Historic House Blog

As I painted a den today for a family member, I got to thinking about paint colors & historic houses.  (Not that the house I was painting was historic . . . In fact, I was painting a 1968 Ranch style house with dark, faux panel walls (see right) . . . but still, I needed something to think about, right?).  [...]

“Dentil” mouldings are very common.  You can spot them on many historic houses, as well as newer homes with a classical look.  However, dentil moldings are also one of the most commonly misspelled architecture elements (especially in real estate descriptions) — and it is easy to understand why.  After all, dentil is pronounced the same as “dental.”  [...]

This 1890s 22×26 log home was taken apart in Noble, Wisconsin, and moved to Marietta, Georgia, where craftsman Louis Michael (Mike) Jones restored and reassembled it. There is a newer timber frame addition off the back, which makes for 1404 total square feet of living space. With the restoration work finished, the log home is now for ready for [...]

I snapped the above photo of The Hamilton-Turner Inn (ca. 1873) in December 2007.  It is one of my favorite photos from my trip to Savanah.  I am very much enamoured with this historic house– an infatuation that goes well beyond my usual admiration for Second Empire mansions.  I generally do not like excessive, over-the-top ornamentation on historic [...]

Some of the earliest Victorian-era houses were part of an architectural movement called “Gothic Revival.”  Gothic houses in the United States were built primarily from 1840 to 1860, and are also referred to as “Carpenter Gothic,” “Rural Gothic,” and even more informally, “Gingerbread houses” – due to frilly ornamentation that is common to the style.  Andrew [...]

The first couple of decades of the twentieth-century were exciting times for house builders and architects. Many of the house styles that came to dominate 20th-century architecture were first introduced in the 1900s, the teens, and the 1920s. Craftsman bungalows were the most popular houses of the 1910s, and continued in popularity through the 1930s. Frank Lloyd Wright launched his [...]

Every great architect is – necessarily – a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.                            -Frank Lloyd Wright    Frank Lloyd Wright has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects as the “greatest American architect of all time.” He was the founder of the [...]

So . . . what do you call those structures on top of some historic houses & buildings?  Well, the answer is both simple and complex at the same time.  The fact is, most people simply call all of them “cupolas” (pronounced CUE-puh-lah).  However, most of these structures are probably not cupolas.  Instead, many of them are [...]

How many types, or styles, of roofs can you name?   (And how many times can you say “roofs” without thinking it is a really weird word?  Maybe it’s just me.).  Anyway, there are a lot of combinations of roof styles, shapes, & sizes, but there are not many basic roof shapes if you want to learn [...]

I stumbled upon an interesting website today — http://www.historicalbricks.com .  It is the website of Gavin Historical Bricks – “The Nation’s Largest Supplier of Antique Brick & Stone.”   This company supplies large amounts of bricks for both historic restoration projects and new constuction projects (where the builder is trying to achieve historic look & feel).   [...]