What Style is It?
An architectural history tour of Iowa City homes

Early Settlers
The log cabin was the earliest method of construction used in Iowa City houses, hotels and places of business.  Land clearing made logs readily available.
 One early Iowa City log cabin was discovered in 1926, when a house at 514 N. Gilbert St. was being demolished.
The house had been built around a log cabin.
This practice was common many years ago.
The log cabin is described,” a one-room affair, built up of roughly hewn logs mortised together at the corners and the cracks filled with mortar…”

Colonial Style
Some of the very first houses had Colonial style characteristics:
gable roof with a central chimney or chimneys at both ends
 a central doorway flanked by one or two windows
 floor plans that featured a central hallways with one or two rooms on either side
 windows with small panes of glass,
the New England Salt box house form with a lean-to at the rear
The Hutchinson-Kuhl House
The earliest house still standing
Made of limestone
Built in the 1840s

New England Colonial Salt Box
The Henry C. Nicking house is a one and a half story interpretation of the New England Salt Box style.
Made of sandstone; built in 1854.
Colonial Characteristics include:
Central doorway flanked by two windows on either side.
Gable roof with chimneys on either end.

Greek Revival Style
Popular style from 1820-1860 and varied from region to region throughout the U.S.
Midwestern features included:
Built of clapboard
Less ornamented than those of the East and South
One-story structures
Round pillars replaced by square posts
Low pitch roof with the gable end facing the street
Plain lintels and cornices
Irish Hamilton-Turner House
Has a full double portico
The house was built around a log cabin
The exact date of construction is not known, but plans were ready in 1860
Double portico supports hip roof and it is composed of 4 square columns.

Greek Revival ( Continued)
Sanxay-Gilmore House
Dated circa 1860
Features include:
classic entrance porch with Doric columns
Cornice on the side porch has a frieze of dentils and coupled brackets
The original kitch for this house was probably in the basement

Gothic Revival Style
Described by steeply pointed gables on the roof lines often decorated with finials at the peak and dormer windows
Distinguishing feature: windows with pointed Gothic arch
Decorative accents include lacelike bargeboards, jig-saw cup brackets under the eaves, elaborate cresting and ornamental chimneys
Reached the Midwest by 1850s
Mostly constructed of wood or brick in Iowa City; many were vertical board and batten
Gothic Revival  homes were:
symmetrical and asymmetrical
had rooms that were octagonal or circular
had bays or oriel windows
included towers, turrets, porches, Porte-cocheres, conservatories

Italianate Style
This Anglo-Italian style developed in the mid 19th century
Characteristics of the style include:
Overhanging eaves supported by single or paired brackets,
Tall windows and doors with rounded-arched headings
Piazzas and verandas
Hooded balconies
Cupolas, widow’s walks, towers
The Oakes-Wood-Miltner-Hayes House
Popularly called the Grant Wood House because the artist once lived there
Built in 1858
Italian characteristics include:
coupled brackets under eaves
Tall narrow first floor windows with extended framing

Italianate (continued)
The Dey House
Example of Italianate style in a frame house
Built in 1857
Features include:
Veranda with columns
 rounded arched window in the gable
scrolled brackets under the eaves,
iron cresting on the central part of the roof

Franco-American Style
Style was fashionable in the US  between 1860-1880
Based on French Second Empire
Features include:
Mansard roof cut with dormers
Many decorative features
Iron crestings on the roof
Decorative moldings
Tall French windows and doors
At least two floors; many had three
Carson-Alpha Phi House
Completed in 1875
Features include:
Mansard Roof
Three stories
Symmetrical facade
Porch across the front

Queen Anne Revival Style
This style has many names, Free Classic, Modern American Renaissance,  Neo Jacobean
Style based upon English architecture from Queen Anne’s time
Popular about 1870s
Features include:
Projecting wings and bays
Different materials for first and second floors
Huge chimneys
Gabled or hipped roof
Turrets or towers
Verandas and balconies
Lindsay-Lake House
Built in 1893
Features include:
Siding of shingle, brick and stone
Massive chimney
Octagonal tower

Queen Anne Style (continued)
 Musser- Dixon House
Built in 1890
Good example of the style
Features include:
Siding with half-timbering, fish scale shingles
Octagonal tower
Large porch
Both hipped and gable roof
Tall brick chimney

Prairie Style
Introduced by Frank Lloyd Wright in the beginning of the 20th century
Design expressed the flat sweeping prairie;  low, horizontal house with broad sweeping roof and wide, overhanging eaves
Features include:
Broad, gently sloping roofs with low chimneys, balconies and terraces extending in several directions
Emphasis on natural materials-woods stone
Leaded windows patterned with colored glass
Bands of casement windows
Wood strips to emphasize structural elements

Bungalow Style
Popular throughout the US in the early 20th century as a dwelling for the middle class
Called, “everyman’s small house”
Many plans for bungalows were ordered from Sears and Roebuck catalog
They might have been shipped pre-cut for assembly on their sites
The word bungalow comes from India to designate a house that was one story high and had large encircling porches
Features include:
One and a half stories
Long, sloping roofs
Wide eaves
Deep porches
Natural wood and/or stone
Gable dormers

