Architecture
Roots of Style: The Eclectic American Foursquare
The turn-of-the-20th-century style transitioned U.S. residential architecture from the Victorian era to the modern age
Contemporary for its time, the American Foursquare home design fit a nation transitioning to modern architecture at the turn of the 20th century. It began as an economical option to Victorian-era designs, which had complex floor plans laden with elaborate details that had become more expensive to build. Streetcar suburbs, expanding rapidly as the population in urban centers of the United States ballooned between 1890 and 1930, provided the perfect small plots of land on which to build compact single-family houses. The Foursquare’s efficiently stacked rectangular layout, with two floors and an attic, as well as a basement in most cases, was optimal for homebuyers of the day. The theme spread quickly, reaching most areas of the U.S. and Canada as contemporary life beckoned.
Notice the nearly pyramidal hipped roof form on the Houston example and this Portland, Oregon, house. This is another signature of the American Foursquare, along with the hipped dormer with small windows centered at the front of the house. Original attics were commonly left unfinished, to be turned into living quarters later as families and fortunes grew.
The hipped roof on this genre of American house reduced the cost of framing. Instead of having a series of long rafters all the same length in a gable roof form, the hipped roof graduates the length of rafters. The closer to the corner of the roof, the shorter the span, and the less expensive the lumber.
A mixture of details adorn the Houston house. Tapered columns on an enclosed clapboard pedestal and railing take their cue from Craftsman architecture. The broad eaves echo the Prairie aesthetic, while its elaborate brackets and carved rafter tails remind us of the Italian Renaissance theme. Pilasters at the corners of the house allude to Colonial Revival. The American Foursquare embraced eclecticism.
The hipped roof on this genre of American house reduced the cost of framing. Instead of having a series of long rafters all the same length in a gable roof form, the hipped roof graduates the length of rafters. The closer to the corner of the roof, the shorter the span, and the less expensive the lumber.
A mixture of details adorn the Houston house. Tapered columns on an enclosed clapboard pedestal and railing take their cue from Craftsman architecture. The broad eaves echo the Prairie aesthetic, while its elaborate brackets and carved rafter tails remind us of the Italian Renaissance theme. Pilasters at the corners of the house allude to Colonial Revival. The American Foursquare embraced eclecticism.
This newly constructed Dallas Foursquare employs the centered entrance and respectfully conforms in scale and massing to its established neighborhood. A generous front porch, seen in each of these examples, also distinguishes this type of house. Traditional, or classically rooted, architectural details define these porch columns, which coordinate to the pilasters at the corners of the structure. A frieze board runs atop the windows and under the upper floor eave line. You can easily imagine these Colonial Revival details being substituted for Craftsman or Prairie details.
In New York, this handsome Foursquare illustrates the transitional nature of the period. Bay windows, classically rooted paired columns and the wraparound porch relate directly to the preceding Victorian era. The hipped roof with its centered and hipped dormer and two-story square form firmly place the residence in the Foursquare family. Most architecture evolves from one style to another, and you can commonly find traits of one type overlaid unconventionally on another.
Chicago has numerous neighborhoods with American Foursquare designs, both old and new, as seen here. Chicago retailer Sears famously sold kits, shipped by rail, to build an entire house, the Foursquare theme being among consumers’ choices. Compare the look of the new house on the right and its neighboring original. Minimal detail adorns the older house, while the newer one borrows several Craftsman references. The dormer feels out of scale compared with the one next door, but its other elements define the theme.
This remodeled Washington Foursquare borrows Colonial Revival detailing at the porch columns and the elaborate roof dormer. Its mixture of clapboard and shingle siding feels similar to the Shingle style, though that fashion would have compound, and complex, massing like many other Victorian-era designs.
Foursquares provided an economical contemporary solution that bridged the transition from a Victorian time to the modern styles that defined the 20th century.
My mother grew up in a large Foursquare in Carmi, Illinois. A big oil-burning furnace in the basement heated the house through cold Midwestern winters. Houses of that era lacked insulation, unlike construction requirements currently in place. It probably helped that my grandfather worked in the oil business!
Tell us: Is there a Foursquare in your family tree? Did you grow up in one, or do you live in one now? Share your favorite Foursquare in the Comments.
Read more Roots of Style stories
Foursquares provided an economical contemporary solution that bridged the transition from a Victorian time to the modern styles that defined the 20th century.
My mother grew up in a large Foursquare in Carmi, Illinois. A big oil-burning furnace in the basement heated the house through cold Midwestern winters. Houses of that era lacked insulation, unlike construction requirements currently in place. It probably helped that my grandfather worked in the oil business!
Tell us: Is there a Foursquare in your family tree? Did you grow up in one, or do you live in one now? Share your favorite Foursquare in the Comments.
Read more Roots of Style stories
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.