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A Magical Island Kingdom ™ |
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Galveston Architecture
The Magical Island Kingdom is the quintessential Victorian city! The Victorian Age was named for the time span when Queen Victoria ruled the British people: 1837-1901. The City of Galveston was incorporated in 1839, hit its zenith in the 1870s, and was devastated by the Great Storm in 1900. Its Golden Age was confined almost precisely to the reign of Queen Victoria! There was a monumental recovery effort in the years after 1900, but when the Houston Ship Channel opened in 1914, the Port of Galveston would never again become the economic engine that had propelled Galveston to its glory, during the Victorian Age. After a long decline, that bottomed in the 1960s and 1970s, Galveston struggled to rise from the ashes, and with its large inventory of 19th-Century buildings, re-invent itself as a Victorian refuge from the madness of 20th-Century life. The City of Galveston was laid out with 14 long, narrow lots to each block, so long, narrow multi-storied houses worked nicely to produce a densely-packed urban environment that created a small Victorian city rather than a small rural town. Most of the picturesque, colorful, and lavish Victorian architectural styles were perfect for this vibrant new city. After the 1900 Storm, many of the houses were re-built using Victorian architectural styles, but as time wore on; the new, plainer, and more horizontal 20th-Century styles began to be used in newer neighborhoods, and also as infill in the older ones. Unfortunately, they usually did not fit well among the more stately Victorian designs. Galveston builders and architects rarely designed a house or commercial building so that it strictly conformed to the rules and guidelines of any one, of the many Victorian architectural styles, choosing instead to combine the elements of several styles, or to build rather plain and simple designs, from a plan book, and then merely enhance their look with Victorian decoration. Unlike today where you would have to reference building codes, permits, even Fisher Investments Facebook to get financial backing, builders at that time had a lot more freedom to do what they wanted. This has lead some writers to classify Galveston architecture primarily by type, defined by the floor plan and shape, or to combine many styles together. For example, Howard Barnstone (The Galveston That Was), sees Greek Revival as the dominant style in 19th-Century Galveston, so he considers the later Victorian styles together as "Romantic". This has also lead to the convention of classifying hundreds of houses, that have some underlying Greek Revival influence, but are otherwise difficult to classify by architectural style, as "Galveston Vernacular"; meaning a building style that became common in the local area. Perhaps a better classification for many of these houses, without a dominant Greek Revival look, is Folk Victorian; which is the name given to the style of simple square or rectangular houses which have been decorated with Victorian architectural add-ons that suggest the fancier styles of those times. As the years have passed, since the 19th Century, a great deal of the architectural decoration has been lost on the houses and commercial buildings in Galveston, due to decay, and damage from storms, so it is often difficult to tell what some of these houses used to look like in their full finery! In the end, Architecture is a fundamental expression of the individual and collective lifestyle of a culture. As the economy and technology dictate how people can afford to live, and as people modify the way they choose to live, the architectural styles change to reflect these adjustments. As the architecture is transformed, it, in turn, influences the culture. The people who lived here during Galveston’s Golden Age, lived less comfortable, but more authentic lives than our modern society offers, which was reflected in the houses and buildings that they designed to live and work in. This architecture, that is their legacy, is the primary reason why "The Magical Island Kingdom" is more “Real”, i.e. more authentic, than many other places, in this country. The designers and builders of these buildings had an instinctive understanding that well-chosen designs and solid hand-crafted construction would create functional spaces that would enhance their environment. These structures were built to nurture the identity, uplift the spirits, and create greater harmony in the lives of those who lived and worked in them. The Victorian and early-20th-Century architecture of Galveston stands in stark contrast to the suburban sprawl of Post-WWII America, with its monotonous track homes and McMansions, its tiresome shopping centers and strip malls, and its slavish dependence on the car to make the lifestyle work. This architecture is often foreign and incomprehensible to those who have only known eight-foot-high ceilings, sheet rock, and glue-and-sawdust walls. Those who encounter the architecture of this bygone era either reject it for what they consider the more comfortable suburban lifestyle, with its tedious and repetitive building styles, or embrace the chance at the life that they can live in such a place, because they know that, in some mysterious way, these buildings will change them! Most of the pictures, of the houses and commercial buildings, shown below, were taken in Galveston, and are shown with their address noted.  