R. W. Shoppell’s Shingle Style Design No. 580
Appearing in the 1886 edition of Shoppell's Modern Houses, Design No. 580 is a massive house with a central stair hall and wide, asymmetrical, façade. While many of the plans offered by Robert W. Shoppell's Co-Operative Building Plan Association of New York were...
A 1970’s Shed Style House… Updated!
“Updated?!” Those who frequent this blog will know that the word is typically only used here in a disparaging sense. Last summer, however, I was contacted by someone who had read my post about the Shed style. He and his wife happened to own a Shed style...
Clues in the Attic
On a whim, I ventured into the unfinished part of the attic last week. A previous jaunt had revealed some antique drapery rods and curtain hardware. What else may be hiding between the dusty joists? A chimney, ever so slightly stepped to the left, marks the transition...
Window Sash Repaired and Painted
It's been over a month since I last posted! Partly because we've been really busy at our ever-expanding day job (the interior of the house may be finished, but now there are outbuildings and site work issues to tackle) and partly because not much has happened at the...
Porch Paint Colors… and a Revision to the Bay Window Color Distribution!
In the course of preparing sketches of the proposed color schemes for the front porch, I was delighted to run across some notes I had previously made about the bay window. Somehow, when doing the color sketches of the bay window, I had completely forgotten that the...
1960’s Time Capsule Interior Falls Victim to Banal Makeover
Another one bites the dust. For the second time! A Second Empire "twin" house in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood, built around 1880, witnessed an exhaustive makeover in the late 1960's in a semi-successful effort to transform the narrow townhouse into a...
A Petite Second Empire with a Big Attitude
Likely built in the 1870's, this surprisingly small Second Empire style house definitely thinks big as it displays details more typical of a house five times its size. Built of native stone in the Kansas vernacular, the house has languished for years, appearing to...
“Design” on Wheels: Inside a Campy Camper!
Sometimes I'm drawn to the kitschy and camp as well as the practical and refined. I'm generally not a fan of vehicles of any sort, but earlier this fall friends showed me the interior of their recent acquisition... a 1978 Delta Motorhome. I was impressed! Today, I'm...
New Finds… and a Sordid Past!
Tantalizing bits of information about the house continue to surface. In addition to a few recent finds (shown below) we've learned that the house was reputed to be the scene of numerous poker parties at some point during the years of prohibition (from 1881 to 1948 --...
Original Bay Window Paint Colors!
Today I finished priming the bay window. It's all white and kind of boring, but it looks better than it did before and the wood will be protected during the winter months. I still have some (a lot of) caulking to do, so don't look too carefully! The scraping,...
The Stereotyping of Old Houses as “Haunted”: A Look Back at the Indoctrination!
Happy Halloween, everyone! Have you ever wondered why it is that popular opinion has long viewed old houses as creepy, scary and almost certainly "haunted"? Many will be quick to blame television -- or Hollywood in general -- but movies are only partly to blame. The...
A Quick Update…
It's been seemingly forever since I last posted; it has been a busy time. Recently I took time off to visit the Decatur County Last Indian Raid Museum, which serves as a repository for local history, in the hopes of finding more information about the house and its...
Inspired Design: A Vision Takes Form
Recently I attended a birthday party for a retired friend -- the location of which was his outdoor entertaining area. A multi-year construction project, the site is now nearing completion. Built entirely from scrap or otherwise salvaged items, the structures there...
The Porch Supports Return!
Today the house regained more of its dignity! Jim has been rehabilitating two of the beautiful -- but very decrepit -- porch supports off-site, and they have now recovered fully. It was time to bring them back! As you last remember, the house was looking quite sad...
The Bay Window Progresses and the Arched Window Surprises…
Here's a look at what the process of nurturing the bay window looks like as it continues... The cornice of the bay had been wrapped in aluminum. I've begun taking sections of it down. The wood cornice which had been hidden by the aluminum is visible at left. The piece...
Extensive Porch Decay Revealed and Tackled!
We knew that the vinyl siding was hiding lots of problems, but didn't know just how bad the damage would be. Yesterday we found out. While not attractive, the damage is absolutely repairable. It's unfortunate, but not a death sentence for the porch. Jim has been hard...
A Craftsman Bungalow Denuded: A Look at the Lath Beneath the Stucco
A Craftsman bungalow -- built with a stucco exterior -- is in the process of being clad in vinyl siding. In a presumed effort to facilitate the installation, all of the original stucco is being removed. Amazingly, the stucco had never been painted and featured a...
More Clues, More Details
I got an unexpected break yesterday when my chiropractor, after adjusting my back, forbade me from doing any ladder work right away. So, instead of working on the bay window, I explored the house a little bit more. The flash on my camera is working again (finally!)...
