19th Century Art
Instructor: Gayle Clemans
Extra Credit Assignment: Architecture Observation “Journal”
Due: Monday, February, 24th at the beginning of class
Worth: up to 40 points added onto the course total
You may choose this option OR the Whatcom Museum option – not both.
Example of an “Entry” for the Architecture Observation Journal
These brackets are not structurally
necessary, typical of the Victorian
taste for ornamentation.
A composite building which
includes the Stick style, as
evidenced by the use of
decorative geometric woodwork.
Machine-carved,
standardized units, products
of the industrial revolution.
The Bellingham area has some wonderful 19th century buildings. You can simply wander around
and sketch, or consult this directory of historic buildings:
http://www.cob.org/services/planning/historic/buildings/
Turn in a “journal” with 8 entries — sketches and notes — based on historical architectural
elements that you observe first-hand. You can sketch an outline of the whole building, or a
more finished sketch of a detail.
Imagined questions from a student.
Answers from the instructor.
Does it have to be an actual journal?
No. It can be separate sheets of paper stapled together
or emailed together as one document.
How detailed do the sketches need
to be?
Detailed enough so that it’s clear you spent time really
looking.
What if I can’t draw?
No problem! You still need to include sketches, but
they can look terrible. For this “assignment,” the
process of looking and recording what you see is more
important than the quality of the product. You can
receive full credit with very little ability to render things
realistically. But you must try.
Each entry must include:

Location of building (street address or approximate address e.g. “Corner of Smith and
Pine, Downtown”)

A fairly detailed sketch of the building and/or the architectural detail you’ve noticed.

At least 3 notes about the item sketched.
Your notes can be simple statements or complex phrases, but more than one or two
words! These can be hand-written or typed up.
Consider the following questions when writing your entry notes:
o What style(s) does it remind you of? Is it a revivalist style? Or one of the styles
that were new in the 19th century? You may use the accompanying information
or do some basic research on Victorian architecture. You do NOT need to
identify each precise style (e.g. Queen Anne vs. Eastlake); this is simply one area
you might address.
o Which cultural forces might have been at play?
o Can you apply any terms or concepts from class or the information below?
o What about technical developments? What materials or processes do you see?
Background Information on Victorian Architecture
The information below focuses on typical Victorian styles. For more information, you
can do some basic research. E.g. try the following website, which has a lot of ads, but
sound information: http://architecture.about.com/od/periodsstyles/tp/Victorian-HouseStyles.htm
The Victorian Period (1837-1901) was known for its eclecticism and its proliferation of
goods, forms, and styles that were the result of new processes and materials resulting
from the Industrial Revolution.
A building boom was also related to the rise of urbanism and the stronger purchasing
power of a growing middle class.
There were revivalist styles (Romanesque, Gothic/Tudor, Renaissance/Italianate,
Neo-Grec, Classical Revival).
And there were new architectural designs (including Eastlake, Stick, Queen Anne,
and others). These styles were freely combined, resulting in buildings which are difficult
to categorize and can be termed simply “Victorian” or “Victorian Composite.”
Several reform styles (which reacted against this eclecticism and materialism e.g. The
Arts and Crafts Movement) fall within this time period but are not covered in this handout. If you find Arts and Crafts buildings that you’d like to include, go right ahead! You
will need to conduct some research of characteristics on your own.
This hand-out focuses on the typical, “composite” Victorian style.
Victorian or Victorian Composite architecture often included:
Brackets
Machine-carved wood or cast iron. Often scrolls or fans. Often structurally unnecessary
although they seem to be attaching elements, e.g. the walls of the porch to the roof of the
porch.
Cupola
Bay Window
A window that juts out of a house; it can have 1-3 windows.
Decorative features, usually elaborate, often structurally unnecessary.
Dentils
A molding with rectangular features that runs along a house.
Columns
Clapboard siding
Cornice
A band that runs along the area where the roof and wall meet. Can be plain
or carved.
Dormer
A window that juts out from the roof and which has its own roof.
Finials
Decorative knobs or points attached to the tops of turrets, towers, roof peaks.
Gable
The triangular part at the end of a building formed by the two sides of a sloping roof.
Gazebo
A separate roofed, but open-air structure that often mimicked the architecture of the main
house.
Lathe-shaped wooden forms:
Porch posts, railings, balustrades, bargeboards, braces and pendants. Worked or turned on
a mechanical lathe, giving the appearance of the heavy legged furniture of the period.
Lintel
A post that goes across the top of a window or door.
Mansard roof
A roof with two slopes; often it is flat on top.
Mechanical jigsaw wooden forms:
Large curved brackets, scrolls, and other stylized elements often are placed at every
corner, turn, or projection along the facade.
Metal grillwork
Often in cast iron.
Pediment
The triangular area on the front of a house; it often extends from the roof to
cover the porch.
Porches
On front of house (fresh air was very important to the Victorians).
Portico
A porch with a roof.
Transom
A window or panel, usually operable, above a window or door.
Turret
A short, narrow tower, usually at the corner of a building.
Windows
Were often a variety of shapes (see bay window), including round.
Eastlake Style
Eastlake-Stick House
High Victorian Italianate Style
Queen Anne Style
The illustration below is fun because it suggests how to select paint colors for a Queen Anne
Style building. But it’s full of key architectural terms and the patterns of paint repetition are also
informative.
The Queen Anne style featured irregular silhouettes with wall surfaces and gables that were
broken up by a variety of textures and materials including clapboard siding, half-timber, wooden
shingles in various shapes, decorative brick work and carved brownstone and cast terra cotta.
Later Queen Anne houses lose the airy, gingerbread feeling in favor of heavier, simpler motifs.
http://www.hillsidehistoricdistrict.com/PaintingandColors/
Elements of this packet were obtained – for educational purposes - from:
http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/historic/colorguide/queen_anne.htm
http://www.eastconn.org/tah/FeaturesOfVictorianStyleArchitecture.pdf
http://www.hillsidehistoricdistrict.com/PaintingandColors/