Roots of Style: The Eclectic American Foursquare (6 photos)

Starting out simply, the American Foursquare evolved into a distinct type of house of many styles. Earliest versions were simpler in detail and finishes, but as time passed, other fashions of architecture were laid over the format. Considered a cousin to the contemporaneous Craftsman and Prairie styles introduced in the 1910s, Foursquares began to incorporate details from those two distinctly modern dialects. A Foursquare designed in the Prairie style was often called a Prairie Box. As the Foursquare’s popularity spread, the style sometimes took on characteristics from Colonial Revival, Neoclassical, Mission and Italian Renaissance. This provided a transition from traditional to modern architecture for those not ready to give up references to the past.

The Houston home above illustrates the simplicity inherent in the Foursquare theme. There are four rooms on each of two levels. The ground floor has an entrance hall and stairwell in one front corner, a living room in the other front corner, a dining room behind it and a kitchen behind the entrance hall and stair. The second floor holds the bedrooms at the corners, along with a bath in one of the four corners, or placed between the bedrooms along with the stairwell.

Plans varied, of course, depending on the size of the house and budget of the owner. Some designs have a central front door and hall with stairwell, but those are usually closer to the Colonial Revival plan found in that style. The four exterior walls laid out square or rectangular make an extremely efficient structure easy to build.

from Houzz http://ift.tt/1TSbIHd

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