1. Home
  2. Home & Garden
  3. Architecture

1874 - 1910: Shingle Style

Picture Dictionary of Victorian House Styles: Shingle Style

From Jackie Craven, About.com

Rustic Shingle Style houses shunned Victorian fussiness. Read below for features of the style. To learn more, also see: The Shingle Style >>
Rustic Shingle Style houses shunned Victorian fussiness.Photo © 2005 Jackie Craven
Home designers rejected fussy Queen Anne ornamentation in rustic, Shingle Style homes.

Shingle Style homes usually have these features:

  • Continuous wood shingles on siding and roof
  • Irregular roof line
  • Cross gables
  • Eaves on several levels
  • Porches
  • Asymmetrical floor plan

Some Shingle Style homes also have these features:

  • Wavy wall surface
  • Patterned shingles
  • Squat half-towers
  • Palladian windows
  • Rough hewn stone on lower stories
  • Stone arches over windows and porches

About the Shingle Style:

Shingle Style houses can take on many forms. Some have tall turrets, suggestive of Queen Anne architecture. Some have gambrel roofs, Palladian windows, and other Colonial Revival details. Some Shingle houses have features borrowed from Tudor, Gothic and Stick styles. But, unlike those styles, Shingle architecture is relaxed and informal. Shingle houses do not have the lavish decorations that were popular during the Victorian era.

The architectural historian Vincent Scully coined the term "Shingle Style" because these homes are usually sided in rustic cedar shingles. However, not all Shingle Style houses are shingle-sided. You will recognize them by their complicated shapes and rambling, informal floor plans.

Learn more about Shingle Architecture:
Shingle Style Houses >>

  1. Home
  2. Home & Garden
  3. Architecture

©2008 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.