"Fly-by-Night CC" wrote in message
news
In article .com,
"Ned Sneed" wrote:

http://www.meet-n-eat.com//home/images/myhouse.jpg

I was wondering if anyone out there could tell me the style of the
house, ie. Craftsman, whatever. It was built in 1910. Also, what would
you call the architectural detail above the angled (bay?) window?
Anything anyone can tell me would be much appreciated.

It's of Victorian style. A modest, middle-class home of the time. The
Victorian influences are the spindle series above the entrance and the
corner bracket on the bay. By 1910 the Victorian style was well on its
way to being phased out, which may account for the lack of the typical
decorative wall shingle treatments and more brick-a-brack mouldings -
also those things added to the cost of the home so may have just been
omitted for economic reasons.

There are no Craftsman, Bungalow or Prairie influences in there that I
can see.
--
Owen Lowe

Houses that opened on the end (gable end like the one in the photo) were
called "Gothic Revival" (GR) and were built all over New England (lots of
other places, too but this is where I've seen lots of them). In my family
we call them "the houses that were designed before architects had to have
master's degrees." That "front door" opened onto a small square space and
you could either go directly upstairs to the second floor or a little to the
left and into a central hallway or further left into the parlor or music
room. There were two rooms on the left that often opened into each other
and may have had pocket doors at one time. One might thave been "The Front
Parlor" and the other the sitting room.

If you went down the hallway you'd probably be in the kitchen or maybe a
dining room, if you were in the kitchen that second parlor may have been
your dining room. If you were in the kitchen it was probably an add-on or an
"L".

Often times there was a tiny room tucked between the back of the staircase
and the kitchen just about useless space that seemed like a architect's
error. Sometimes this was a small closet-like space that lead to the cellar
stairs. Sometimes the only way to get into the cellar was an outside entry.

Upstairs the area that was above the stairs and NOT used as a stairway into
the attic was another very tiny room that seemed like another architect's
error. In my aunt's house this room was about 5x7' and had two doors. In
another's house this room became a bathroom with a nice private staircase to
the attic.

It's my understanding that many had some gingerbread type decorations on the
outside as your picture shows but most of the gingerbread was removed as the
houses got older and never replaced. Eventually the houses got extra
porches and add-on "L"s and other structural changes that make them harder
to identify at first glance but if you see a house with the front door on
the gable end - you're looking at "Gothic Revival".

These houses often had stained glass windows, I've seen them off that tiny
room behind the stairs and at the top of the stairs, too. Your bay window in
front wasn't unusual in more citified locals and another bay window on the
side if the second parlor was used for a dining room - I've seen that, too.
The insides of these houses always seemed dark to me, lotf of doors, too.

In a New England farm house this would have been connected to other
buildings and they usually followed a form that went like this: Big House,
Little House, Back House, Barn.

So the big house was the house itself
the little house might be storage or an indoor spring well
the back house was the outhouse
and the barn, the barn.

Are there buildings connected to the back of this house?

Anyway, look up "Gothic Revival" on Google and you will see how your house
has the doorway, lines and basic structure of the real McCoy.

Josie