Painted in the warm earth tones typical of the period, this Michigan Italianate is small, but still bursting with ornamentation.
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and Neoclassicism, were synthesised with picturesque aesthetics. 1135
A blog devoted to American Italianate architecture of the 19th century. This blog features architectural analyses of Italianate domestic buildings with images, and historical information. My plan is to show the varieties, regional vernacular of Italianate architecture.
The Italianate style is one of the most enduring architectural styles, seen from rowhouses to country estates. Learn how to spot it.
"Victoria Mansion" in Portland, ME. The house is more suitably known as the Morse-Libby House and was built in 1860. It is a 'textbook ex...
Italianate architecture is a 19th-century style of building inspired by 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture combined with other influences.
The Rush R. Sloane House, Sandusky, OH. 1850s Photo: Wikimedia The Sloane house in Sandusky, OH was built in the early 1850s, but is known by its most famous occupant Rush R. Sloane who purchased it in 1854 from its builder, Samuel Torrey. Sloane was a lawyer early in his career and later became a railroad president and mayor of Sandusky. The house is well-known because it likely served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. This house follows the side hall plan, but it is also towered, a sometimes seen variation on the traditional side hall house. Although the house seems in rough shape in this image, the decay shows us that it is built of fieldstone with a plaster coating, probably to simulate cut stone; cut stone is also implied by the corner quoins. The white coloring of the house is probably not historical; it is likely it would have been painted various shades of brown, also to simulate stone and because Downing's color theories held a lot of sway in the 50s. Downing railed against white houses as being disturbing in the landscape and instead advocated for tans, browns, pinks, and pale blues as appropriate colors. The cornice is of the paneled style, with heavy brackets and large dentils. The ornament is overall exuberant. The house has eared moldings with hood moldings that appear like broken reverse ogee arches with incised ornament and strong keystones. They seem to be made out of cast iron. The left side features a rather damaged Juliette balcony with a fringed wooden awning, while the entrance porch has a flat top trefoil arch and Corinthian columns. The lions on the newel posts do not look original to me. The roof and tower are particularly beautiful in their execution. To increase the appearance of the tower's height, it is situated on a base with panels and rusticated edges. The arched windows are surrounded by panels and pilasters. The tower roof is a very small mansard with a shallow slope. One more detail that caught my fancy was the chimney. The chimney visible in the image is paneled and has a bracketed cornice with a round pediment. This is a particularly French looking detail. Certain aspects of the house, the trefoil arch, the elaborateness of the hood moldings, the Second Empire style chimney, and the complex cornice tell me this might have been remodeled or added to in the late 60s or 70s. Since Rush achieved his fortune in the 60s and became mayor in the late 70s, he might have decided to update his more sedate villa of the 50s with fashionable elaborateness. It does remain a grand looking house despite its current disrepair. The following enlargements show some of the details.
Architectural Styles: Explore Canadian architectural styles, from pre-Confederation to contemporary designs.Discover influences.
The ornate Heilbron House was commissioned in 1881 by German immigrant and businessman August Heilbron and designed by Nathaniel Goodell, architect of the nearby California Governor’s Mansion and many other iconic California buildings. The mansion, one of the few grand old homes in downtown Sacramento to have survived demolition through the decades, is an immaculate example of the Italianate Victorian style and a rare glimpse into downtown Sacramento’s historic past. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
This subreddit is a hub for architecture enthusiasts and everyone who appreciates the beauty and complexity of buildings. From towering skyscrapers to intricate historical structures, the online community features a wide range of wonders from around the world.
Italianate architecture is a 19th-century style of building inspired by 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture combined with other influences.
