Trying to remember this word is driving me, and all my family, crazy! I’m looking for a term for the architectural feature found in many Victorian era homes. It’s a rounded window recess, like a bay, but it encompasses the foundation, first, second, and sometimes third, stories, and the roof. And it’s round. Many times, these features jut out onto a covered porch, (usually a wrap-around). I’m looking for the old terminology that seems to be out of vogue these days, because I cannot find it anywhere. It was the term my mother used for this feature, and she was born in 1921. Then later, in the 1980’s when my friend graduated from real estate appraisal classes, he used the same term, but now the word escapes even him! There used to be quite a few of those old Victorian era homes still standing back home in the NC Appalachian Mountain area when I was growing up, but they fell to either ruin or progress as the years went by. Many were destroyed because it was too costly for the owners to bring them to electrical and plumbing codes, and in the 1960’s and 1970’s municipalities, along with insurance companies, saw them as dangers (for some reason, even though they were on private property!) and called for them to be demolished. What a shame! And now, I can’t remember the proper terminology for the most beautiful feature these old homes displayed. (I must be getting old!) Please help!!!
Cupola?
It is tough to tell from your description–do you have a linked photo?
Are you talking about a Veranda? And are you referring to Queen Anne Victorian homes or ? There is a wide range of Victorian style architecture.
does it exist on this image?
Perhaps you can find the term you’re looking for here…?
Okay I found a wide variety of Queen Anne Victorian homes for you to look through–can you identify what you recall from any of these photos? Is it the recessed bay in image 15.
It is that term you used–recessed bay that has me confused I think. I can’t tell if you meant in a vertical application or a horizontal application. And you say it is not a bow window like this-- Bow window
If nothing else this web site has some beautiful homes you can look at!
Sorry as an Architect, I love Victorian homes and you have me intrigued as to what you are trying to figure out.
If it looks like the house on this poster…
http://www.southshoreartsonline.org/gifts/posters/contem/ctp160.jpg
we call it a turret, but we’re open to suggestions.
Virginia & Lee McAlester’s A Field Guide to AmericanHouses call it a tower and notes it as a distinctive feature of the Queen Anne style.
Carole Rifkin notes, in A Field Guide to American Architecture, that the adjective, (and sometime name), applied to the Queen Anne style was Chateauesque for “the steep hipped roof and the polygonal or cylndrical towers which are its dominant features.”
(Richardson Romanesque borrowed the tower as one of its features, but I could not find any explicit references to it using a unique name.)
The Wikipedia artical on the Queen Anne Style also calls it a tower.
Bow window might be used if the tower includes a wrap-around window, particularly if the window is actually curved.
A garrett?
A widow’s walk?
StG
I have a great photo, but don’t know how to link it. (I’m new to this board.)
Thanks!
Okay, here’s one. They call this a study, but that’s not the word I’m stuck on… 
http://beehivestudio.typepad.com/beehive_studio/images/2008/07/28/blog_29_victorian_home_2.jpg
This poster DOES have the exact window feature I’m trying to describe. Thanks for your response. The term still escapes me! We never called this a turret. But thanks anyway!!
YES!!! many of those lovely homes in your link have the exact feature i’m trying to describe, particularly #7, # 9 and #15. I remember my appraiser friend saying that if the window *only *is recessed, it’s called a bow, if the recessed area reaches all the way to the floor, it’s a bay, and if the recessed area has a foundation and a roof, and encompasses both stories, it’s called the mystery word!! I remember thinking, “Wow, my mom had it right!”
Thanks for the link. Beautiful homes!!
Thanks to all of you for your answers!! I love all the terminologies, and all the great photos, but I have not yet hit on that “Ah-Ha Moment”.
Other tems I have encountered are [I]alcove, study, studio, tower, turret, bay, cupola, oriel, seated window, well. *.
The word I can’t remember must be a little archaic. I always thought it was probably colloquial until my real estate appraiser friend used the same term.
Thanks so much!! Maybe it will turn up!
I am glad you liked the photos–beautiful homes in my opinion, although I know many people think they are too much. But I enjoy them.
As to your question–I have always called them towers or turrets. It isn’t a Gazebo or a Pavilion because it is not freestanding. A Belvedere could be a turret, so is that the term?
Sorry I couldn’t be more help. I will think about it and if I get time ask a friend or two. Perhaps we can come up with the term.
This reminds me of a short story I read a long time ago. It was about a rich girl who took a walk and ended up in a poor neighborhood. She was fascinated with the poor family and the kids she met. Not because they were poor, but because they seemed so rich to her. They had toys and wonderful things all over the front yard. They got to eat delicious food like hot dogs. And all this other stuff that seemed like the children must be so rich and so lucky.
Anyway, one of the things the kids did was go upstairs to play in the “MYSTERY WORD”. I am almost positive they used the word you’re looking for to describe the upper part of that thing. It was an old, dilapitated Victorian house so the top of the “MYSTERY WORD” was leaning and unstable. It was dangerous, but the kids enjoyed playing and jumping up there.
I dont know why I remember that, or why I can’t remember the name of the story, but there you go.
Belfry? Although I don’t think that would be a correct term, I can see it being used.
Okay, consensus among my architectural friends was Tower or Turret. But one person came up with Conservatory and that might be what you are thinking? It is a glass enclosed structure, often circular in shape.
So is it a Conservatory?
I’m not sure what the word is you’re looking for. The windows have curved glass, and from looking it up and tom’s post, apparently “bow window” is the generally accepted term, as is “tower” rather than “turret.”
I live in fear of the day I have to replace any of those curved windows, I imagine getting the glass would be pretty pricey.