Old House Makeovers from Yesteryear
While many of us tend to idealize the past (rightly, in many ways), the past certainly had its share of imperfections. People have been altering and remodeling old houses ever since houses were first built. Today we'll go back in time 93 years and take a look at home...
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...
Modest Vernacular House Loses Integrity with Recent Makeover
The "pyramidal house" seen here is a vernacular example of a popular national house form (single story, square plan with four rooms and a pyramidal roof). Similar houses were built throughout the nation from roughly 1890 to 1930. Their practical form made them a...
Formerly Interesting Masonic Temple Facade Muted by Stucco
Our nation's insatiable appetite for keeping up with fashion and embracing the next new trend has long taken an extensive toll on the integrity of its historic buildings. The 1950's, 60's and 70's were witness to countless building facade makeovers for the sake of...
Reclusive Italianate Hides Behind Colonial Revival Trappings
Hidden behind a luxurious growth of privacy hedges and various plants, the house evokes an air of ancient, dignified, mystery and intrigue - an atmosphere rarely experienced in this corner of southwestern Nebraska. A break in the hedge for the walkway reveals what...
“Queen Anne” Tries to Elude Second Empire Past?
This perky house with Queen Anne gables (photo below) in Danville, Virginia, may be protecting a long-hidden secret. Recently featured on the fabulous Old House Dreams, the exterior of the house has been rehabilitated by the nonprofit Danville Rehabilitation and...
Late Prairie-Style House Transitioned to Mock Tudor
Probably built around 1920, this house originally had late Prairie styling, some of which remains. The low veneer of buff brick still provides a strong horizontal emphasis while windows retain their three-over-one sashes. It's difficult to say exactly what this...
Nebraska House Emulates New England Saltbox
A modest 1 -1/2 story Nebraska house with gable front, built around 1880, was given a stylistic makeover in the mid-twentieth century. The new look, reminiscent of an eighteenth century saltbox, was created by adding a lean-to addition with fireplace to one side...
Multiple Personalities
If dissociative identity disorders can afflict structures, this former Folk Victorian house appears to be symptomatic. The wood-framed structure has had several changes to its exterior since first constructed, likely in the 1890's. Portions of the house were clad...
Synthetic Stucco McMakeover
It has finally warmed up a bit so I took the camera out for a spin today. I was surprised to see that an old house I had noticed on a previous journey had changed, umm... dramatically. Unfortunately, I had not photographed the house earlier. However, Google did in...
The Curse of the 70’s: “Mansard” Mayhem
The 1970's, while memorable in many different ways, was not a decade generally acknowledged to have produced a lot in the way of desirable residential design. There was some, to be sure, but a lot of it was just unappealing. One of the more popular architectural...
A Bruce Goff House in Tulsa – with Alterations
I was surprised to run across a real estate listing for a house in Tulsa originally designed by Bruce Goff. Though somewhat altered, the 1925 Fred Hansen house was among Goff's earliest commissions and could be restored to a more original appearance. If you are not...
Before and…………..After!
When houses in a neighborhood are built by the same developer (and at roughly the same time), they tend to look a lot alike. Some developers will make an effort to introduce a little variety, either by changing exterior colors or materials, or sometimes by using...
Brick Queen Anne Transformed into Mock Tudor
At first glance this house in Council Bluffs, Iowa, appears to be a Tudor Revival from the 1920's or 30's Closer inspection reveals that the house began as an 1880's Queen Anne. Sorry about the photo quality... these images were taken from a real estate...
Mixed Messages: Replacement Doors at Odds With Their Context
We've all seen them. And with the proliferation of both Big Box home "improvement" stores and infomercials posing as television programs about restoration, renovation and design, we'll continue to see even more of them: entry doors which are stylistically...
Bungalow Poses as Log Cabin
What obviously started out as a Craftsman style bungalow in the 'teens or 1920's now has now donned the apparel of a log cabin. Or something meant to convey the impression of a log cabin. Rounded wood siding is presumably intended to look like logs. The masonry...
Extreme Makeover c. 1972 “Reimagined” in 2017
History does repeat itself, does it not? This hapless house has had a hellacious history. After being stripped of its true identity in the early 70's and given a quasi-Colonial/Second Empire identity, this tragic structure has now been "reimagined" in a manner...
