American Foursquare (Classic Boxes): A two-story house style named for the square or block shape of the structure, with four rooms positioned over four rooms. One of the most popular styles from 1900-1930.
Arcade: Series of two or more arched openings
Asymmetrical: Something with sides which do not match
Balloon Frames: Lightweight framework of two-by-fours held together with nails
Balustrade: System of railings and supports
Bargeboard: Decorative board attached to the edge of a roof
Bay Window: Three windows placed into a part of the architecture which projects out from the main part of the building
Beveled Glass: Glass which has a three dimensional pattern
Blind Arcade: Series of arches which have been filled in
Board-and-batten: Type of vertical siding
Bracket: support element under a roof overhang, often decorative rather than functional
Bungalow: A favorite housing style in the early 20th century, with gabled roof with a a slope facing the street, and a front porch, and simple detail.
Buttress: Supporting element
Carriagehouse: Outbuilding for storage of a carriage
Casement Window: Hinged Window which swings out, rather than moving up and down
Chateauesque: An unusual housing style form the early 20th century characterized by flamboyant detail over symmetrical masonry facades. These massive homes were usually accompanied by steep tile roofs, and projecting dormers
Classical (Classic Revival): Utilizing the vocabulary of ancient Greek and Roman architecture
Corbel: Bracket, usually supporting a cornice or arch
Corinthian: Most elaborate of the Greek column types, with leafy ornament at the top
Cornice: Decoration on a building just below the roof
Craftman Style: A housing style from the early 20th century referring to the Arts and Crafts period. This style featured an exterior made of easily obtained materials and a design easily constructed and was meant to blend in with the environment surrounded by it. Most were built of wood frame with timber and shingle sheathing.
Cresting: Ornamental ridge on top of a wall or roof
Cupola: Small structure on top of a roof
Dentils: Rows of raised blocks or “teeth”
Doric: Simplest of the ancient Greek column tops
Dormer: Window projecting from a sloping roof
Dutch Colonial Revival: A housing style which reached it’s peak in the 1920’s, incorporating a gambrel roof.
Eastlake Style: A housing style named for Charles Locke Eastlake, a British furniture designer. This style is known for fanciful combinations of ornament and color, table-like porch posts, large wing-like brackets and a variety of exterior wall surfaces.
Eaves: Lower edges of a roof which jut out beyond the wall
Eclectic: Building which has features from a number of sources, rather than remaining true to a single style
Entablature: Horizontal decorative element above columns or porch posts
Facade: Front face of a building
Fanlight: Fan shaped window above a door
Federal Style: A housing style usually made of brick, and two-story in size stressing symmetry. Distinctive features include an elaborate central doorway, fanlight transom, and matching chimneys extending from either end of the house.
Fenestration: Window treatment
Finial: Ornamental element topping something
Fishscale: Type of shingling made of overlapping rounded units which resemble the scales on a fish
Folk Victorian: A housing style form the 1880’s identified by the presence of Victorian detailing on a simple folk house.
Frieze: Continuous band of horizontal decoration
Gable: Triangular area left between the sides of a pitched roof
Gambrel: Variation on the gable roof with a change of pitch along each side
Gingerbread: Frivolous, solely decorative details
Gothic Revival: A housing style from 1840-1860 with deep gables, dormers, arched windows, and all forms of gingerbread .
Half-timbered: Design made of heavy wooden beams
Hipped: Roof with four sloping sides
Incised ornament: Decorative carving
Insulbrick: Asbestos and asphalt shingles applied to the exterior of frame structures in early 1900’s to provide additional insulation and an updated look. The end result simulated brick.
Ionic: Greek column type with scrolls on top
Italianate: A housing style form the late 1800’s that incorporated wide, elaborate bracketed cornice and eaves over a nearly square structure. Many feature a hipped roof with a tower or cupola, and arched windows with hood molds.
Jacobethean Style: Derived from a style of housing popular in 17th century England, using masonry and symmetry with interior courtyards, transom windows, and gabled dormers
Keystone: Top stone of an arch
Knee braces: Triangular supports
Lintel: Horizontal support above a door or window
Loggia: Roofed but otherwise open gallery
Louver: Opening in a wall fitted with slanted slats
Modillons: Series of ornamental brackets
Palladian window: Three part window with tall central section topped with an arch and two shorter side windows
Parapet gable: Portion of a wall extending above the edge of the roof
Pavilion: Part of a building which projects out from the ?wall surface
Pediment: Triangular area at roof or above door
Pilaster: Flattened column attached to a wall
Porte-cochere: Precursor of the carport
Portico: Small porch
Prairie Style: A housing style modeled after architect Frank Loyld Wright featuring horitontality, with long facades, wide eaves and bands of trimwork
Pyramidal Roof: Roof with equal slopes which meet at a point
Reverse Bay: Section of architecture which projects back from the main body of a building
Queen Anne Style: Perhaps the most frivolous housing style of the late 1800’s, it’s primary theme is asymmetry. Houses in Queen Anne style were general constructed of wood and incorporated towers and elaborate gingerbread with bewildering excess and were painted in a rainbow of colors.
Quoins: Cornerstone or keystone
Romanesque Revival Style: An 1880’s building style based on the work of Henry Hobson Richardson, exclusively in stone with massive, rustic looking construction and heavy arches on porches, doors and windows.
Rusticated: Stone with rough, natural texture
Scrollwork: Curing or spiral decorative forms
Second Empire: A Victorian housing style featuring a mansard roof pierced with dormer windows with elaborate surrounds and color tile patterns on the roof and iron crestings.
Shingle Style: A turn of the century housing style characterized by wood shingles on exterior wall surfaces, narrow eaves and minimal trim.
Shotgun: A house type that is one room wide and two or more deep, named by folklore for the ability to fire a shotgun through the front door and exit uninterrupted through the rear door.
Sidelight: Window area to the side of a door
Sill: Support at the bottom of a window
Sister houses: Houses built in a neighborhood in the 1890’s that mimicked each other in size and style.
Spandrel: The space between the curve of an arch and the rectangular element around it
Stick Style: A housing style from the late 1800’s that incorporated horizontal and vertical wood framing on exterior walls, complex roof lines and an internal balloon frame construction
String course: Narrow band of decoration
Stucco: A material that was sold door to door in the early 1900’s to apply to the exterior of frame and masonry structures as additional insulation and an updated look.
Temple front: Decorative columns topped with a pediment
Transom: Window above a door
Tudor Style: An Old English housing style featuring gables and half-timbered exterior walls, often accompanies by stucco or brick.
Turret: Small, slender tower
Verge board: Decorative board attached to the edge of a roof
Victorian Style: A housing style from the late 1800’s featuring lavish ornamentation on the exterior from trim to towers, high ceilings, hardwood floors and dramatic porches.
Voussoir: Wedge-shaped stone that forms part of an arch
Window hood: Decorative element at the top of a window
Sources Cited
Preservation Dayton, Inc., Glossary of Terms, http://www.preservationdayton.com/glossary-of-terms.cfm. Last accessed: June 2, 2007.