This Anne Isn't the Queen
reallyboring via flickr; Queen Anne cottage, San Jose, CA., roarofthefour via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Victorian Queen Anne architecture has nothing to do with the reign of Queen Anne, who
sat on the throne of England from 1702 until 1714. The Queen Anne of the Victorian era has everything to do with the years 1874 until about 1900.
First popularized by English architect Richard Norman Shaw, the Queen Anne style made
it very clear that the more icing and decoration you put on the cake, the better. When you look at all the images in today's panels, you can't help but notice that more begets more. Steep slopping roofs with a variety of shingle patterns, towers, turrets, turned corners, bay windowed corners, big gables going every which way, gingerbread, wood, brick or stone, it didn't matter as long as there was plenty of it.
Queen Anne detail, St. Paul, MN., tboard via flickr; Queen Anne, San Diego, CA., Michael in Flagstaff via flickr;
Artwork: designslinger]
Often the exterior material used on the lower floor of the house would change as it climbed
up toward the roof. Once you got up onto the roof and created a decorative shingle pattern, the next step was to create a decoratively patterned brick chimney stack. It was a good idea to throw in a variety of window shapes and sizes with a decorative pattern of some sort built into the sash. If your home was on a large piece of property in the suburbs or the city, you built out as far as zoning laws would allow. The Queen Anne may be considered the McMansion of its time.
IL., ChicagoGeek via flickr; Painted Ladies of Alamo Square, San Francisco, jondoeforty1 via flickr /Artwork:
designslinger]
Many people identify the Queen Anne with big house living in the suburbs, but the style
was prominent in many tightly packed urban neighborhoods, where Queen Anne row houses line many a city street. On San Francisco's Alamo Square, sits a group of the most photographed and famous row of houses in the country, which belong to the Queen Anne school of style.
From now on, when you see an older building that looks like it couldn't make up its mind
about what it wanted to be when it grew up, most likely, you're looking at a picturesque Queen Anne.
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Posted by designslinger at 3/30/2009 4:20 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Dictionary, Interior Design, Decorative Arts
Tags: Richard Norman Shaw Queen Anne Victorian
Categories: Architecture, History, Dictionary, Interior Design, Decorative Arts
Tags: Richard Norman Shaw Queen Anne Victorian
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