The George W. Loomis House, Suffield, CT. 1860 The George W. Loomis house is the second of the Loomis houses I will be exploring. The house was built by one of the Loomis brothers for their son; in 1912 it became the rectory for St. Joseph's Church next door. The house follows the symmetrical plan with a hip roof and cupola. Despite being sided with what appears to be aluminum, the house preserves many of its fine features. Like the Byron Loomis house, this house also features a central two story porch, but this porch has a much more flamboyant treatment. The first stage is simple enough, with fluted columns, but there is no crowning cornice here. The columns rise to the second stage where they flare out with four pieced curving pieces that stick out on each side, looking like some gnarled tree trunk. The second story is crowned by a jigsawed ogee and wide eave. Because there is no intervening cornice line between the porch's two stages, the effect produced is of the first stage being the column and the second stage being the elongated almost Moorish capital. Other Italianates with Moorish treatments do this with their porches, and it might be the influence of Henry Austin's Indian style of ornament. Adding to the odd effect is the iron cresting that caps the wooden balustrade on the second stage of the porch. The cornice is surprisingly large on this house, and the brackets are correspondingly elongated with finials that suggest the icicle effect of some Italianates. The windows in the frieze are segmentally arched, as are the windows on the first story at the front, but are currently serving as vents. Over the windows on the front façade on the second floor hang exterior lambrequins. These are wooden cut out pieces, in this case representing arches, that are applied to a rectangular window to alter its shape. Another unique feature of this house is that two of the panes on the front of the cupola are stained, blue and orange respectively. This treatment is probably part of the original scheme in which all the windows of the cupola featured glass of different colors. It's impressive that these two pieces survive! The house has a dramatic siting on a small hill set back quite far from the main road. This gives the house a very commanding presence on the street and increases its visibility. The George Loomis house is calculated to create a grand and exotic effect which not even its current state of poor restoration can dim.
Painted in the warm earth tones typical of the period, this Michigan Italianate is small, but still bursting with ornamentation.
Learn about the Italianate architectural style including history, characteristics, materials, roofing style, windows, and entrance characteristics!
The plan of an Italianate house is one of the central features of the style and one of its greatest contributions to the architecture of the 19th century. Many of these (indicated by roman numerals that correspond to their numbers in Downing and Davis) were published and designed by Davis. Davis was usually the architect and planner behind the scheme of these two designers; Downing tended to focus on color and landscaping. The drawing above was done by me with the intention of pinpointing all the varieties of plan that exist in Downing and Davis and establishing a clear terminology for my entries. Of course, this is not an exhaustive schematic; Italianate plans can take literally any shape. In describing the Italianate style, Davis talks about two types of clients, those who appreciate regularity and those who admire picturesque but balanced irregularity. The symmetrical plan is the height of regularity since it is symmetrical. The irregular and side-tower plans are the height of balanced irregularity. Both remained popular throughout the life of Italianate architecture and were adapted for other styles, particularly Second Empire. You may notice that towers are optional additions for many plans. Italianate designers loved their campaniles, and they employed them when the client's taste and funds allowed. Any of these forms may potentially have a tower. A house with a tower, however, almost never includes a central cupola. Some of the plans, the five-bay and the gable front did not originate with Davis but hearken back to colonial and Greek Revival precedents. Nonetheless, they remain a part of the Italianate vocabulary despite their inherited nature. I will go through each plan to clarify how they function: Irregular The irregular plan is one of the most common, and expresses Davis' love of irregularly balanced forms. It hearkens back to the irregular, pragmatic clusters of wings and additions found in Italian monasteries and farm houses. The plan consists of a projecting pavilion that features often a bay or box window, at the left in this image (plans can always be reversed), a central tower that is slightly recessed from the projecting pavilion where the main entrance is commonly located, and a recessed section at right that tends to be longer than the projecting pavilion with a porch running across it. Thus the plan starting from the left gradually recedes. Sometimes it is called the L-shape plan or the Tuscan villa plan, but Davis used 'irregular' in his own description so I have