Elements
Building Types
Residential
Detached house
Double House
Duplex or Two-Family
Rowhouses
Triple Decker
Quadriplex
Sixplex
Commercial
Store
Movie Theater
Corner Business Block
Café
Business Block
Hotel
Industrial
Warehouse
Factory
Mill
Public
Church
School Building
Railroad Station
Structure
Wood
Balloon frame
Platform frame
Masonry and post-and-beam
Masonry
Post-and beam or post-and-lintel
Cladding Materials
Shingles
Square butt
Fish-scale
Octagon
Staggered
Diamond
Square Pattern with Wave Design
Cove
Wood Siding
Clapboard
Weatherboard
Beaded Horizontal Board
Board and Batten
Brick
Flemish Bond
Common bond
Running bond
English bond
English Garden Wall bond
English Cross Bond
Stack bond
Stone
Coursed ashlar
Rock-faced ashlar
Uncoursed ashlar: Rough-cut
Randsom ashlar
Miscellaneous Masonry
Concrete
Metal and Glass
Roofs
Gable
Hip and Mansard
Gambrel and Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous
Specialty
Pyramidal
Conical
Bell
Tent
Tent with pent
Materials
Tile
Slate
Metal roofing
Shingles
Wood
Asphalt
Concrete
Asbestos
Cement
Details
Rafters
Purlines
Trusses
Pitch
Fascia
Frieze
Bed molding
Crown molding
Soffits
Raking cornice
Return
Boxed cornice
Eave Details
Brackets
Dentils
Modillions
Ornament
Rolled roof
Polychrome roof
Ridgeroll
Boston ridge
Ventilators
Crest
Finials
Weathervane
Roof flats or decks
Balustrade
Battlement
Towers, Steeples, Turrets
Tower
Steeple
Tower
Lantern
Spire
Turret
Lantern
Belvedere
Spire
Belfry
Cupola
Dome
Chimneys
Gale end
Interior
End-wall
Details
Stack
Pierced Stack
T-shaped stack
Cap
Chimenyt brace
Chimney iron
Pots
Diamond Chimney Pots
Circular Chimney Pots
Dormers
Gable dormer
Hipped dormer
Shed dormer
Wall dormer
Specialty
Flared roof
Gambrel roof dormers
Clipped gables
Triangular dormer
Bay dormer
Eyebrow dormer
Window shapes
Segmented
Flat
Round-Headed
Pedimented
Curvilinear
Gables
Windows
Porches
Columns
Entrances
Walls
Ornament
Types
Gabled Cottages
Hipped Cottages
Mansard Cottage
Gambrel Cottages
Organic Cottages
Bungalows
Multifamily Buildings
Commercial Buildings
Churches
Center-Gable Cottage
Gabled-Ell Cottage
Plains Cottage
Shotgun House
Open-Gable Cottage
Suburban
Colonial Cottage
Cape Cod Cottage
English Cottage
Hipped Cottage
Italianate Hipped Cottage
Colonial Hipped Cottage
Rectilinear Cottage
Prairie Cottage
Villa
Mansard Cottage
Gambrel Cottage
Colonial Gambrel
Organic Cottage
Bungalow
Hipped Bungalow
Bungalow Cottage
Pedimented Bungalow
Airplane Bungalow
English Bungalow
Spanish Bungalow
Two-Family Suburban
Two-Family Hipped Cottage
Bay-Front Double House
End-to-End Double House
Flat-Front Rowhouse
Bay-Front Rowhouse
Triple Decker
Four-Family Bay-Front
Four-Family Portico-Front
Four-Family Villa
Iron-Front Store
Italianate Storefront
Brick-Front Store
Arcaded Block
False-Front Commercial Building
Romanesque Commercial
Gable-Front Store
Artistic Front
Modern Broad-Front Commercial Building
Center Steeple Church
Gable-End Church
Steepled Ell Church
Side-Steeple Church
Twin-Tower Church
Temple-Front Church
Modern Broad-Front Commercial Building
Commercial building prototypes did not change basic organization and design until modern materials and design encouraged the change. One modern building was the double-width storefront, which has been labeled the modern broad-front. This building was both a neighborhood and a central business district building, although in the business districts it was frequently built on a side street. The broad-front embraced two stores or one wide store within one span. Steel beams and columns made this possible. It was most often a low one-story structure that could be twice as deep as it was wide…
Iron-Front Store
THE IRON-FRONT STORE WAS BUILT IN ALL geographical areas, the technology needed to produce iron architectural materials being almost as transportable as the materials. The mold makers had a predilection for classical details, so that most iron-front stores have at least a pair of plain pilasters at the corners or a set of stacked half columns with an entablature. Ironwork was integrated with pressed or stamped tinwork. While the iron posts and beams framed the facade, tin pieces were used for lintels or surrounds around the windows and for the large, bracketed, molding-heavy cornice. All metal pieces were painted to prevent rust…
Italianate Storefront
IN THE ITALIANATE STOREFRONT POPULAR during the 1870s and 1880s, the window treatment (which included the shape and size of the window and the lintel or sill), the cornice line, and the corners of the building offered the most opportunities for detail from the limited design possibilities. Windows were generally long and narrow, and lintels and sills were of metal, brick, stone, or cement. Lintels were visually heavy units, segmented or rounded. Metal pieces had ornamented surfaces. The cornice was most often metal and had an entablature organization—architrave, frieze, and cornice—with heavy brackets at the corners and lighter, perhaps paired, brackets across the cornice. Façade designs that divided the first floor from the second had an ornamented beam or surface moldings that capped the display windows. The corners of buildings could be quoined in brick or stone, or pilasters or half columns might mark the edges and frame the lower level. It was also common to stack the upright elements on top of one anothe…
Brick-Front Store
THE BRICK-FRONT STORE WAS BUILT AS A SINGLE building or in groups with party walls up to a block in length. In vernacular design, it was the most popular storefront for the longest time. Such buildings varied in height from one to three stories, but their plans were quite similar. Two- and three-story structures had ground-level store facilities, with storage or an apartment living space on the second or third floor. Access was from the street through a separate entrance or through the store. Single-story buildings offered no space for store owners or renters to live in, and they were not often built alone, but rather as a series of stores along a portion of a block tied together by cornices or other horizontal elements…
