I was used to stone farmhouses, center-hall Colonials, Arts and Crafts bungalows and Victorian houses. These all feature a one-story section next to a two-story section, and seem to have inspired the modern split-level. They generally date from the 1850s to the early 1900s. I can’t find pictures of the most sprawling versions that I’ve toured; one I almost bought had 6-8 rooms downstairs and four bedrooms upstairs.
I used to call them Western Reserve style, but I can’t find anything on a Google search. I’m now back on the East Coast and turn to the Dope for help. I’d love to know anything more about them, a name, an inspiration, whatever.
I dunno, but those are examples of typical turn of the century farmhouses all over the midwest. Maybe the farms you’re used to were built a bit earlier so they have a different aesthetic? I think the term for these is Colonial, but I’m not sure.
Thanks to all who answered. Knead and Hello, your photos pay homage to the design – as do split-levels – but the actual houses are more specific. They all feature a pretty distinct one-story section of two to four rooms and another two-story section with four to eight rooms, both sections visible from the front. Both of your designs are L-shaped with an equal number of levels all around.
I’m looking for descriptions for a book I’m writing – obviously not an architecture book, as I don’t have the chops for that – just a novel, and wanted to be as accurate as I can. I like both “wing and gable” and “Midwest farmhouse” for descriptors. If anyone else has other suggestions, I’ll take them.
In this similar design, they call it a “vernacular farmhouse” where vernacular apparently means a type of architecture which is indigenous to a specific time or place (not imported or copied from elsewhere).
translation: “Its the kind of farmhouse they build 'round these parts.”
Could it be that the photos in the OP are houses that started as a basic 2-story, with the rooms on the side added later? There are a lot of those around here (central Iowa).
Funny, my hunch was just the opposite: that it was a very small, possibly one-room cabin that was added on to. If you take away the two-story part it looks very much like 1880s era cabins from around here (Texas).
I grew up in one. That non-second story is usually an add-on (at least in the older ones), and is almost always the kitchen section, so you don’t heat up the upstairs while cooking during summer.
I’ve seen that called ‘farmhouse’ here in the Northeast. Two of the realtors in the cites called it ‘colonial’, I suppose based on the porch posts. I know realtors don’t like to use the term ‘farmhouse’ unless they’re selling a farm.
Prairie style is associated with Frank Lloyd Wright. With their long, low, flat-roofed profiles and stylized design elements, prairie style homes are about as unlike the OP’s houses as is possible.
If anyone can identify a balloon-frame house by looking at a photo of the exterior, they must have X-ray eyes. The term refers, as others have said, to how the house was put together, specifically how the wall and floors were framed, not to the architectural style of the house.
When I lived in Ohio, my sensibilities were reeled by the liberties Realtors would take with the term “Colonial.” I have a very narrow definition of that. This may be a version of Colonial. However, I lived in what was basically a common split-level design, although instead of having a full half-set of stairs down to the family room and garage, it was just one step. That was called “Colonial.” :rolleyes: So the Realtors don’t get a say here, unless they have some more ammunition.
Yes, balloon-frame houses were two-story homes built with exterior studs running from the foundation to the attic. Modern houses typical have each floor framed individually. That’s why older houses tend to burn quickly if they catch on fire, unless they’ve had fireblocks retrofitted.
Looks like 1) I know more about houses than I thought and 2) I’ve stumped The Dope.
Around here where the original settlement was anywhere from 1840 to 1860, the one story wing was typically the initial residence, often two rooms but not uncommonly just one all purpose room. Once the barn and a granary was built and the family became a bit more prosperous the two story addition was constructed. Typically the big farmhouse kitchen stayed in the initial one story wing .
The Four Square House by definition had a square ground plan. Typically it also had four rooms on the ground floor and four rooms on the second floor, an attic and hipped roof with a chimney right up the middle serving room stoves or a gravity system central furnace. Its heyday was from about the turn of the 19th - 20th Century up through WWI and into the 1930s. Sears-Roebuck did sell plans and precut lumber, windows, doors for these. Sears also sold a one and one half story bungalow house that was very popular. The materials came in on the railroad on two or three flat cars.
I used to have access to a book, an architectural survey of the homes in the Kentucky county where I used to live. It was a treasure trove or architectural styles. The houses pictured remind me of the farmhouses which were built or expanded upon single- or double-pen log homes. Some references were made to I-plan houses too. I don’t know if any of these terms relate or not. I’ll try to look around a bit and see if I can find some references online to the book.