Porch and Bay Window Restoration Begin
With the days getting shorter and the exterior trim on the house getting more weathered, we decided to tackle the most vulnerable features of the exterior before the weather changes. Jim is working primarily on the porch and I'm working primarily on the bay window. In...
Anomalous Details and a New Project…
The goal of finding a house to restore which was both architecturally and historically interesting has been simmering in the background for some time now. Life has a way of distracting us from our goals (most recently getting involved with the renovation of someone...
Modernist House Muted with Color
One of the most popular -- and easiest -- ways to "re-style" a house is through the use of paint. Countless Victorian-era houses, for example (formerly sporting multi-hued exteriors), were painted white beginning in the 1920's in an effort to make them appear more...
The Odd Blue Doors Explained…
Much like porch alterations, replacement doors have the ability to change the way a house looks or is perceived. Unfortunately, most people just buy what they like and give little thought to maintaining the architectural integrity of the exterior when purchasing a new...
Don’t Try This at Home: History Trashed, and at Great Expense
Recently while perusing area real estate listings I ran across an all-too-common offering -- the unfinished renovation of a house which had retained a good deal of originality prior to being gutted to the studs. At least it affords us the opportunity to take a...
A Visit to the Cottonwood Ranch
Built in three stages beginning in 1885, the house at Cottonwood Ranch in Studley, Kansas, reflects not only the place and time in which it was built, but incorporates some traditions of builder John Fenton Pratt's native Yorkshire, England, as well. The center...
A 1970’s BH&G Plan Book House
Print media, while not as influential as it was in decades past, remains a popular platform for the sale of house plans. When readers of Better Homes and Gardens magazine selected House Plan No. 3709-A as their favorite of those presented by the magazine in 1972, the...
A Gothic Revival with a Jerkinhead Roof!
Now that's something you don't see every day... especially on the High Plains of northwestern Kansas! Both the architectural style and the roof type are atypical of the region. The Jerkinhead roof, a compromise between a gabled roof and a hipped roof, is used with...
The War On Old Buildings – Part 2
The ongoing war against the remnants of our historic built environment continues unabated. Our previous examination of this topic (Part 1) dealt with elementary school textbooks which propagandized children and instilled a bias against historic buildings in the...
“Reading” an Old House
Most old houses have had alterations over the years -- very few come down through time just as they were built. Unless a house was altered with an extreme attention to maintaining details, it is usually possible to get a fairly good idea as to what the house looked...
Pop Quiz: What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Each house or building in the following six photos has at least one thing wrong with it -- from the viewpoint of architectural or physical integrity, that is! Some are quite obvious while others are a bit more subtle; some will have multiple offenses while others may...
Salvaging a Farmhouse
The 1880's farmhouse we looked at last month is scheduled for demolition this week. Jim and I got there first to save what we were able to. If you don't want to see sad images, just skip this post. I understand. We salvaged all of the doors and their surrounding...
Exploring a Doomed 1950’s Ranch House
It's déjà vu all over again! Remember the empty 1880's farmhouse we recently looked at? Well... this ranch house was built a stone's throw away by its former inhabitants -- quite a change of pace! Unfortunately, both houses have extensive termite damage and the new...
Door Hardware, Part Two: 1850 to 1900
In Part One we looked at some types of door hardware which were common prior to the mid-nineteenth century -- latches and rim locks made of iron. While mortise locks were in use, they were not common. Surface-mounted rim locks remained popular in the latter half of...
A Sears Maytown – Largely Intact!
After a century of use, many old houses have been updated, remodeled or otherwise altered to the extent that they are scarcely recognizable. Others, like this Sears Maytown in Struthers, Ohio, are able to transcend time with only slight changes. Owner Dawn Hartzell...
Empty for Sixty Years: Inside a Modest 1880’s Farmhouse
When a vernacular farmhouse on the High Plains of western Kansas was abandoned in favor of a sleek new ranch-style house in the mid 1950's, it was emptied and forgotten about. It had received minimal (if any) maintenance in the following sixty-odd years and is today...
Auction Action – Part 3
This past weekend I attended an annual consignment auction hosted by the Lions Clubs. As usual, there were a few things of architectural or design interest. I didn't buy anything this year because the few things I wanted to bid on were not going to be offered until...
Prim 1880 Second Empire House Harbors 1960’s Time Capsule Interior
The exterior of this c. 1880 twin house in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood does little to suggest the surprisingly intact mid-century makeover found inside. Late 1960's aesthetic preferences popular with the masses abound: Fake masonry, fake paneling, fake...
