Victoriana
The Victorian architectural period primarily encompasses the last three-quarters of the nineteenth century. The Victorians drew deeply from history, nature, geometry, theory, and personal inspiration to create their designs. Much of the pleasure of appreciating Victorian architecture is the identification of the combinations of style. Prior to 1890, designers, while properly trained in the academics of standard architectural systems, nevertheless were creative.
Early to mid-Victorian structures are comparatively simple in style, whereas those post-dating the Civil War become more complicated. They borrowed motifs and combined them with original forms as they saw fit. The desired end was visual effect, mostly considered from the outside. The early phase was that of the simple Revivals - Classic, Greek, Gothic, Romanesque and Renaissance - and the later was that called Picturesque Eclecticism.
The building fashions of post-Civil War America were elaborate and flamboyant. They were in many ways the product of the new industrial society. They were new, different, strange but never dull. Now collectively called "Victorian" the architecture was made up of several styles. These include Italianate, Second Empire, Stick-Eastlake, and Queen Anne.
Generally, Italianate style structures have flat roof lines, corniced eaves, angled bay windows and Corinthian-columned porches. Stick-Eastlake structures often include square bays, flat roof lines and free-style decorations. Queen Annes have a gabled roof, shingled insets, angled bay windows under the gable and on occasion a tower.
Inside view of Bay Window at Horel House. Photograph by Jeanette Cooper.
Queen Anne, as a Victorian architectural style, was an English import that brought stark change in architecture in the 1890's. The style appealed to the rising generation that was carrying out the Industrial Revolution. Its widespread use undoubtedly was the expression of the times.
Contemporary critics accuse the Victorians of needless complexity and clutter. Victorian architecture up to 1870 was thought by some, especially Europeans, to be a failure. This near revulsion by critics was expressed at first only by a few, but as the decade went on, criticism increased.
However, this view was obviously not shared by all then or now. A charmed critic writing for the San Fransisco Morning Call on April 21, 1887 described San Francisco's Victorian architecture as follows:
"The architecture of San Francisco in our residence streets has no counterpart in the world, and we have no reason to be ashamed of it. It is light, airy and pleasing in style, and is to the architecture of Europe and the Eastern States as Spanish music is to the grand and heavier compositions of Wagner."
The 1870's brought a new attitude toward paint colors. Before then, the houses of the tract builders tended to be painted all one color, usually white, beige or gray. By 1887, many people were painting their houses in lighter, brighter colors. Therefore, the charmed critic quoted above would have been witness to this new assemblage of color.
During the Victorian period, there were also magazines published for architects and the building trades which provided house plans, inspirations for new varieties of trim and decoration, as well as editorials about new products, styles, paint and interior treatment. However, in all probability most American Victorian builders had a limited acquaintance with architectural pattern books and magazines. They were probably better aware of what was being constructed, at least locally, and their vista ranged outwardly mostly as far as they, or their client had traveled.
The years from 1870 to 1906 produced the bulk of San Francisco's Victorian buildings in which there was much overlapping in style trends. One cause of the seemingly infinite variety of Victorian architecture in Northern California is the abundant coastal redwood. Both the structural members and much of the decoration on San Francisco Victorian homes are redwood, a local material that had many advantages. It was cheap and plentiful; it resisted rot, termites and fire; and it was easily worked into different shapes.
Victorian Interiors Architectural Specifications
History of Original Owner Horel House as Sanatorium Sanatorium to Victorian Manor