Spokane Colonial S O U T H H I L L , S P O K A N E , WA S H I N G T O N
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As the United States’ first Centennial in 1876 approached and passed, buyers of suburban homes once again fell in love with the colonial architecture that once defined this country at its outset.
wings for a study or an additional bedroom. Garages were typically detached or attached in the rear and often read like a carriage house with single doors for each of the garage bays.
As development accelerated after WWI in the 1920’s architects and builders were acutely aware of this tribute to the American home that the market was demanding. Builders would offer one of a couple floor plans with a number of “add-ons” such as porches, dormers, and
In addition to the embedded patriotism that this style communicated, buyers at this period were drawn to the Colonial’s open and simple floor plan with clear and efficient circulation. Kitchens were typically open overlooked the rear yard.
Builders and homeowners were also attracted to the general economy of Colonial Revival houses. Much simpler to build than the English and Victorian counterparts, the clapboard siding over a wooden frame offered a less-expensive and easier-to-maintain home. As a direct descendant of the east coast’s brick Georgian’s, this region’s use of wood structure and cladding was a testament to the availability of wood and manufacturers that could mass-produce both details and framing.
The Colonial Revival style’s landscape patterns extend the formal arrangement of rooms and elements into the gardens and yard. Linear hedgerows, small garden walls, and select tree species were used judiciously to carefully carve regularly-shaped outdoor “rooms” that related to the interior spaces of the house. Yards and other play spaces typically occupied the space created by these rooms and were used for everything from formal gatherings to children’s play.
Rectangular or square main body, typically broad-front Usually 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 stories Gambrel, side-gable, or hip roof Regular rhythm of bays and windows Double-hung windows with divided panes Typically have shutters on vertical windows but as the windows get wider, shutters tend to disappear Celebrated entry-way Front porches, if applied, are typically full-width or wrapping Typical materials include clapboard siding and wood details
Character Study The Carney Residence Spokane, Washington
SUMMER
2009
Spokane Tudor
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Sometimes called English Romantic, Spokane’s Tudor style was heavily favored and made popular by turn-of-the-century architect Kirtland Cutter (great grandfather of Jon Saylor). After the great 1889 fire in downtown Spokane, Cutter’s practice took off, executing many of the buildings downtown, such as the Spokane Club and Davenport hotel. While literally rebuilding the city, he was often times called on by Spokane’s wealthy and many upper middle class patrons to design south hill homes. His work is seen all over the hill, and heav-
ily influenced the degree to which the Tudor style was proliferated. Builders and developers, recognizing that Spokane’s finest were commissioning these elaborate homes, began offering several more affordable iterations and the style became popular with the wider market well into the 1940s. The style initially became popular likely because of the comfortable nature in which these homes sat in the landscape. Early buyers were often welltraveled and were drawn to the English countryside
as a model for building on their own estates back home. Somewhat less formal than the French and Italianate counterparts, the Tudor offered a more casual lifestyle while not diminishing the grandeur and prominence of the building. Oftentimes, these homes grew to sizes and a scale that competed with the Chateaus and Villas it replaced in popularity. Homes built in the English tradition often relied heavily on the use of glazing on the sunny side of the homes to maximize the light in an
otherwise typically dreary climate. This often led to the ganging of several vertically-proportioned windows and doors to make that possible. As aspiring country estates built in suburban Spokane neighborhoods, landowners tended to compensate with lush romantic gardens and landscaping. Stone and brick site walls and pavers complemented the foundation and walls of the house. Garages in the rear are styled off the stables that accompanied the countryside ancestor.