A Customized Sears Hawthorne
Offered between 1913 and 1918, the Sears Hawthorne was a somewhat ungainly-looking Craftsman style bungalow which was not a huge seller. It was essentially the one-and-a-half story version of the Sears Avondale which was far more popular with kit house buyers and...
Radford Design No. 1131
One of hundreds of house designs published by the Radford Architectural Company of Chicago in the early twentieth century, Design No. 1131 is an eclectic composition in that it combines Colonial Revival, Queen Anne and Shingle style influences. This example in...
Awkward Alterations, Part Two
Today we'll look at two different types of alterations which can negatively impact how we perceive a structure. Sadly, the following examples are fairly tame... there are countless others which are far worse. The first category, Indifference, will highlight houses...
The Piano Nobile
Have you ever thought that some older buildings seem to be oddly proportioned -- perhaps a bit top-heavy? Often there is nothing wrong with their proportions; the problem may instead be with our modern perception of what a building's exterior should look like (and how...
Door Hardware, Part One: 1800 to 1850
Door hardware, like other architectural details, can often help to guestimate the age of the house when its history is unknown. However, this method is only reliable when it is known with certainty that the hardware in question is original to the house. Hardware, like...
The Johnson House by Charles Haertling
One of architect Charles Haertling's many fascinating contributions to the city of Boulder, Colorado, is currently on the market allowing a peek inside this interesting house. Known for their frequent mix of modernism and organic architecture, his designs are highly...
A Wardway “Hampden” with its Orginal Color Scheme!
I first admired this house in the late 1990's when the photo above was taken; the house seemed well-maintained and the exterior paint was crisp and sharp... the colors were perfect for a two-story Craftsman. I wondered at the time if the colors weren't like those that...
Queen Anne Window Sash
The impact original window sash can have in an historic building in terms of enhancing and maintaining architectural integrity is enormous yet frequently undervalued. In addition to the shape and size of the window openings themselves,...
Every Trick in the Book: A TV-Inspired Flip of a 1965 Ranch House
OK, I'll admit it; the house we're about to look at was never a great piece of architecture. But it did have its own character which was reflective of the mid-century suburban neighborhood in which it was built. My issue with the house is not that it was remodeled,...
Off the Beaten Path in Abilene, Kansas
While Abilene, Kansas, has long been noted for its many fine Victorian-era houses and colorful early cow-town history, not much (if any) attention has been given to the plan book and manufactured kit origins of some of the town's houses. The town is primarily known,...
Design Nos. 216 and 344 by Robert W. Shoppell
Robert W. Shoppell was one of many successful plan book publishers in the late nineteenth century. Surviving houses built from the mail-order plans he sold through his New York-based Co-operative Building Plan Association can be found throughout the country. In...
The Architecture of Red Oak, Iowa: Then and Now in Photos
When I was in my teens I was given a small book by my parents who understood my passion for nineteenth century buildings. Published around 1900 or so by the Red Oak Commercial Club (which I'm guessing was something akin to the Chamber of Commerce) the book, simply...
An Altered J-16 by the Harris Brothers Company
In addition to its popular J-6 kit house, the Harris Brothers Company of Chicago offered a slightly larger version which it called the J-16. This upgraded version was two feet wider and two feet longer. I recently ran across this example of the house on Zillow -...
Unconventional Window Alterations – Part 3
Double Feature! Today we'll look at two structures which are recent recipients of altered fenestration... Recipient # 1 After a period of stagnation, work appears to have restarted on the second re-interpretation of a former church building in a nearby town. The...
The Architectural Observer rarely looks at “important” buildings; the focus is upon overlooked ones. Some will be antique survivors which have come through time surprisingly intact. Many will be old buildings which have been altered without regard to their stylistic integrity while others will be new construction which never had any stylistic integrity to begin with.
The decline of architectural integrity is just one more facet of the prolific and ongoing devolution of our culture. The Architectural Observer calls it like it is! Are there more important and pressing issues facing us now? Yes, but everyone needs a distraction from those other issues once in a while. And besides, this is relevant and much more fun!
There are four kinds of distractions here:
OBSERVATIONS highlights the lowlights of our built environment – and observes occasional architectural details which might otherwise be overlooked.
PLAN BOOK AND KIT HOUSES examines structures built from mail order plans or actual kits.
PROJECTS follows the progress on a variety of design-related endeavors.
DRAG QUEEN ARCHITECTURE showcases buildings built in one style but which are trying to pass themselves off as a different style.
Let’s face it; we built better buildings in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries than we do now. Let’s take a cue from the past and start to remember how buildings are supposed to look and function. Thanks for joining me – please use the contact form for polite inquiry or to gripe at me.
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