The Federal style was conceived by the Adams brothers in England. Their design added delicate details to the earlier and simpler Georgian style. Americans modified their work by using curved, circular, elliptical, and Palladian windows, recessed wall arches, and oval-shaped rooms. This new style was an expression of the identity of the new United States. Like the Georgian style, the Federal style is generally symmetrical, and boxy with simple symmetrical facades, and shutters. The major differences are that the Federal style is more decorative, and incorporates curves. It was the most popular style in the US from about 1780 to 1830.  Federal houses usually have many of these features:
 1605 33rd Street The Michael Menard House The nearly full replication of classical Greek and Roman buildings first began in the late 18th century, when Thomas Jefferson used the design of a French building as his model for the Virginia State Capitol. As the name implies, this style is associated with the Greek republic, and was a fitting choice to represent the new American republic. Greek Revival is most distinguishable by its large Doric, Ionic or Tuscan columns. The front elevation is typically enhanced with a white portico (porch), and the building may be constructed using white stucco, board siding, or red brick. Greek Revival declined in popularity as the country became more urban, because it was better suited for public buildings, and houses on large country properties rather than homes in cities, with much smaller lots. Greek Revival houses usually have many of these features:
 1405 24th Street Some Greek Revival houses also have these features:
For this reason, the original concept spawned a movement to build smaller, less expensive Gothic Revival houses out of wood. Built to look like picturesque cottages, their most distinctive feature is the pointed arch form, but most also include scrolled ornaments, lacy bargeboards, and other types of and "gingerbread".  Wooden homes in the Gothic Revival style usually have many of these features:
The Italianate style had its beginnings in England when builders started to design recreations of Italian Renaissance villas. When the style was adapted to America, it became the most popular building form in the country by the late 1860s, because of its advantages. Italianate homes could be built on a modest budget, by using many different materials. New mass production techniques made it possible to easily and affordably produce the cast-iron, and press-metal decorations needed. The Italianate style is characterized by a symmetrical, severely blockish form, with a low pitched (even flat) roof, with widely overhanging, projecting eaves supported by large brackets, which makes the roof form recede, to give more prominence to the walls. This style fits better than many on densely-packed city lots, so it became very popular for downtown commercial buildings.  Italianate houses usually have many of these features:
 1301 Broadway This style was modeled after the the opulent architecture of Paris during the reign of Napoleon III, but it was also practical because the height allowed by the Mansard roof provided additional living space on small city lots. This roof makes better use of the top floor, and fits better with the scale of lower buildings, when used on 3-4 story houses. Second Empire is basically an Italianate design topped with a double-pitched Mansard roof. Both Italianate, and Second Empire houses tend to be square in shape, and have U-shaped window crowns, decorative brackets, and single story porches.  1101 23rd Street Second Empire homes usually have many of these features:
Some Second Empire homes also have these features:
Eastlake 1860-1880
 1417 24th Street Any architectural style, during the Victorian Era, that was decorated with the fancy spindles, buttons and knobs designed by Charles Eastlake, could be said to have an Eastlake influence. This decorative style of ornamentation was primarily found on houses built in the Queen Anne and Stick styles.   3202 Avenue P 1/2 Stick 1860-1890
 Stick style houses do not use ornamentation, but rather use the patterns, and lines created by half- timbering. Because the decorative details are flat, they are often covered over when homeowners later remodel. The Stick style was short lived because it couldn't compete with the fancier Queen Annes. Since few were built, and many of those have been lost, or covered over, very few authentic Stick style homes remain intact.  Stick style homes usually have many of these features:
Folk Victorian 1870-1910  Mass production
and modern shipping methods meant that nearly every location
in the
country had access
to decorative architectural add-on features. With
all
the gingerbread and spindles available, some Folk Victorian
houses suggest Gothic Revival
or Queen Anne,
but they are simple
square, or rectangular
designs that
have extras nailed
on to them, rather than the more irregular shapes of
these fancier styles.
