Tudor

Description
:
  • This is another of the period revival style houses of the early 20th century (e.g., Georgian Revival, Spanish Revival, Colonial Revival, Classical Revival.) Note that some historians would classify the style as beginning in the late 19th century.
  • The period 1910-1930 was a time of free borrowing of historic styles as more people could afford single-family houses and there was no real consensus about a modern architectural style (as was the case with Queen Anne, Shingle, and Georgian successively from from 1875 to 1910). Houses in this period are sometimes lumped together as "period revival."
  • Sometimes Tudor Revival is referred to as Elizabethan or Half-timbered houses
  • Derived primarily from English Renaissance buildings of the 16th and early 17th centuries, including those of Elizabethan (Elizabeth I, 1558-1603) and Jacobean (James I, 1603-25) periods.
  • Some Tudor houses mimic humble Medieval cottages -- They may even include a false thatched roof. Other Tudor homes borrow ideas from late Medieval palaces. They may have overlapping gables, parapets, and beautifully patterned brick or stonework.
  • Enormously popular in the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the suburbs, where only the Colonial Revival rivaled it in popularity.
  • Modified versions became fashionable in the 1970s and 1980s.
  • Two principal types: estate house, suburban house

Half-timbering:

  • Characteristic of Medieval buildings when the beams held the buildings up and the spaces between them were filled with plaster.
  • A "half-timbered" building has exposed wood framing. The spaces between the wooden timbers are filled with plaster, brick, or stone.
  • In the 19th and 20th centuries, it became fashionable to imitate Medieval building techniques. Many Queen Anne and Stick style houses were given false half-timbering. Timbers were applied to wall surfaces as decoration.
  • In the U.S. however, half-timbering is only a decorative - albeit distinctive - covering of frame construction. In the United States, harsh winters made half-timbered construction impractical.


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