The Influence Of Colonial Revival Architecture In America

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America reawakened its heritage during the early 1880s when Colonial Revival architecture began to be the new movement. After celebrating one hundred years as an independent nation, Americans looked to their past for inspiration. This architectural style was a simple design that had very economical plans that made it favorable over other styles. The Philadelphia Contennial of 1876 is credited as the starting point for the rebirth of colonial architecture. Georgian and Federal architecture also had a prominent influence on the revival of elements such as colonial door surrounds, multi-pane sash windows, and cornice dentils on symmetrical façades. A secondary influence came from First Period Post-Medieval English and Dutch Colonial architecture. This introduced the gambrel-roofed …show more content…

The windows are also symmetrically balanced, but are most commonly double-hung sashes with multi-pane glazing in one or both sashes. This is the main way to identify this style, but all architectural styles have subtypes.
Colonial Revival architecture has nine principle subtypes that have evolved with the inspiration of Georgian and Federal prototype. The first is the Asymmetrical, which takes up ten percent of Colonial revival facades. This style ranges from rambling, free-form houses that resemble the Queen Anne style, to simple boxes with asymmetrical window or porch arrangements. The second is the hipped roof with a full-width porch, which were mostly built before 1915. This style is two stories, with a one story full-width porch supported by classical columns. This was most commonly a four-square form home with a central hall. The third style has a hipped roof without the full-width porch. About twenty percent of Colonial Revival houses are simple two-story rectangular blocks. The porch was usually absent, or if present was a small entry porch covering less than the full façade width. Eaves often have a

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