 Folk Victorian houses usually have many of these features:
Shingle 1874-1910  2402 Avenue P This style
attempted to break
away from the more lavish Victorian styles with a
more relaxed, rustic,
and informal
look. Covering most,
or all, of a building with shingles, stained with a single color,
created a uniform,
undecorated surface. This style represented a simplicity of
form. Shingle
style homes can take on many
forms, and
borrow from the other styles of the day.
 Shingle Style homes usually have many of these features:
Boston
architect Henry Richardson developed this rugged,
forceful style in the 1870s. It was
called "Romanesque"
because the buildings had wide, rounded
arches like in ancient Rome.
This style was best suited for grand
public buildings, because building
with massive stone walls is expensive,
so
only wealthy people ever used it for their homes. It
is similar
to Gothic in form and detail, but Romanesque
buildings use rounded,
instead of
pointed arches. A deeply
recessed entrance using the arch form is a
signature of the style.
 Romanesque houses usually have many of these features:
This was one of the most popular, and flamboyant Victorian styles! It became popular when the new mass production technologies allowed builders to use pre-cut architectural trim to create fanciful houses. Many Queen Annes employ liberal amounts of gingerbread, and/or Eastlake decorations, but some builders showed more restraint in their designs. It was common to use six or seven colors of paint to accent the the more lavish Queen Annes, and the colors were usually darker earth tones. These are picturesque homes that thrived on decorative excess and busyness. They often mixed architectural styles with an "anything goes" attitude. This design is known for its irregularity of layout, and great complexity. Surfaces freely project out, and recess in. There were often many types of steep roofs on the same house as well as a great variety of shapes and sizes of windows; often with sections of leaded or colored glass. Bay windows are common. Wall surfaces vary in the material used; some are masonry, but most employ wood shingles: clapboard, fish-scale or plain. Porches often feature decorative gables that tie into turrets. Chimneys are a prominent feature of the design, and they often use molded brick or corbeling.  ???????? Queen Anne houses usually have many of these features:
 2410 Avenue L This style became popular when it was showcased at the 1876 US Centennial Exposition. It is very similar to the Georgian and Federal styles, with a symmetrical front elevation, that emphasizes the front entrance, with a portico (a covered porch supported by columns), and with fanlights, sidelights, and transom around a paneled front door. Windows tend to be multi-pane, and double hung, and are accented with shutters. Colonial Revival is a clear reaction to the lavish Victorian styles, and was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s.  Colonial Revival houses usually have many of these features:
Mission 1890-1920  1428 23rd Street This style was
drrived from the Spanish missions in California and other areas in the
Southwest.
Some even include bell towers, elaborate arches, and other deatils
inspired by these early churches. The large shaded porches are ideal
for hot climates. They are usually built with adobe or stucco covered
brick.
