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Your Comments
I am restoring an 1899 Folk Victorian house located in Iowa... This article is the greatest I have discovered! The photos of each of the rooms and the accompanying descriptions of the furnishings for those rooms is the most fine-tuned and helpful! [It] has been a great inspiration to me to continue my restoration, knowing that my ideas and concepts for each room in my house are "the way it was!".

Mary R., Iowa
The Victorian Styles: Queen Anne, Italianate, Gothic Revival and Eastlake J. M. Edgar, CMC, CRC
Victorian house styles flourished in post-Civil War 19th century American. The trend throughout the later part of the 19th century was toward more ornate homes showcasing the increasing wealth produced by the Industrial Revolution. Mass production processes had made even very elaborate ornamentation relatively inexpensive, and the expansion of Gothic Revival Style Gothic Revival house. The sweeping curved porch is typical. In a smaller footprint, this style may be seen all over the Midwest as the "Folk Victorian" style. Many were built from kits sold by Sears, Roebuck & Co. The house came as pre-cut lumber in two boxcars to be assembled by the owner or a local builder. railroads made it possible to ship great quantities of mass produced goods into every city and hamlet. This abundance was increasingly reflected in American housing styles and decoration.

Gothic Revival
The relatively simple gothic revival style was the first departure from the rectangular Colonial footprints of the 18th century. Earlier houses, built primarily of local materials, were usually devoid of ornamentation except what could be laboriously produced by local craftsmen. It was expensive and thus sparely used. Victorian architecture changed all that. The Gothic house was the initial example of industrial abundance reflecting the increasing wealth of Americans. Its irregular shape, arched windows and steeply pitched complex roof, elaborate vergeboard trim along roof edges, high dormers, the use of lancet windows and other Gothic details heralded an break from the less elaborate architectural styles of the earlier period.

Italianate
The Italianate style began in England in the 1840s. For most of two centuries English homes had tended to be formal and classical in style, following the trend established in the 15th century by Christopher Wren. With the Italianate Photo: Nebraska Historical Society Italianate Style The 1869 Italianate house of Thomas P. Kennard is now the Nebraska Statehood Memorial. It is the oldest house in Lincoln's original plat still standing. style, however, builders began to move toward romantic, fanciful recreations of Italian Renaissance homes.

When the Italianate style migrated to the United States in the 1850s, it was almost immediately stamped with a purely American character — much less fanciful and much more practical. The homes were typically two to three stories in height, with flat or hip roofs, bay windows with inset wooden panels, corner boards and two over two double-hung windows. The windows often had curved or molded window caps. It could be build of just about any material — stone and brick for the affluent, wood siding for the rest of us, and it could be scaled to fit even a fairly modes budget. Italianate Lap Siding A modest house in the Italianate or Mansard Style on 10th Street in South Lincoln. Compared to the Kennard House, it is much less elaborately decorated, and has, unfortunately, been converted to apartments. The elaborate mouldings nd pressed metal fittings required for the style were becoming abundant and cheap due to growing mass production. As a result, by the late 1860s, Italianate had become the most popular house style in the United States.

Its primacy was short lived, however. Starting in the 1870s it was being overtaken by more ornate late Victorian styles such as Queen Anne and Eastlake, and by the 1890s was retired. During its short reign, however, a great many were built. The prosperity resulting from the Civil War and increased industrialization made the 1870s something of a boom time, resulting in lots of building primarily in the Northeast but also in the then rapidly growing Midwest. Photo: Lancaster County Assessor Queen Anne Style The "F"-Street "Castle". This elegant Queen Anne in Lincoln's Near South neighborhood is being restored by its current owners.


Queen Anne
Common from about 1870, Queen Anne houses were built of stone, brick and wood siding, often featuring shingles and ornate exterior decoration. They often feature towers, turrets, wrap around porches, and other fanciful details. But many such homes, especially those built without the aid of an architect, lacked elaborate ornamentation. Essentially, any Victorian Era home with a turret is probably going to be classed as a Queen Anne no matter the amount of decoration.

Photo: Lancaster County Assessor Eastlake Style The Yates house. An example of the Stick or Eastlake Victorian style house elaborately decorated with spindles and other ornamentation. The style at its most extreme is characterized by overwhelming excess, featuring large projecting bay windows, towers, turrets, porches (often on multiple stories), balconies, stained glass decoration, roof finials and crestings, walls carvings and/or inset panels of stone or terra-cotta, cantilevered upper stories, acres of decorative trim, patterned shingles, belt courses, elaborate brackets, banisters and spindles — even the chimneys on Queen Anne houses were often spectacularly crafted.

Stick-Eastlake
The Stick-Eastlake Style, popular from about 1860 to 1890, is sometimes considered to be a High Victorian elaboration of the Gothic Revival style. The single most distinguishing feature of the style is small vertical, horizontal, or diagonal planks placed on top of the exterior walls. The style is often associated with houses featuring enormous, overhanging, second-story porches which led to the name "Swiss Chalet" houses. Elaborately decorated and very fanciful Stick houses are often referred to as the "Eastlake" style because of the lavish use of furniture designer Charles Eastlake's favorite ornamentation, the spindle. Eastlake himself hated the style, and even filed a lawsuit to have his name disassociated from it. Obviously, he was not successful. The elaborate Eastlake style is now virtually synonymous with the phrase "Victorian house", at least in the Midwest.

