With its intricate structures and ornate ornamentation, high-style British Victorian architecture conveys a distinct sense of luxury. To enjoy the beauty of this style, middle-class Americans of that era were inspired to find a more practical alternative. Enter the Folk Victorian style. Built with a more inventive, eclectic approach, Folk Victorian homes display many of the decorative elements associated with high-style Victorian homes, but with some fundamental differences.
Affordable decoration for the masses
Folk Victorian architecture flourished between 1880 and 1910, placing it slightly behind the Victorian architecture period in Britain. It emerged as a more practical and affordable alternative to the grand Italianate and Queen Anne styles prevalent during the Victorian period.
Homes in this style are found throughout the United States. Once the look became popular in the east, it spread rapidly westward, thanks primarily to innovations in woodworking tools, mass production, and the railroad system. Pre-fabricated millwork such as posts, molding, and trim became widely available and could be efficiently transported by rail to lumberyards across the country, making it accessible to more people. Homeowners were no longer limited to products made with traditional tools by local craftsmen.
The Victorian style became especially popular among newcomers settling in the West. These homeowners were looking for flexible, budget-friendly ways to decorate their existing homes.
In fact, many homes classified as Folk Victorians today began as simple folk homes built in the typical style of their region. When the Victorian style took hold, the owners of these homes updated them with new Victorian-style trim that was available at nearly every lumber mill.
The same railroad system that brought millwork to homeowners also benefited from this trend, as new depots, stations, and related buildings began to emerge in the Folk Victorian style as rail lines expanded.
By 1910, the popularity of the Victorian Folk style faded, as the Craftsman style began to dominate.
Folk Victorian Characteristics: Simplicity with Flair
In Britain, grand Victorian homes in the prevalent Queen Anne , Italianate , and Gothic Revival styles were the domain of the wealthy classes. These homes are known for their asymmetrical designs with complex, multi-room floor plans and an abundance of towers, bay windows, multiple gables, and second-floor porches.
American Folk Victorian, on the other hand, was within the reach of the average citizen. Based on folk houses, Folk Victorians are usually small and simple in design with plain roofs. Their profiles are symmetrical with only one front-facing gable. Victorian-style embellishments were added to this basic form, and these embellishments are what
distinguish a home as a Folk Victorian.
The decorations used are often inspired by the Queen Anne and Italianate styles, with Gothic Revival details sometimes appearing as well. The ground-floor front porch is quintessential to the design, and is often the most decorated part of the home. This was the era when the classic American front porch really took root.
The most common porch posts are posts with curved spindles (balusters) or simple chamfered (beveled) edges, as well as posts decorated with carvings and additional details.
These supports are further reinforced with lacework across the top, railings between the pillars, and intricately cut spandrels at the upper corners.
Cornice lines, overhanging eaves, and gable-ends are trimmed with bands of decorative millwork. Window and door moldings, whenever used, are usually limited to a simple header pediment. This streamlined approach to molding is another aspect that distinguishes Folk Victorian architecture from its British counterpart, which features elaborate moldings.
The exterior of a Folk Victorian home is typically covered with clapboard or board-and-batten style cladding, although scalloped shingles or shakes are also popular. At their peak, Folk Victorian homes often boasted multicolored color schemes, just like any Victorian-era home. Today, many homes have been repainted in multicolored schemes using more subdued Victorian colors such as dark green, butter yellow, and brown.
The houses are diverse according to their owners
While all Victorian homes have certain aspects in common, such as their elaborate decoration, they were also influenced by design trends that varied from region to region. Beyond these similarities, however, no two homes are exactly alike, and their uniqueness is part of their charm.
Some homes include floor plan variations such as second-floor balconies or bay windows, but it’s the variety of details that really makes each home distinct. Folk Victorian homes were built based on designs in plan books or pattern books, which were produced at the time by architectural companies and lumber mills to help homeowners and builders collect ideas. Each book offered anywhere from a handful of plans to over a hundred.
As elaborate as they were, they did not always categorize millwork by styles such as Queen Anne or Gothic Revival. This made it difficult for parts pickers to achieve a look consistent with the high-style Victorian look.
When builders and homeowners added millwork to existing folk homes, they had a wide array of trim, molding, and other detailing options available to them.
While some followed the suggestions in plan books exactly, others mixed and matched from several books or worked from their own ideas. In the hands of highly skilled craftsmen, the results were often astonishingly unique. Neighbors’ competition for the most elaborate house further fueled creativity.
Mills also sold entire packages of porch parts, but the included millwork did not always conform to a particular style. Do-it-yourselfers and less-skilled professional builders who relied on these packages often ended up with an eclectic Victorian look.
More than just decorative buildings, Folk Victorian homes are symbols of the adaptability and self-expression born of growing industrial development. Learning to recognize the creative combination of simple structures and ornate details in these homes will give you a little more insight into a rich period of America’s past.