What Kind of House is It?

When we first started looking at the big purple house, we called it a Victorian. But it didn't really seem all that Victorian. It's almost perfectly symmetrical and the window and door casings really seemed more like those in a Craftsman house. It was also built in 1909. Some folk Victorians were still being built, but it was really the end of the era.

So we started researching the style. First, we went to the Metropolitan Historic Zoning Commission's website and pulled up their documents about guidelines for the area into which we were moving.

In their guidelines, they refer to the purple house's style simply as a "Turn-of-the-Century" which is an unsatisfying name, to say the least.

We wanted to find out more and see if another name existed. So we checked out A Field Guide to American Houses by by Virginia and Lee Mcalester. And there it was -- our house is an eclectic Neo-Classical cottage. Also, worth noting, it is essentially a one-story Foursquare.

So now we know.