Arcaded Block
From the last quarter of the nineteenth century right down to the present, much attention has been paid to the corner commercial building, particularly one marking the edge or the heart of a business district. The arcaded block was just such a building. It was intended to be an imposing building with a strong overall shape, solid massing, and firm lines on both its elevations. It was rarely uniform in size, for one elevation was often larger than the other, and one might have been designed somewhat differently from the other. As a corner property, the arcaded business block had a rich design vocabulary stemming from the history of business-block development after the Civil War and the introduction of a new sensibility. High-style architects such as H.H. Richardson and Louis Sullivan had demonstrated how an elevation could be integrated through the use of arches, round-headed elements, or arcades. The curvilinear elements were usually linked, which helped to break the wall away from domination by vertical bays. The new look presented windows in bands or clusters of light. This kind of design often gave a lighter feeling to portions of the wall and at the same time focused the design on the intersection of the walls. That corner often culminated in a tower that rose from a recessed or canted ground-level entrance…
False-Front Commercial Building
The false-front commercial building has been associated with the settlement of the west, but false-front buildings were in fact built in upstate New York as well as in Iowa, Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming. The false-front has been associated with stores, and there is no doubt that the one- and two-story storefront is the most common of extant vernacular commercial buildings. This kind of building was used for services, small hotels, and as a meeting hall for social and fraternal organizations…
Source: Gottfried & Jennings
Romanesque Commercial
THE ROMANESQUE COMMERCIAL STYLE WAS NOT as widespread as the ltalianate. Nor was the style so easily accomplished in vernacular building, since it was often combined with what is now called Queen Anne detailing. The Romanesque was a picturesque mode of expression. At its most ambitious level, the vernacular Romanesque used coursed, rock-faced sandstone blocks with round-arch windows and a low, wide, arched entrance. Emphasis was on surface texture and the rhythm of the arches or arcades…
Artistic Front
As neighborhoods became settled and filled up with cottages, bungalows, and multifamily buildings, the increase in population and automobiles gave rise to a new kind of secondary business district. It was located within walking distance or within mass transit connections of a neighborhood or on the boundary between two neighborhoods where access by car was necessary. This kind of enterprise was a grouping of stores that offered a wide variety of goods and services. The stores were usually physically connected, so that utilities and facade treatments could be integrated. The major period for this development seems to have been the 1920s, although there were examples of shopping areas built before and long after that decade. They were referred to as artistic designs, based on their unusual appearances, which derived from the use of architectural details as attention-getting devices…
Gable-Front Store
While a good number of commercial building types have been designated for urban settings, the gable-front store was most often a small-town or rural building. This frame structure, usually clad in clapboard, served as a general store, hardware or small implements store, grocery, or feed store. Some gable-front stores were used like brick-fronts, the upper level providing living space for the owner…
Artistic Front
As neighborhoods became settled and filled up with cottages, bungalows, and multifamily buildings, the increase in population and automobiles gave rise to a new kind of secondary business district. It was located within walking distance or within mass transit connections of a neighborhood or on the boundary between two neighborhoods where access by car was necessary. This kind of enterprise was a grouping of stores that offered a wide variety of goods and services. The stores were usually physically connected, so that utilities and facade treatments could be integrated. The major period for this development seems to have been the 1920s, although there were examples of shopping areas built before and long after that decade. They were referred to as artistic designs, based on their unusual appearances, which derived from the use of architectural details as attention-getting devices…
Modern Broad-Front Commercial Building
Commercial building prototypes did not change basic organization and design until modern materials and design encouraged the change. One modern building was the double-width storefront, which has been labeled the modern broad-front. This building was both a neighborhood and a central business district building, although in the business districts it was frequently built on a side street. The broad-front embraced two stories or one wide store within one span. Steel beams and columns made this possible. It was most often a low one-story structure that could be twice as deep as it was wide…
Sources Cited
Gottfried, Herbert and Jan Jennings. American Vernacular Design, 1870-1940. Iowa State University Press, 1988.
Key Stats
At time of upload on May 18, 2006:
- 384 duplicative terms of those already existing in the Architectural Dictionary
- 356 original terms
- 740 total terms in source
- 48.1% original terms in source
- 31 sources in dictionary
- 8,133 unique terms in dictionary
- 21,292 total terms all sources in dictionary
- 38.2% unique terms in dictionary