2-3 Story main body with smaller wings and porches attached and/or gained Steep roofs typically with a side gable and one or more crossing gables Deep overhanging roofs Irregular spacing of bays with local symmetries on projecting bays Double hung windows predominate with an occasional casement, always with divided panes Small porch or awning articulates entryway Stone or brick bases and ground floors with half timbering and stucco upper floors. Elaborate and often sculpted chimneys
Character Study The Carney Residence Spokane, Washington
SUMMER
2009
Spokane Greek Revival
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The Greek Revival came to the United States through our public buildings and financial institutions to exude the great democracy that was in its infancy. Over time, a taste for Grecian forms developed in residential architecture. Initially, homes modeled on Greek temples encountered difficulty from the temple form’s inability to respond to the practical needs of a house. As the style migrated out of the cities in the north to the plantations in the south, architects creatively joined the practical nature of the Colonial floor
plan with the Grecian massing and detailing. After this was figured out, the Greek Revival spread quickly as personal monument to one’s achievement. The most popular example, the White House, serves as a fitting example of this tradition. As the home building market became centered on offering to each their own personal monument, the Greek Revival became a popular style throughout the country. While it lived much like the Colonial it borrowed its plan from, the Greek Revival used
common materials (such as wood over the stone used in the original predecessor) to recreate elaborate columns, cornice details, and opening surrounds. As the popularity increased, manufacturers began mass-producing these elements making this style more accessible to a wider market. Greek Revival homes address the street very formally much like the temples they borrow their front porch from. In Spokane, these porches are primarily double height and rarely have more than
four massive, turned columns supporting a gabled pediment over the doorway. While the style started as a simple rectangle with its narrow side fronting the street, the needs for space gradually allowed for the addition of wings off the side and rear.
2 to 2 1/2 Story massing with hip or front-gable roofed main body Simple box floor plan with attached side wings and porches Grecian pediment supported by four wooden columns serving as the front porch Formal rhythm of bays and openings Large, double-hung windows, the narrower iterations of which are flanked by shutters Elaborately detailed window and door surrounds are common Details come from a selection and hierarchy of Greekinspired mouldings and compositions.
Character Study The Carney Residence Spokane, Washington
The interior is laid out much like the Colonial but with oftentimes taller spaces and more formal articulation of interior details. Landscaping is equally of a highly formal and manicured arrangement. SUMMER
2009
Spokane Craftsman
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The Craftsman style finds its roots in the Arts and Crafts movement that was occurring in the England in the late 1800s. Often Attributed to poet and architect William Morris, the Arts and Crafts movement was a response to the mass production and over-styling of the Victorian and other elaborate fashions that were popular at the time. Morris sought a return to clean, simple, good design built by hand. This return to a more vernacular mode of thinking immediately became popular with the middle class living in the form
of bungalows. Soon after, similar movements on both coasts of the United States emerged and found an equally strong following in the Roycroft and Shaker movements on the east coast and the Greene and Greene work in California. This return to the handmade eventually migrated to Spokane as companies like Sears Roebuck and Co. made the style popular through their bungalow designs available by catalogue. Neighborhoods quickly grew around this style’s easy-tobuild construction and readily available materials.
As its ancestry suggests, the Craftsman style is identified by the clean use of materials and the apparent hand-shaping of details such as rafter tails and porch columns. Originally designed as an affordable design for middle-class families, the early size of the bungalows tended to be cottage-scaled. As appreciation for the Arts and Crafts became fashionable for wealthier home builders, the style grew to include twostory iterations, still with the same attention paid to human scale and locally available materials.
The marketability of the Craftsman style demanded a straight-forward floor plan that was efficient and left no space to waste. Most notable in this arrangement is the relationship between living room and the front porch. Neighborhoods with this style were socially structured around life on the front porch and these often times became outdoor living rooms. Some go so far as to glaze portions of the porch to make this amenity a year-round asset.
Usually 1 1/2 story bungalow with an occasional, larger 2 story main body Low-sloping roofs, either in a hip or side-gable condition. Usually open rafter tail eave details Either engaged or attached broad front porch Informal arrangement of windows and doors Windows predominantly are double hung with the occasional use of casements for picture windows Details tend to be those that are reminiscent of handmade forms and scales Typically wood construction and clapboard siding on a brick foundation; solid masonry and stucco used occasionally
Character Study The Carney Residence Spokane, Washington
SUMMER
2009