Architecture Style Timeline

Colonial  [ Saltbox     Cape Style    Georgian ]   Federal    Greek Revival   
Italianate    Second Empire/ Mansard   Queen Anne   Shingle Style   
   Colonial Revival     Tudor    Bungalow    International Style

            Much of Weston’s charm derives from the diversity of its architectural heritage. The town was a rural farming community during the 17^th and 18^th centuries, and Weston houses built during these years were relatively simple versions of those centuries’ styles. The earliest remaining house in Weston dates from about 1695.  

            In the second half of the 19^th century, middle class homes were built within an easy walk of the town’s several railroad stations – a commuter tradition that continues today. By 1900, Weston had become a popular location for wealthy Boston financiers and industrialists to build large country estates. These estates provide Weston with a fascinating legacy of mansions and worker "cottages" to complement the Colonial Revival homes built throughout the town in the early decades of the 20^th century.

The center-chimney Colonial style is the first distinctive housing style in New England. Its massive framework is built around a vast, central chimney which provided fireplaces for most of the rooms in the house. In Weston, the earliest houses were usually "one over one" in plan - one room on the first floor and one on the second. These houses were three bays wide (a "bay" is a window or door opening). Other early Weston houses were only one story.

As the first settlers prospered, they often expanded the three-bay houses into a symmetrical "two over two" room plan with five bays, a center chimney and center entrance door. Houses built after 1750 were generally built with the full five bays. Staircases in central chimney houses are usually a "tight run around" located in front of the chimney. Later 18^th century houses often had paired chimneys set nearer to the end walls. This arrangement permits a central hall and straight staircase.

The distinctive sloped roofline is formed by adding a one-story lean-to on the back of a "one over one" (one room on the first floor and one on the second) Colonial.  These additions were often added on the northern or colder side of the house, where they helped push wind currents over the house and discouraged the buildup of snow.

This is a native style of architecture, dating back to the colonial period in New England. The classic Cape is a 1½ story house with two windows on either side of a central, front doorway and a central chimney. The eaves generally have very little overhang, and the trim is simple and understated. Typically there were four rooms on the first floor surrounding the central chimney, and two smaller rooms upstairs. Early examples have not survived in Weston, but  the style has  been widely used for houses built in the twentieth century, which continue to exhibit the charm of their 17^th century prototypes.

Georgian (1725-80)

The term "Georgian" refers to houses built during the reigns of several King Georges in England. Although it can be applied to any Colonial house built between about 1725 and 1780, the term Georgian  is generally used to describe the more elaborate versions having some combination of the  following features: a square floor plan with four rooms on each floor and a central hallway, gambrel roof, high hipped roof, dentils at the cornice line, corner quoins (blocks of wood at the corners designed to look like stone), Palladian windows,  a heavy pediment over the central door, and extensive interior decoration and paneling.    

The label "Federal" is applied to houses built after the Revolutionary War during the period of the new republic, a federation of states. Technically a house built after the Revolutionary War is called "Federal" even if it is identical to an earlier Colonial built before the war. However, there are also distinctive stylistic differences introduced in this period.

Federal architecture is closely related to the Georgian style that preceded it, but with further refinement inspired by classical Roman architecture. Sometimes these houses are referred to as "Adam" in style after the Adam brothers who had a large architectural practice in England. They popularized interior details such as swags, garlands and geometric designs on fireplace mantels.

In general, Federal architectural details are more gracefully elongated than in Georgian buildings. In Weston, houses from this period often display the following exterior features: five-bay façade (a "bay" is a window or door opening) with center entrance, semi-circular or elliptical fanlight over the door, shallow hipped roof, and four symmetrically-placed chimneys.

As the name implies, this style was inspired by renewed interest in the classical symbols of Ancient Greece. Housing styles are usually rectangular, often with the narrow or gable end facing the street (the "temple front"). Edges of the rectangular box are emphasized with wide paneled pilasters  and a wide "entablature" between the second floor and attic story. Often the front doorway is emphasized with sidelights, columns or pilasters, and either a transom window or a three-part entablature. White was the color of choice.

This style was influenced by the architecture of the Italian countryside. Its most distinctive features are the brackets (single or paired) under the eaves. Greek Revival columns have often been replaced by chamfered posts (posts with a beveled edge). Windows are often paired and may have arched tops. Some Italianate houses in Weston have a peaked central gable, and in some cases this feature was added to an earlier house.

This style is primarily distinguished by a mansard roof with steeply sloping sides that rise to a flatter deck above. Often very elaborate, the style was also used for one story cottages, several of which are found in Weston. Many details are similar to those of Italianate houses, particularly the use of brackets at the cornice.

Queen Anne (1875-1900)

This is one of the styles commonly called "Victorian" and is known for its decorative use of materials and colors. The style features asymmetry, richly textured exterior wall surfaces, unpredictable window placements, bay windows, towers, gable screens and porches with turned posts and balusters. Often shingles are used together with clapboards or masonry. Queen Anne houses are tall, with high-ceilinged and spacious rooms and irregular floor plans.

The Shingle Style developed as an architect-designed rather than builder-designed style first used along the New England coastline and in resort areas. As the name indicates, the buildings are characterized by the extensive use of shingles, in patterns and "flowing" across rounded surfaces and around corners. The style is very sculptural. Houses are often large and somewhat rambling, with rounded turrets, porches, and dormers. Often windows are grouped in horizontal bands, and occasionally the first floor is stone. The curved or "eyebrow" dormer is a hallmark of this style.

Many new houses in Weston are being built in the Shingle Style, which has been revived because of its suitability to houses which are large in size and yet informal or "country" in style.

Colonial Revival (1880-1900)

This style, popular after the U.S. Centennial of 1876, looks back to Colonial and Federal architecture for its inspiration. Early Colonial Revival houses are sometimes asymmetrical, while later versions tend to be more formal and symmetrical, often repeating the typical five-bay plan of the early settlement period. (A "bay" is a window or door opening in the façade.) Colonial Revival  makes extensive use of Georgian design features like Palladian windows, pediments, and porches with classical columns and sometimes use these design elements in abundance, with no attempt at classical "correctness". These buildings can be distinguished from their 18^th and early 19^th century prototypes by their larger scale and often unusual placement of classical design elements.

Tudor houses are based on English Medieval precedents and are characterized by cross-gable plans, steeply pitched roofs, decorative wood and stucco "half-timbering", windows in multiple groups, and large chimneys with chimney pots.

Bungalow (1900-1930)

The word "bungalow" comes from India, where it is used to describe low, single story houses with large verandas. The American version is usually a cozy, 1 or 1½ story building with wide, overhanging gables which form a deep porch at the front of the house which is supported by heavy piers or posts. Frequently, there are dormer windows. The natural quality of the building materials is often emphasized, with stone showing up as cobble or boulder and shingle or stucco used for texture.

International Style (1930 – 1950)

An architect-driven style reflecting the radically new ideas and designs initially popularized in Europe in the 1920’s.  Weston is fortunate to have two examples built during the 1930's, some of the earliest in New England.  The underlying premise of the style is simplicity – sheerness, flatness, smoothness, and unornamented plainness – emphasizing the purity of geometric forms. Houses built in this style tend to have strong rectangular planes decorated primarily by windows asymmetrically placed on the facade.

  Town of Weston Historical Commission
    P.O. Box 378, Weston, MA 02493
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