Cod style.
Most colonial houses are simple two-story rectangular forms with gable roofs, the length oriented to the front of the house, with chimneys at each end. Some roofs house an additional floor with dormer windows incorporated into the roof.
The design is symmetrical around a central front entry. Large equally-sized and aligned windows are placed on the front facade. Shutters are often used. Detailing is minimal, but sometimes incorporate classical elements. Porches at the entry aren’t common.
Most houses use painted wood siding as the exterior material. Larger upscale houses and government buildings often use brick, sometimes have hipped roofs, and often use cupolas placed in the center of the roof.
Contemporary
Contemporary is a loaded term for house design. Contemporary essentially means “current”, so the term has applied to all styles across history. Additionally, current house design could apply to any style built today, whether it be Spanish Mission, Mediterranean, French Revival, or a plain and simple suburban house with vinyl siding.
For this article we’ll use ‘Contemporary’ to reference the newer aesthetics that have been developed over the past few decades that are offspring of the International, Mid-Century Modern, and later movements influenced by the modern styles of the mid-twentieth century.
Today’s contemporary style is based upon compositions of materials and forms. Lines are clean and there’s no traditional-style decoration. Roofs are often flat, but can be sloped when it helps to define a form, as shown in the bottom images below. Large areas of glass are common.
The top left image below shows an example of material composition within a simple rectangular floor plan. Stone is being used as framework in which equal-sized windows are placed on the lower floors, with light-color wood siding beneath the windows. The side is white stucco.
The top floor is stepped back to create a continuous shallow terrace with a clear glass railing. The top of the house is defined by a black metal eave around a flat roof, projecting out to match the lower floors and to provide a cover over the terrace. Wood siding in a warm color is used on the sides to further define this level.
The top right image shows a composition of horizontals and verticals as well as black and white elements. A two story black frame is infilled with glass, the glass subdivided into horizontal pieces by a thin black grid. This is then overlaid with a solid white horizontal box-form that is the balcony, while a glass corner of the same grid spacing is recessed from the black frame.
The white chimney creates an additional vertical element, counterpointed by a projecting flat roof over the recessed wall to the left. This collection of parts creates a dynamic whole.
The bottom right image shows the backyard side of two matching houses joined by the single story entries. Each building is a simple long rectangle with a metal gable roof that extends down vertically to form the long sides, creating an updated version of a traditional gable house. The ends of this enclosure are framed by the thick roof and are infilled with wood and glass that define the spaces inside.
The bottom left image uses a projecting box of the main living space as the primary design element. This box is surrounded by a white frame on three sides, the top side as a shed roof. The frame is infilled with glass, and wood siding is used for the fourth side, recessed from the white frame.
Cottage
The Cottage style is essentially a “cute cabin”. Rather than a typical weekend or vacation retreat, a cottage is often a place to live year-round. It is generally a smaller, more intimate house in the countryside.
A cottage tends to have a more detailed design aesthetic than a cabin, though many cottages are simpler wood houses. Rubble stone with quaint detailing is common. Roof material can be thatch, slate, tiles, or metal.
Craftsman
The Craftsman style developed in the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s as an outgrowth of the Arts and Crafts movements and a counterpoint to the ornate Victorian era houses of the time. The goal of the movement was to create a refined hand-made aesthetic using wood and stone expressed simply and elegantly.
This style tended toward lower-sloped gable style roofs, the roof framing projecting under the eaves as exposed roof joists, and aesthetic brackets holding up the gable ends.
Large porches and broad windows are a major identifier of the style. Porch columns, rather than lathed or classical posts, were made of masonry and timber. Various materials and patterns were put together in a restrained manner.
This style became popular in the early decades of the 1900’s and developed primarily out of the west coast states. This style was a major influence on the development of the Bungalow style.
Photo Credits
Adirondack
- Top Left: Mwanner at en.widipedia, Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
- Top and Bottom Right: Leslie Lindeman, Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
- Bottom Left: National Park Service
Adobe
- Top Left and Right: Laurianne.Fiorentino, Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
- Bottom Right: National Park Service
- Bottom Left: Jeffrey Beall, Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Antebullum
- Top Left: National Park Service
- Top Right: Galen Parks Smith, Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/deed.en
- Bottom Right: Gilbert Thompson, Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
- Bottom Left: Z28scrambler, Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
Art Deco / Streamline Moderne
- Top Left: McGhiever, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
- Top Right: AlbertHerring Teemu008, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
- Bottom Right: David Stapleton, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
- Bottom Left: Jeffrey Beall, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
Asian
- Top Left: Pixabay
- Top Right: Lukas Hartmann
- Bottom Right: Wmpearl
- Bottom Left: Julia Kuzenkov
Bay and Gable
- Left: Author’s own
- Middle: Author’s own
- Right: Author’s own
Bungalow
- Top Left: RightCowLeftCoast, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
- Top Right: Author’s own
- Bottom Right: Public Domain, via Stilfehler
- Bottom Left: Jeffery Beall, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Cabin
- Top Left: Eneida Nieves
- Top Right: Author’s own
- Bottom Right: Author’s own
- Bottom Left: Author’s own
Cape Cod
- Top Left: National Park Service
- Top Right: Famartin, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
- Bottom Right: Famartin, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
- Bottom Left: Author’s own
Chalet
- Top Left: Frans Van Heerden
- Top Right: by Louis, via Pexels
- Bottom Right: Luis Fernandes
- Bottom Left: Binksternet
Classical Revival
- Top Left: Andrew Pickess, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
- Top Right: Jerrye and Roy Klotz MD, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
- Bottom Right: James Allan, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
- Bottom Left: National Park Service
Colonial
- Top Left: Author’s own
- Top Right: Author’s own
- Bottom Right: Author’s own
- Bottom Left: Author’s own
Contemporary
- Top Left: Expect Best
- Top Right: Author’s Own
- Bottom Right: Vecislavas Popa
- Bottom Left: Expect Best
Cottage
- Top Left: Karen Hoffman, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
- Top Right: Connor Danylenko
- Bottom Right: ArtHouse Studio
- Bottom Left: Ksenia Chernaya
Craftsman
- Top Left: Inkknife_2000, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
- Top Right: Allan Ferguson, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
- Bottom Right: Joe Mabel, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
- Bottom Left: Jeffrey Beall, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Top Image: Photo by Craig Klomparens, courtesy Tilton, Kelley + Bell
Recent Posts
The Ultimate Guide for Outside Wall Materials for Your House
Choosing materials for your dream home can be overwhelming. The outside walls of your home will be the first things you and others will see when approaching your house, so you want to make sure you...
If you're going to design a new home you'll need to know what you're going to design. Like taking a trip, you need to plan ahead to know how to get to the destination you want to go to. Writing a...