Even if your house is brand new, its architecture draws inspiration from the past. This index traces important housing styles from Colonial to modern times. Learn how houses have changed over the centuries, and discover interesting facts about the design influences that helped shape your own home. For more information about residential architecture, be sure to also visit our house styles picture dictionary.
American Colonial House Styles
Colonial homes in New England often had chimneys in the center. Photo @ Jackie Craven
1600s - 1800
When North America was colonized, settlers brought building traditions from many different countries. Colonial architecture includes a wide range of styles, including New England Colonial, German Colonial, Dutch Colonial, Spanish Colonial, French Colonial, and, of course, the ever-popular Colonial Cape Cod.
Neoclassical House Styles
Democratic ideals are expressed in classical details of Greek Revival homes. Photo © Jackie Craven
During the founding of the United States, many people felt that ancient Greece expressed the ideals of democracy. Architecture reflected classical ideals of order and symmetry.
Victorian House Styles
Queen Anne was the reigning style of the Victorian era. Photo © Jackie Craven
1840 - 1900
Mass-production and factory-made building parts made large, elaborate houses more affordable. A variety of Victorian styles emerged: Italianate, Second Empire, Gothic, Queen Anne, Romanesque, and many others. Each style had its own distinctive features.
Gilded Age
The Vanderbilt Marble House in Newport, RI was a Beaux Arts mansion. Photo © Flikr member Daderot
The rise of Industrialism brought the period we know as the Gilded Age. Business leaders amassed enormous wealth and built palatial, elaborate homes.
Frank Lloyd Wright Styles
Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style houses were low and compact. Photo © Steve Estes
1901-1955
Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionized the American home when he began to design houses with low horizontal lines and open interior spaces.
Bungalow Styles
Affordable bungalows swept across America in the early 1900s. Photo © Diana Lundin / iStockPhoto
1905-1930
Named after primitive thatched huts used in India, bungaloid architecture suggested comfortable informality. However, not all bungalows were small, and bungalow houses often wore the trappings of many different styles, including Arts & Crafts, Spanish Revival, Colonial Revival, and Art Moderne.
Early 20th Century House Styles
The practical American Foursquare style. Photo © Jackie Craven
In the early 1900s, builders slough off the elaborate Victorian styles. Homes for the new century were compact, economical, and informal.
Mid-20th Century House Styles
Levittown Jubilee house, Twin Oaks, PA ©Jesse Gardner, CC BY-SA 2.0, flickr.com
1930 - 1965
During the Great Depression, Americans moved toward increasingly simple housing styles. Affordable Minimal Traditional, Ranch, and Cope Cod houses became the mainstay of the expanding suburbs. As soldiers returned from World War II, real estate developers raced to meet the rising demand for inexpensive housing. The era brought a flurry of innovations, from the metal prefab Lustron houses to the eco-friendly geodesic domes.
Modernist Houses
Postmodern home by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Robert Venturi. Pritzker Prize image.
1930-present
Modernist houses broke away from conventional forms, while postmodernist houses combined traditional forms in unexpected ways.
