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The Queen Anne Style Architecture flourished in between 1880-1900. It originated in England and then became very famous in the United States, lasting until around 1910 in the western states. When you hear anyone talking about Victorian architecture, possibilities are that this is the style that comes to mind.
The design was named 'Queen Anne' by a number of English architects. But the name is a bit irrelevant, since it was based on many mediaeval and early Renaissance architectural styles from 1500-1600. In fact, the real Queen Anne did not rule until at least one hundred years later, in the early 1700s. Nonetheless, the Queen Anne name stuck.
Carson Mansion in the Eureka, California Historic District
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Characteristics
The symbols of the Queen Anne style were asymmetry, eclecticism, and contrast. Each construction had a variety of surface textures. Elaborate motifs are seen on gables, spandrel panels and, indeed, almost any flat surface.
Materials
With a variety of materials that included patterned brick or stone, wood shingles and clapboard, slate, sometimes stucco, and sometimes, terracotta panels, the Queen Anne look was achieved in a number of ways. Generally, decorative stone panels fixed into the wall, as were colored bricks and custom-moulded, allowing some variation and detailing.
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Roofs
Queen Anne roofs, steeply pitched and complex, offered visual appeal and variety with gables, dormers, and turrets or towers, often all on one roof.
Towers
The square, round, or polygonal Queen Anne towers were the best feature among architects designing Queen Anne houses. Often there was a turret, assisted by a corbel, projected from the second floor instead of a tower. A conical, domed, or other artfully shaped roof was capped over the towers and turrets and finished off with slate shingles and a copper finishing ornament.
Windows
Queen Anne houses were usually embellished with bay windows and oriels; the latter was often part of a turret. As a general rule, window surrounds were plain. In general, the lower window sashes had only a single glass pane. Though it was mostly multi-paned or framed by small square panes, the upper sash may have followed suit. In the upper part of a double-hung window or in a transom, stained-glass was used in more intricate window sashes.
Entrance
Queen Anne houses are single story and wrapped around porches. The porch was often framed with decorative columns, brackets, or ornament added. Townhouses also have a second-story porch in urban settings, often embedded in gables or towers.
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