Tudor Revival
Style patterned on style elements from  16th century medieval  England
Style has an emphasis on steeply pitched roof gables
Became popular in the 1920s through the 1940s
Features include:
Half –timbering, either structural or applied
Mixes of stone, stucco, and wood
Symmetrical façade
Projecting bays
Gothic details

Regency Revival
The Regency style follows classic lines like the Georgian style
The revival of the style was popular in the early 20th century
Symmetrical  structure with two or three stories
Usually built of brick
 Many have  an octagonal window over the front door
Features include:
Pilasters
Quions
Hip roof
Double-hung windows
One chimney at the side of the house

Moffitt Stone Cottages
Built by Iowa City’s Howard Moffitt
 popular in the years,1920-1930
Many small homes were built in Iowa City with the theme of frugality and frequent salvage
Features of the Moffitt stone cottages include:
Story and a half bungalow type structure
Massive front or side exterior chimney
Use of salvaged or local materials
 Muscatine Avenue Stone Cottages
Stone cladding
Appearance of thatched roofs

Lustron House
Created by the Lustron Company
(Columbus, Ohio) in 1947
Manufacture of porcelain enameled steel houses
Represented an experiment in mass- produced, prefabricated housing
Billed as,” the House America has been waiting for”
Features include:
One story
Gabled- roof ranch
Bay window and side porch
Created from porcelain enameled steel
Multiple colors were available

American  Foursquare
Was very popular from 1895-1930s
Was economical to build
Cube shape made is possible to take advantage of small lot size and small budgets
Most commonly built in wood frame; most popular style was a pre-cut form, “Eastbourne”
Was influenced by Prairie Style
Features include:
Square plan with two floors
Pyramidal hipped roof
Usually had a columned veranda
Front dormer

Ranch
Popular style originating in the mid 1930s in California
Loosely based on the Spanish Colonial house of the  American southwest, but modified by Prairie and Craftsman designs
 Became a dominant house style in the 1950s and 1960s
One story house with garage or carport on one end
Features include:
One-story shapes with low pitched roof
Rambling facades
Moderate or wide eave overhang
Ribbon windows or large picture windows are common

International Style
Became popular after World War II
Emphasizes natural materials of wood and stone
Built to blend into the landscape
Echoed the shapes found in the landscape
Features include:
House nestled into the landscape
Board and batten modules making decorative patterns
Articulated post and beam construction
Wood decks in the treetops
Japanese influences
Skylights, sliding glass doors

Glossary of Terms
Ashlar: hewed or square stone; also masonry of stone
Bargeboard: the vertical face board following and set back under the roof edge of a gable, sometimes decorated
Bay: One unit of a building that has similar units; like the number of window and door openings per floor
Belvedere: an open pavilion built for a view sometimes on top of a building
Bracket: Supporting part of a floor or shelf, or under eaves sometimes in the shape of an inverted L or sometimes triangular
Capital: top member of a column
Cresting: decorative ridge for a roof
Dormer: a vertically set window on a sloping roof; roofed structure housing such a window
Eaves: The projecting overhang at the lower edge of the roof
Façade: The face or front of the building
Finial: a form at the top of a spire, gable, gatepost or other point with some height
Gable: a triangular wall  segment at the end of a gabled roof

Glossary ( continued)
Gambrel Roof: a ridged roof with two slopes on each side; the lower slope having a steeper pitch
Half-timbering: construction that exposes heavy timbers, with the spaces between the beams filled with brick or stucco
Hipped Roof: A roof with 4 uniformly  pitched sides
Leaded Glass: Small panes of glass held in place with lead strips; the glass may be clear or stained
Lean-to:structure with a single pitched roof
Mansard Roof:  a roof that has two slopes on all four sides
Masonry: Wall construction of materials such as stone, brick or adobe
Molding: A continuous decorative band that is either carved or applied to a surface

Glossary ( continued)
Oriel: a projecting window with its walls corbelled or supported by brackets
Porte- Cochere:A shelter for vehicles outside an entrance doorway
Portico:  an entrance porch
Quoins:Stones or bricks ornamenting the outside corner of a building.
Restoration: The process of accurately recovering the form and details of a property and its setting as it appeared at a particular period of time.
Soffit: The finished underside of a lintel, arch or other span; usually overhead
Turret: A small slender tower usually at the corner of a building, often containing a circular stair
Veranda: A roofed open gallery or porch

Resources
Keyes, Margaret. Nineteenth Century Home Architecture of Iowa City, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press,1993.
Klein, Marilyn & Fogle, David. Clues to American Architecture,Washington,D.C.: Starrhill Press, 1985.
Lafore, Laurence. American Classic , Iowa: Iowa State Historical Department,1975.
McAlester, Virginia & Lee. Field Guide to American Houses, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1990
Poppeliers, John& Chambers,Allen & Schwartz, Nancy.What Style is it? Washington, D.C. The Preservation Press, 1983.
Shank,Wesley. The Iowa Catalog, Historic American Buildings Survey, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press,1979.

Presentation Created for Friends of Historic Preservation by:
Alice Kurtz
Jeff Schabilion
Jackie Briggs, photography
Jeremy Faden,technical support