 Mission houses usually have
many of these features:
20th-Century
Architectural Styles Arts and Crafts (Craftsman) 1905-1930
 In the late 19th Century, the Arts and Crafts movement developed, in England, as a response to mass produced goods that were on the verge of putting the remaining craftsman out of business. This movement supported handcrafted work, simple forms, and natural materials. These ideas took hold in America about 1890, but its use as an architectural style really started in the 20th Century. On the West Coast, Charles and Henry Greene, began to design houses that combined Arts and Crafts concepts with the simple wooden architecture of Asian countries. In the Midwest, Frank Lloyd Wright used the ideas in his Prairie style, and on the East Coast, Gustav Stickley created a new furniture design with the Arts and Crafts influence. Craftsman was a magazine published by Stickley between 1901 and 1916. The only true "Craftsman" houses are those whose Arts and Crafts style plans were published in this magazine. Eventually, other magazines and pattern books began to publish plans for similar Arts and Crafts designs, and the term "Craftsman" became a generic term for many Arts and Crafts designs. Arts and Crafts designs are usually only 1 to 1 1/2 stories tall, with low-pitched roofs, featuring large overhangs, and exposed rafters, which started the horizontal design theme of many 20th-Century styles. Their porches usually employ heavy columns for their roof support.  Arts and Crafts, or Craftsman, houses usually have many of these features:
Many architectural styles draw on the Arts and Crafts style for a portion of their design features including: Prairie, American Foursquare, Bungalow, Mission, Western Stick and Pueblo. Prairie 1900-1920
 Frank Lloyd Wright did not like Victorian designs, because he thought they were too vertical and boxy, and their interiors, defined by separate rooms, were too confining; so he began to design low, horizontal houses with rooms that gave up their walls, and partitions to become common areas. From there, inside space flowed seamlessly into outdoor areas. He said that this style blended well with the flat, open prairie landscape. The name "Prairie style" came from his article in a 1901 issue of the Ladies Home Journal called, "A Home in a Prairie Town". The Prairie style uses a low-pitched roof, with widely overhanging eaves, to create a horizontal look. Houses built in this style are often two stories high, but with wings or porches that drop down to one story to make them look low to the ground. Windows are set in horizontal rows to add to the horizontal look. Chimneys are low, and often in the center of the house, to deemphasize vertical elements, and entrances are recessed. Early houses were made of stucco or red brick, or used horizontal board and batten siding. Later designs employed concrete block. The open and spacious floor plans used many shapes including: Square, Y, L, T, and even pinwheel.  2723 51st Street Prairie style houses usually have many of these features:
 This architectural style is characterized by a square, boxy shape 2 1/2 stories in height. There were two full stories plus a dormer to make use of some of the attic space. It usually featured a hip roof, and a full width porch with square porch columns. Most had an open stair way and four rooms on each floor. Many of the homes built in this style were sold as kits made by Sears or Aladdin. In Galveston, many houses built in this style did not include a dormer, because use of attic space was not practical, in this climate, before air conditioning.  American Foursquare houses usually have many of these features:
Bungalow 1915-1940
 2327 24th Street The term Bungalow came from the word "bangala" in India. The British adopted this architectural style, because its broad overhangs and large porches made it well suited for a hot climate. The British arranged their rooms around a central living room, without hallways, which became the prototype for the American Bungalow, which is basically just a cottage designed in the Arts and Crafts style. Some designs feature a side gable that slopes towards the front, and continues until it covers a large, full-width front porch supported by heavy columns. Other variations have a front gable over the house, and a smaller front gable over the porch. Bungalows often feature dormer windows in the center of the roof that gives the appearance of a small, low cottage. The windows are often grouped together for greater ventilation.  jBungalows usually have many of these features:
Some bungalows also have:
The name "Art Deco" comes from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes, held in Paris. This movement began much earlier than the time of this Paris exposition, but this was the first time it gained public attention. Although it began in Europe, America quickly took over control of the movement. Art Deco was essentially a style of design, and decoration, and was applied to furniture, jewelry, and clothing, in addition to buildings. Ironically, it was inspired by both the 1922 discovery of King Tut's tomb, and the fascination it generated with ancient cultures, and their designs and symbols; as well as the attempt to capture the sleek look of the machine age! Art Deco ornamentation consists largely of geometrical designs, often expressed with zigzags, parallel straight lines, floral patterns, and chevrons. Vivid color, strong lines, bold geometric blocks, and undulating, repeating patterns are a trademark of this design. Many designers used these design elements to decorate cars, trains, appliances, and other products of the industrial age. In architectural design, many taller buildings began to use the "setback", where upper stories were pulled back from the lower stories, which also mimics the Egyptian pyramid. This terraced pyramid is known as a Ziggurat.  Art Deco buildings usually have many of these features:
