An Overview of Queen Anne Style
Queen Anne is a magical, whimsical, no-rules kind of architectural style. It often features towers or turrets and so many different types of details, it may be retina assaulting to some. Not to me, though. How can you not love real-life fairy tale homes?
Due to the timing of their construction, as they were coming around the same time as Eastlake and Bracket style, you will see that some of the houses have absorbed features of similarly timed architecture styles. Look at bands around tops of the wrap-around porches and the balustrades (rails) along the bottom and you may notice it, too. Do some of the features look like furniture legs? That's an Eastlake characteristic.
Key Features
towers and turrets on the houses are a common feature, though many Queen Anne houses do not have towers. It could be round, octagonal, or square. I see a lot of square towers and large round towers in San Francisco and the octagonal and smaller round towers in New Orleans.
built from the 1870s to the early 1900s, when everyone got tired of the over-the-top detailing
wrap around porches
highly detailed ornamentation on the exterior in multiple places,
different sized dormers along the roofline
Texture! Everywhere! In the gables (area on the front of house between where two roof peaks meet), on the side of the house, window glass (aka- lights), doors!
also features stained glass, though they aren’t the only style house to sport this.
COLOR though, in the beginning, the colors were much less pastel and bright than what we see today. Darker tones were more popular back then. To see a list of traditional paint pallets for historic homes, go here.
This home is actually from the Edwardian era, built in 1909. This large lot started off as a modest shack and the owner eventually upgraded his spot by a lot. It’s got grand views of the city from all angles.
