Like political trends, architectural preferences swing on a pendulum.
For a while, people wanted the spindles and elaboration of the Victorian era. Then they gravitated toward colonial columns and symmetry.
While the vagaries of personal taste make U.S. architecture more a potpourri than a linear progression, certain styles have gripped homeowners’ imaginations more than others over the past century.
Colonial revival (1900-1950)
Coming off the gingerbread of the long-lived reign of Victorian homes, Americans were in the mood for something more, well, American. Their patriotic and economic engines revving, home builders and buyers launched a colonial revival, hearkening to the boxy forms of the founding Colonies.
Each new colonial home bore the distinct look of one type of home from the earlier era — for example, Georgian, Dutch, French or Federal — but with modern amenities such as toilets and, eventually, garage doors.
Craftsman (1910-1930)
If colonial architecture was a throwback to styles that originated in Europe, the craftsman style of the early 20th century was uniquely American.
The craftsman aesthetic sprang from the notion that handmade products, from homes to furniture to housewares, were more appealing than those made in a factory.
For architecture, that meant the “honesty” of exposed beams and unpainted built-ins. Although they were a reaction to Victorian styles, craftsman homes often looked like stripped-down Queen Annes, with simpler porches and dormers and ornamentation.
Mid-century modern (1940-1965)
Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright‘s high-style prairie aesthetic, mid-century modern homes embrace the idea that form no longer follows function: Form actually is function.
In practice, that translates into the use of natural materials such as stone and brick, and the melding of homes with their landscapes, often via low-slung roofs and exposed wood beams.
Mid-century moderns also tend to sprawl more than homes that came before them and, in many ways, are upscale versions of ranch homes — but with higher ceilings and bigger windows.
Ranch (1950-1985)
By far the most popular home design of the 1950s and ’60s, ranch homes sprang from the rise of the automobile and the resulting advent of suburbia.
People were excited to have a piece of land to call their own, and they sprawled out on that land with homes, gardens and swimming pools, unconcerned about maximizing space or the impact that widely spaced lots would have on their commutes.
With private transportation — and the economic boom that followed World War II — anything seemed possible for middle-class America.
Millennium mansion (1985-present)
Lots of architectural styles are popular now, but the one that marks the turn of the last century is the millennium mansion — or the McMansion.
They’re used as in-fill for older neighborhoods, and they appear in phalanxes across new subsidivisions.
Their primary characteristic is their bulk, architecture maven Virginia Savage McAlester writes in her book, “A Field Guide to American Houses.”
McMansions also tend to have extra-tall entrances; complex, high-pitched roofs; and multiple types of exterior wall cladding that may be applied like wallpaper.
Related:
- Before & After: Ranch Home Redux
- 10 Well-Crafted Craftsman Homes Starting at $104,900
- Mid-Century Modern Mania in the California Desert
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