Victorian Architecture and Styles

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Victorian Styles

My discussion emphasizes the late Victorian, partly because Denver developed later so I am not exposed to older styles, but also because I am more interested in the Post-Victorian period. The Arts & Crafts Movement really started in the late Victorian era as a revolt against shoddy industrial goods and social injustice (about which Karl Marx and Charles Dickens had much to say), and included a wide range of goals from back to nature and the Healthy Clothes Movement (target: corset).

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Queen Anne (ca: 1885-1900)

Richardson Romanesque and Shingle Style (ca: 1885-1905)

Four Square/Denver Square (ca: 1895-1910)

Architectural Police Tip

Historical Background

Colorado boomed following the civil war primarily due to the rush for gold, as well as the commerce feeding the mining industry. The heavy emphasis on natural resource extraction and farming/ranching lasted until the economic downturn of the 1980's, when Colorado's economy finally became more diversified to the point where it now depends primarily on tourism, agriculture and industry (in particular, high technology and computers).

Early Denver grew up as a commercial/transport center, initially being much smaller than Leadville. It has only a few houses dating from before the 1880s, but the population grew dramatically from the 1880's through the 1920's, which is evidenced in all quadrants of the City by large neighborhoods consisting of row upon row of Victorian and Craftsman Bungalows. The wealthier neighborhoods where you see a preponderance of grand victorian mansions are clustered from the Capitol building to the East and South.

As a "late-bloomer" Denver lacks some of the variety of Victorian styles that you get in many Eastern cities.

Victorian Elegance and Modesty

The contrast between the Victorian cottages and the elegant Victorian styles is a measure of the distinction between the classes in the 19th century. The wealthy lived in a culture of servants and ostentation, and their large houses required a staff to maintain. Smaller victorian cottages may only have had one or two bedrooms, but they imitated the wealthy by having at least a separate dining room if not an extra parlor. The many rooms and small windows can lead to a feeling of coziness or claustrophobia depending on your inclination.

Queen Anne (ca: 1885-1900)
The Queen Anne style is the most common of the Denver Victorian styles. Earlier styles show up occasionally or as details applied to a later house (for example colonial style pillors, or Italianate brackets at the roof). Typical Queen Anne features include turrets, fanciful organization of building mass, and contrasting wall treatment (brick patterns, shingles, clapboard) from one story to the next. Applied detailing may be extremely varied and ornate.

Denver building codes required brick walls for fire safety, and the City seems to have more examples of the stolid rather than the fanciful Queen Anne.

Richardson Romanesque/Shingle Style (ca: 1865-1910)
I lump these styles together, as they were contemporaneous and so many of their features run together. The proto-typical Shingle Style mansion is a weather-beaten hulk on the Maine coast. Richardson Romanesque (Henry Hobson Richardson) architecture emphasizes massive archways and construction from blocks of cut stone that make the house or building look like it will last forever. You often see obviously Romanesque main floors topped by shingle-style second or third story, which is why I combine the styles.

Four Square/Denver Square (ca: 1895-1910)
Four Square houses were built at the tail end of the Victorian period, and in some sense are already post-Victorian, as the interior treatment is often inspired by the Craftsman philosophy. The cultural context is still upper-middle class Victorian, and Victorian details are frequently applied to the porches and roofs.

The most obvious and defining feature is the square, symmetrical front. The typical version is two stories, with a big front porch and a little windowed dormer in the attic. These are very common across Denver, and there are also many smaller houses that are styled in the same way: narrower two story houses or symmetrical Victorian cottages that also have the attic dormer.

Fancy example abound in the neighborhoods of Capitol hill, Cheesman park, and Congress Park. The modest examples are everywhere as Denver (North, South and West) was swept by development fever at the turn of the Century.

Architectural Police Tips
The biggest mistake made in renovating or building in the Victorian style is to make the windows too large--obviously a modern preference, but one that is a dead giveaway for newer construction.

Painted brick can never be stripped clean, and sandblasting removes the firing glaze so the brick begins to deteriorate, thus painting is irreversible.

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