Victorian Puzzles
I have a 1902 Victorian very very similar to yours. I too have a weird combination of styles. All the old fixtures are long gone, but the wood work is a mystery. Some of the rooms have decidedly Victorian trim but others have very mission or arts and craft simple lines. Some rooms have both.
I do know that the house had pocket doors between the living room and dining room at one time, but the living room baseboards have no indication that there was a break in the line. So I took that to mean that the wood work was not original and was remodeled sometime in the 1920's. There are also other indications that the house was remodeled, like door frames that have one side with a door latch, but the other has no hinge marks, but all the patina match. Also the ceilings are different heights as if some of them have been lowered and there is a false wall in the kitchen, indicating further that it was remodeled sometime in the past.
When our houses were built, the Victorian movement was still very popular, but only 10-15 years later it was out of style. So remodeling wouldn't be out of the question. If you would like I could send you a picture of my house, so that you could compare notes.
From Bobby:
I think this one falls squarely (not foursquarely) in the Queen Anne Victorian realm. Foursquares no doubt evolved from this square type of QA Vic, though. I also see a touch of the Colonial Revival in the porch pediment and Tuscan columns, which was not unusual for the 1890s.
Maybe William and I differ only in saying whether the glass is half empty or half full!
From William Young:
The house style is one of the innumerable variations on the American Foursquare. The right-hand gable is appended to the basic box (note the pyramidal roof and dormer), giving it a bit of a Queen Anne appearance. Foursquares flourished from the 1890s until about 1930 and the Depression. Next to the bungalow, it is one of the most popular styles in American architecture despite its brief tenure.
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