The Mansard Roof and the Second Empire Style by Jackie Craven

Originating during the Renaissance, the high, boxy mansard roof has a long and interesting history.

Second Empire buildings with tall mansard roofs were modeled after the opulent
architecture of Paris during the reign of Napoleon III.
Illustration © ArtToday.com

Steep, double-sloped roofs were characteristic of Italian and French Renaissance architecture. The Louvre, originally built in 1546, had high sloping roofs. A century later, the French architect François Mansart (1598-1666) used double-sloped roofs so extensively that they were coined mansard - a derivation of Mansart's name.

In the mid-1800s, when Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) established the Second Empire in France, Paris was transformed into a city of grand boulevards and monumental buildings. The Louvre was enlarged, and interest in the tall, majestic mansard roof was revived. The fashion was not merely grandiose, but also practical. The nearly perpendicular roofs transformed cramped attics into livable space.

Second Empire architecture spread to England during the Paris Exhibitions of 1852 and 1867. Before long, French fever spread to the United States.

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The first important Second Empire building in America was the Concoran Gallery (1859-61) in Washington, D.C. by James Renwick. The largest was Philadelphia's City Hall, designed by John McArthur, Jr. Because it was based on a contemporary movement in Paris, the Second Empire style was considered more progressive than Greek Revival or Gothic Revival architecture.

When the Second Empire style was applied to residential architecture, builders created interesting innovations. High mansard roofs were placed atop houses in a variety of contemporary styles. Also, older buildings were often renovated to include trendy and practical mansard roofs. For this reason, Second Empire homes in the United States are often composites of Italianate, Gothic Revival, and other styles.

Second Empire toppings make a small home majestic. Photo © ArtToday.com

During the presidency of Ulysses Grant (1860-1877), Second Empire was a preferred style for public buildings in the United States. In fact, the style became so closely associated with the prosperous Grant administration that it is sometimes called the General Grant Style. When the age of prosperity turned into the economic depression of the 1870s, flamboyant Second Empire architecture fell out of fashion.

A new wave of French inspired architecture traveled to the United States during the early 1900s, when soldiers returning from World War I brought an interest in styles borrowed from Normandy and Provence. However, these hipped-roof buildings do not have the exuberance of Second Empire architecture... nor do they evoke the sense of imposing height.