Porches of North America

6. Post-Victorian Styles

The post-Victorian Progressive era of the early twentieth century brought such innovation and prodigious eclecticism to domestic architectural design in North America that it can be challenging to make precise classifications among the many architectural styles of houses with porches built during this period. Indeed, evidence of specific architectural styles of twentieth-century houses is based not so much on the symbolic use of architectural embellishments, as had been the norm during the preceding Victorian era, but rather more on the loosely coordinated application of manufactured building parts and the use of stock plans that were marketed to builders and designers by catalogues and millwork companies. Typical shapes and forms of houses and their exterior features may help with the identification of the various popular styles of this period, however. An example of the houses being built during the first decade of the twentieth century in an upscale neighborhood in Dallas, Texas, can be seen in a circa 1910 postcard view of Munger Place (figure 6.1). This planned development , started in 1905, was one of the first deed-restricted neighborhoods in Texas. Most of its houses were built in the Prairie style with broad porches.1 prairie Houses designed in the Prairie style, which was freely fashioned on some of the early works by George W. Maher, Frank Lloyd Wright, and other Chicago school architects , were widely propagated by contractors and builders using pattern books and house plan catalogues during the late 1890s and early 1900s. These Prairie-style houses may be identified by their broadly overhanging eaves with boxed cornices extending from shallow-pitched, hipped roofs. With a Post-Victorian฀ Styles The post-Victorian Progressive era of the early twentieth century brought such innovation and prodigious eclecticism to domestic architectural design in North America that it can be challenging to make precise classifications among the many architectural styles of houses with porches built during this period. Indeed, evidence of specific architectural styles of twentieth-century houses is based not so much on the symbolic use of architectural embellishments, as had been the norm during the preceding Victorian era, but rather more on the loosely coordinated application of manufactured building parts and the use of stock plans that were marketed to builders and designers by catalogues and millwork companies. Typical shapes and forms of houses and their exterior features may help with the identification of the various popular styles of this period, however. An example of the houses being built during the first decade of the twentieth century in an upscale neighborhood in Dallas, Texas, can be seen in a circa 1910 postcard view of Munger Place (figure 6.1). This planned development , started in 1905, was one of the first deed-restricted neighborhoods in Texas. Most of its houses were built in the Prairie style with broad porches.1 prairie Houses designed in the Prairie style, which was freely fashioned on some of the early works by George W. Maher, Frank Lloyd Wright, and other Chicago school architects , were widely propagated by contractors and builders using pattern books and house plan catalogues during the late 1890s and early 1900s. These Prairie-style houses may be identified by their broadly overhanging eaves with boxed cornices extending from shallow-pitched, hipped roofs. With a Post-Victorian฀ Styles 230 Porches of North America deep, full-width front porch supported by massive piers, a curved corner sun porch, and a shallow side porch, the John Farson House (Pleasant Home) (figure 6.2) in Oak Park, Illinois, is one of the earliest examples of a Prairie-style house. It was designed by Maher in 1897.2 Another representative example of the style, featuring a front porch supported by massive piers, is the J. B. Butler House (figure 6.3) in Fort Dodge, Iowa, built in 1903.3 Especially common in the central regions of the United States, but also built elsewhere , Prairie-style houses typically have deep porches that are supported by massive piers of brick, dressed stone, or stucco. These vertical piers may extend all the way to the ground or may be supported by solid half-walls. On many Prairie-style porches, these knee-walls extend between the support piers. The straight lines and cubist forms of these structures were precursors of Figure฀6.1. With broadly overhanging eaves and deep front porches supported by massive piers, the two-story houses that lined Munger Place in Dallas are...