American Folk Art Buildings
architectural imagination and storied places rendered small
Architectural History Chronology
American Eras, Styles, and Building Types
American architectural history is conveyed with no small accuracy and large appeal.
Eras, types, and styles of our buildings over time are revealed more or less chronologically with unknown intention, deliberate or accidental familiarity, and insistent imagination.
As ever and everywhere, the buildings convey architecture as well as aspirations --
personal, cultural, or national. Some find variably compelling place as American contributions to world architecture.
History moves over 250 years from:
EARLY COLONIAL
THE 60s SPLIT LEVEL IN WHICH I AND POSSIBLY ALSO YOU LIVED
Colonial 1st Period
Colonial
Dutch Hudson Valley
Colonial
New England
Meeting House
Colonial Georgian
Independence Hall
Philadelphia
Colonial Later
Confident New Republic Federal
Pennsylvania
Stone
New England Church
First Congregational
Old Lyme Connecticut
American Palladian
Capitol
Iconogaphic national style as well as a building
Cabin
Greek Revival
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills.
American patriotic hymn,
My Country, 'Tis of Thee
Southern
Southern Mt. Vernon
A building and an incessant national style
Low Country
Steamboat Gothic
Western
Board & Batten
Victorian
Victorian Mansard
Italiantate
Queen Anne
Dog Trot
Churchly Gothic Revival
Castle
Ever compelled by castles, Americans -- particularly rich or idiosyncratic men in the late 19th century -- have long put them about the landscape
Urban Row
Richardsonian
Ferris Wheel
An ever welcome contribution of America to world architecture
Shingle
Nouveau Victorian Cottage Fancy
An inexplicably overlooked style
Classic Town & Urban, Often Close Together
Cottage Idealized
Bungalow
Shotgun
Beaux-Arts
Colonial Revival
Prairie
Diner
A swell contribution of America
to world architecture
Shopping Center
Not as swell a contribution of America to world architecture
Skyscraper
Surely the most significant contribution of America to
world architecture
Mizner South Florida
30s French Normandy Country Club District
30s Hollywood Spanish
30s Bauhaus
30s Moderne
Moderne Deco
Oil Platform Offshore
Ranch House
Modern
Fast Food
Very American with equivocal contribution to world architecture
Split Level
Very American with no apparent contribution to world architecture
These buildings are also seen on varied pages throughout this website.