adopted it as its name. Symmetrical The symmetrical plan is, as it is called, symmetrical, and is perhaps the most common form of Italianate you will see. It features a central entrance flanked on both sides by one bay, making it a three bay composition. The center very often features a gable or pediment in the cornice and the central second story window is usually differentiated from the others. The center bay in many examples projects from the façade. The house is almost always hip roofed and may have a cupola in the center of the roof. Side-Tower This towered plan is less common than the irregular plan. It features a projecting pavilion on the left and a projecting tower on the right. The central section is recessed and usually has a porch and is the location of the main entrance. The central recessed section is usually longer than the projecting pavilion and is often two or three bays wide. The base of the tower has commonly a window. As with the irregular plan, the projecting pavilion often features box or bay windows. Like the irregular plan, its inspiration is the farm houses and monasteries of Italy. Pavilioned Davis says that the pavilioned plan was designed and sent to him by the Philadelphia architect John Notman, It is symmetrical, featuring two projecting pavilions with a recessed central section. The central section features a porch and the main entrance. The published plan shows a large central tower topping the central section, but it is an extremely uncommon feature. The plan itself is not particularly common, but can occasionally be found or discerned under later changes. Five-Bay Having finished with Davis' plans, the five-bay is an inherited form from colonial architecture, where the symmetrical five-bay house with central entrance was dominant. This type may feature roof with end gables or a hip roof that may include a cupola. Sometimes the center of the house will have a gable over the door facing the front and even dormer windows. This house may include a tower to one side. Central Tower This plan, an adaptation of the symmetrical or five-bay plan features, as I call it, a central tower where the main entrance is located. The tower projects from the side wings, which may be one or two bays long. Thus the house could be a three or five-bay composition. There are often porches running along the sides from the tower. Side-Hall and Gable-Front These two plans, which I group together, are inheritances from Greek Revival. They differ primarily in their roof shapes. Each is a three-bay composition with a door placed to one side rather than in the center of the façade. These may include towers to the sides, and when they do I call them towered side-halls or towered gable-fronts. The side hall plan features a hip roof that may include a central cupola. The gable front has the gable end facing the front of the house. In the gable-front, there are often tombstone windows in the third story. These plans are both very common and represent the majority of middle-class Italianate designs. It is also a plan suited to urban construction. Row-House The row-house plan is probably one of the most commonly encountered types for those living in Northeastern urban centers. It is also an inheritance from Greek Revival row-homes developed in England. Though designed to be part of a long row of attached houses, a house can use this plan without being attached. The typical row-house is three stories, although two stories also occurs. It is three-bays wide with an off center entrance. Sometimes they may stand on a high basement with a long staircase leading to the entrance called a stoop. This elongated basement is known as an English basement. The roof is usually not hip, but sloped in some way or even flat. This type can but rarely includes a cupola or tower. These then are the Italianate plans. Remember that Italianate can come in all shapes and sizes and a plan's social connotations, frequency, and ornamentation depend on varying vernacular and architectural criteria.
Image 1 of 37 from gallery of Italianate House / Renato D’Ettorre Architects. Photograph by Simone Bossi
Image 23 of 37 from gallery of Italianate House / Renato D’Ettorre Architects. Photograph by Simone Bossi
Italianate architecture is a 19th-century style of building inspired by 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture combined with other influences.
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Image 1 of 37 from gallery of Italianate House / Renato D’Ettorre Architects. Photograph by Simone Bossi
Cloistered by a shell of stone, the 1963 Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Yale, US, is one of the world’s foremost collections of rare manuscripts.
The property became known throughout Sydney after opening as the Trethaway Gardens wedding reception centre in 1954. It sold for $1.551 million in 1998 when it was under its second operator.
The beautiful Italianate mansion La Verna was built in Hawthorn in 1888 and is attributed to the architect John Beswicke. The house was first known as Heathfield and was originally occupied by H.Eeles, stationer, who lived in the property until 1910. The building has a striking resemblance to another Italianate gem known as Mandalay in nearby Kew.