Vintage Drag
Not all stylistic makeovers are of recent origin - homeowners have had a penchant for remodeling for as long as there have been houses. Here are a few "Before and After" transformations taken from vintage decorating magazines and a promotional brochure for stucco:...
Former Italianate Feigns Colonial Past
Looking like something out of a post-war subdivision, this ostensibly Colonial Revival four-plex would have gotten away with its charade if it hadn't been for those meddling architectural sleuths that happened upon it! Located just a block away from the...
Neo-Mediterranean Makeover of Former Queen Anne
Dating to the 1970's, this remodeling of a former Queen Anne style house into a Neo-Mediterranean showplace is strangely captivating some 40-odd-years later. The original c. 1900 Queen Anne feautured clapboard siding and boxed eaves which were arched and shingled in...
From Good to Bad to Contrived
When I first photographed this small commercial building I was smitten with its Brutalist / Modernist vibe - not something one expects to find in an obscure corner of "flyover country". I loved the concrete, oddball windows and corner emphasis. I knew it was much...
Erasing Character
With the proliferation of television programs devoted to house renovation (designed to sell products and stimulate the economy - not to instill a passion for history and actual cultural preservation) it's not surprising that many formerly styled houses end...
Superficial Bracketing
The two houses shown below have each been augmented with brackets. Both houses date to somewhere around 1910 and are vernacular examples of the foursquare form. Neither house is specifically styled, but each has characteristics common to both Colonial Revival and...
A Craftsman in Drag
Such irony! The Craftsman style of architecture - and the Arts and Crafts movement in general - came about as a rejection of the fussy and superficially decorative styles which dominated the last half of the 19th century. Craftsman dwellings sought to achieve...
What Style Is It?
The house below was recently enlarged and re-styled to the extent that the original house is hardly perceptible. Originally a one-story house of modest construction and vernacular styling, the house today serves as a showcase for various effects which can be created...
Brick Veneers as a Facelift
While not as popular as vinyl siding, the use of brick veneers to provide an easier-to-maintain exterior (or simply to alter the look of a house) is still fairly common. Usually a few tell-tale clues remain to reveal that the house began as one clad in wood. The...
Undercover Garage
Posing as wood construction, this garage is actually built of brick. A recent cladding of clapboard siding gives the illusion of a frame structure, though the brick around the door and side windows was left visible:
Hidden in Plain Sight
At first glance, this mid-20th century storefront seems to be just that; mid-20th century. A look above the metal canopy shows a Victorian storefront of limestone which has been painted. The replacement windows are not very compatible with the surrounding historic...
Extreme Makeover c. 1972
Some remodelings are more exhaustive than others. This structure, for example, was re-imagined somewhere in the past, likely the early 1970's. The then-popular mansard roof was used as a device to completely conceal the second story while stucco, diamond-paned...
The Porch as a Style Setter
Old houses have long been subject to changing architectual trends and fashion. Since its beginning, the United States has been a place of change and experimentation; the fact is just one reason why we have not done so well at preserving our architectural history...
Identity Crisis
Although this house is clearly struggling with its identity, it's quite obvious that the house was originally styled in the Craftsman manner; it probably dates to around 1915. Surviving original defining details include the projecting eaves with exposed rafter tails,...
A Tudor in Drag
This house was built as a modest example of Tudor Revival, probably in the late 1920's or early 1930's. If it weren't for the few surviving identifying characteristics typical of the style (projecting gabled brick entry with arched door and first story diamond-paned...
Fake History Removed!
I'm so used to seeing real history destroyed or covered up that it kind of shocks me when I see the reverse happen. This stone storefront is a good example. When I first noticed this building in Hays, Kansas, I was puzzled by the clapboard fake front (complete with...
Self-defeating Quoins
The insanity never ends... these fake quoins go one step further than most in demonstrating their superficiality. Originally a wood-frame house of conventional construction, this place was given a makeover in an effort to elevate its common origins, including a...
Preservation Dilemma
Sometimes the choices made in historic preservation efforts aren't always clear-cut. Increasingly, there is debate over what is worthy of preservation and what is not. Many years ago I photographed this vibrant 1960's-vintage metal facade which spanned...