Like Art Deco, Art Moderne is principally a decorative style that was used in many venues besides architecture. Its major influence was the beginning of streamlined industrial design for cars, ships, and airplanes, which gives it its distinctive streamlined look. This effect is emphasized by the use of curved window glass that wraps around corners. The smooth surfaces, curved corners, and horizontal emphasis of the Art Moderne style all give the feeling that air streams could move smoothly over and around them. This style was used more for residential buildings, while Art Deco was principally a commercial building style.  1227 Avenue L Graugnard's Bakery Building Art Moderne buildings usually have many of these features:
The first Ranch style house was built in San Diego in 1932. Designed by Cliff May, he borrowed from the Prairie style, the Bungalow, and Cottage designs to develop what became the dominant style of the 1950s and 1960s in the growth of Suburbia. The relaxed, informal Ranch style is traditionally one-story, but there are complex variations that include multiple levels; often called split-levels. Since this style is so simple, and common in nearly every locality, it is synonymous with the concept of tract housing.  2004 24th Street Ranch style houses usually have many of these features:
Links to sites about Architectural Styles: Art Deco Boston College Buffalo Cincinnati Eastern Michigan Galveston Indiana Knoxville NAU Ontario Rock Island St. Louis Vintage Designs Ypsilanti Links to sites about Architectural Elements: Arches Roofs Stairs Terms Walls Windows  |
   A History of Ashton Villa: A Family and Its House in Victorian Galveston, Texas Click Pic for Info $9.95   Clayton's Galveston: The Architecture of Nicholas J. Clayton and His Contemporaries Click Pic for Info $45.00   Galveston Architectural Guidebook Click Pic for Info $11.67   Daughter of Fortune : The Bettie Brown Story Click Pic for Info $12.95   Galveston: A History Click Pic for Info $12.97   Isaac's Storm Click Pic for Info $10.78   The Galveston That Was Click Pic for Info $31.47 Galveston Architectural Guidebook Click Pic for Info $11.67   Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories Click Pic for Info $13.57   Historic Galveston Click Pic for Info $24.80   Mythic Galveston: Reinventing America's Third Coast Click Pic for Info $45.00   Galveston: A History of the Island Click Pic for Info $11.05   They Ain't Wanted Here Click Pic for Info $16.95   Battle on the Bay: The Civil War Struggle for Galveston Click Pic for Info $12.32   Cottonclads!: The Battle of Galveston and the Defense of the Texas Coast Click Pic for Info $11.95   Tracks to the Sea: Galveston and Western Railroad Development, 1866-1900 Click Pic for Info $29.95   Women, Culture, and Community : Religion and Reform in Galveston, 1880-1920 Click Pic for Info $80.00   Galveston: Island of Chance Click Pic for Info $25.00   Torpedoes in the Gulf: Galveston and the U-Boats 1942-1943 Click Pic for Info $10.37   Island Of Color: Where Juneteenth Started Click Pic for Info $22.95   Saving Lives, Training Caregivers, Making Discoveries: A Centennial History of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Click Pic for Info $36.13   Aggies By The Sea: Texas A & M University At Galveston Click Pic for Info $30.00   Galveston and the Great West Click Pic for Info $32.95   Military Presence in Galveston County Click Pic for Info $20.99   Story of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane Click Pic for Info $14.30   Story of the Galveston Flood: Complete, Graphic, Authentic Click Pic for Info $14.95   Galveston's Summer of the Storm (Chaparral Book for Young Readers)." Click Pic for Info $9.20   Through a Night of Horrors: Voices from the 1900 Galveston Storm Click Pic for Info $11.16   Galveston and the 1900 Storm Click Pic for Info $18.87   The Great Galveston Disaster: Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Click Pic for Info $25.00   Terror from the Gulf: A Hurricane in Galveston Click Pic for Info $17.95   Tragedy from the Sea: The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 Click Pic for Info $13.95   Hurricane!: The 1900 Galveston Night Of Terror (X-Treme Disasters That Changed America.) Click Pic for Info $23.96 Clayton's Galveston: The Architecture of Nicholas J. Clayton and His Contemporaries Click Pic for Info $45.00 A History of Ashton Villa: A Family and Its House in Victorian Galveston, Texas Click Pic for Info $9.95 Daughter of Fortune : The Bettie Brown Story Click Pic for Info $12.95 |
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