The more you know about your house, the more you'll enjoy it. Knowing its age and style and learning about the period when it was constructed will enable you to make better maintenance, repair, and rehab decisions. Ideally, we want to enhance the appearance of our homes in a way that will increase their value, complement our neighborhoods, and retain the historic integrity of the properties.

Whether a house is simple and unadorned or replete with Queen Anne detailing, its design and the elements that comprise this design were carefully chosen to conform to styles that often developed over decades and even centuries. It is important to understand your house well enough to avoid compromising the design with inappropriate additions, subtractions, or repairs.

Your house might not easily fall within any of the following categories, or it might have details from two or more architectural periods. Don't worry if you can't place it in a particular slot; some houses simply cannot be identified by a particular style. It's perfectly acceptable, and sometimes preferable, to describe your house by its layout and details and forget about the style.

Italianate (1840s-1880s)

The Italianate style was derived from the villas of the Italian countryside. Two full stories, low-pitched hip roofs with cupolas, and expansive overhangs supported by decorative brackets are typical features of the style. These houses often had small porches and double entrance doors. Interior spaces were large with tall ceilings and massive decorative features. Italianate houses featuring prominent towers are called Italianate villas.

Second Empire/Mansardic (1860s-1880s)

Deriving its name from the French Second Empire, this style is set apart by the use of the mansard roof, a prominent characteristic of French architecture. The mansard roof, named after the 17th-century French architect who first popularized it, was a way to diminish the apparent height or mass of a building and add a third story. Structures in the Second Empire style share many features with the Italianate style. In fact, adding a mansard roof was a popular method of remodeling Italianate homes.

Eastlake (1870s-1880s)

Eastlake was a popular decorative ornamentation that was often applied to houses of other styles, such as Queen Anne. Eastlake detailing consisting of assorted knobs, spindles, and circular motifs (usually called "gingerbread"), is often seen on gable trim. Porches and verandas feature rows of spindles, posts, and brackets.

Queen Anne (1870s-1890s)

The Queen Anne style is characterized by a rambling floor plan, asymmetrical design, an eclectic mixture of materials, and an informal atmosphere. Distinctive traits include the combined use of brick or stone with shingles and clapboard, decorative exterior woodwork, steep gables, large and elaborate chimneys, round towers and turrets, bays, porches, and stained-glass windows.

Modest single-story versions of the Queen Anne style are sometimes referred to as Victorian cottages or Princess Annes.

 Colonial Revival (1880s-present)

Colonial Revival style houses are based on the designs of houses that were popular from early colonization until the American Revolution in 1776. Interest in this style was renewed during the American Centennial of 1876 and has remained popular in various forms ever since. In the late 19th and early 20th century, adding Colonial details to an older home was a popular remodeling technique. After about 1920, a thorough re-creation of the Colonial style in new housing and in remodelings became popular.

One common example is the two-story end-gable home with a centered entrance and symmetrical, stacked placement of windows. Another common example is the Dutch variety with a gambrel roof. Typical details are dormers, centered entrances, dentil molding, fan lights, little or no cornice overhang, and various elements borrowed from the classical Greek and Roman architectural eras.

Bungalow (1905-1920s)

The Bungalow or Craftsman house became popular just after the turn-of-the-century. They were an austere departure from the eclectic Queen Anne style or the studied Colonial Revival. Typical details were exposed rafters and support beams, tapered columns, paired or grouped windows, porches, and a low-pitched roof. Basic in design, they were highly publicized in national magazines and sold in kits available through firms like Montgomery Ward and Sears & Roebuck.

 American Foursquare (1900-1920s)

Built to offer the most house for the least amount of money, there may never have been a more popular or practical house than the American Foursquare. Typical features of the Foursquare are a boxy, two-story body, hipped roofs, dormers, front porches, and deep overhangs. Most decorative features were saved for the front porch which could reflect either Colonial Revival details or Bungalow elements. A front-gabled version of the Foursquare is often found in the same neighborhoods or adjacent to the hipped-roof version. These houses usually feature the same or similar floor plans and like the Foursquare, have few architectural details except on the front porch.