Shingle Style
Photo: State of Nebraska Shingle Style The Arthur C. Ziemer Shingle Style House in the Lincoln Near South neighborhood. Elements of the emerging Arts & Crafts Style can be seen in this late Victorian house now renamed Maple Lodge. The Shingle style is a muting down of elaborate Victorian fussiness that evolved from the vacation homes and hunting lodges of the well-to-do. It is considered by many to be the transition style between Victorian excess and the simple Craftsman and Prairie houses of the early 20th century. It is distinguished by the use of natural or single-color shingles as exterior covering and the lack of elaborate ornamentation -- the shingles are the ornamentation. Unlike most other styles, the Shingle style is purely American. It has no European antecedents.

Folk Victorian
While architects were building elaborate Queen Anne and Eastlake homes for the well-to-do, we "just folks" were also building houses and taking full advantage of the growing availability of consistent dimensioned lumber, inexpensive steel nails and the railroads to transport them from where they were made to where they were needed.

Photo: Lancaster County Assessor Folk Victorian Style A Queen Anne style Folk Victorian house in Lincoln's Near South district restored to Victorian colors. Unfortunately, the interior has been ruined by a succession of ill-conceived "remodels" that did away with the original ornate trim. Usually called "Folk Victorian", "Prairie Gothic" or "Frontier Victorian" and derived largely from the Gothic Revival style, they are overwhelmingly rectangular and symmetrical in shape with a low-pitched pyramid roof and extended eaves supported by brackets. Folk Victorians lacked the towers, bay windows and elaborate mouldings of classic Victorian houses.

There are at least five basic Folk Victorian sub-types in one- and two-story versions. Many were built out of kits supplied by Sears, Roebuck & Co. If you did not buy a kit, you used a plan from one of a number of plan suppliers.

Virtually all made some use of the ornamental trim being mass produced and distributed to all corners of the continent by rail. Many had spindles, gingerbread and details borrowed from the more ornate Victorian styles. And, if commercial trim was not in the budget, the houses were often adorned with flat, scroll work trim made locally by the builder in a variety of patterns — mostly on porches and eaves. How much ornate detail was added by the builder most likely depended on the budget. Behind the fancy trim, however, a Folk Victorian is a simple, work-a-day, house: solid, practical and long lasting. Very long lasting. Folk Victorians were still being built in this area in the 1940s, and some built in the late 19th century are still very much in use.

Victorian Interiors
Victorian interiors were lush and ornate to match Victorian exteriors. However, there were often three levels of decoration in Victorian homes: Public rooms such as the drawing room or parlor were sumptuous, private family rooms were less so, but still quite ornate, while servants' rooms were spare. Decorative plaster, elaborate mouldings and woodwork, and multi-hued bright colors were common. The Victorian era saw the first widespread availability of wallpaper, and it was used lavishly. The favored wallpaper patterns featured scrolls, vines and birds and were usually small-figured and finely detailed. "Fussy" is the word we would use today. Inspired by the writings of Owen Jones (The Grammar of Ornament (1856)) the Victorians were uninhibited in their use of bold colors, elaborate Victorian Trim A bright, inviting sitting area. Mass-produced plate glass made large windows affordable and the Victorians used them with abandon to create bright, sun-lit, pleasant rooms. The finish is toned-down Victorian more suited to modern tastes. Photo: Bradbury & Bradbury. A victorian parlor Rich colors, sumptuous fabrics, ornate decoration and overstuffed furniture is typical of high-style Victorian urban interiors. This recreation features Bradbury & Bradbury Victorian collection fabrics and wall coverings. ornamentation and deep, rich fabrics. Jones, inspired by youthful journeys to the middle east and India, advocated elaborate Moorish, Byzantine and Eastern ornamental themes. The decor was designed to create a feeling of comfort, therefore, the guests would chose to linger. Plaster or wood ceiling mouldings were elaborately carved and painted in lighter tones taken from the color of the walls. Applied decorations were added to the ceiling, usually in the corners and around the chandelier.

Major public rooms such as the parlor were usually filled with furniture and show items until they could hold no more. The largest furniture item was the obligatory overstuffed sofa. Typically they were deeply tufted and buttoned medallion and serpentine- or camel-backed Queen Anne or Sheraton setees. Windows were heavily decorated. The drapes were usually made of white muslin for Spring and Summer and heavier sumptuous fabrics such as velvet and brocaded silk for Fall and Winter. Drapes were changed during the semi-annual Spring and Fall cleanings. Folded and held back with ropes or scroll shaped fitments and embellished with tassels, ribbons and festoons. Scrolled, scalloped or gilded valences adorned the tops and were usually made of velvet or lace.

Victorian loveseat A typical ornate Victorian loveseat. It is actually more comfortable than it looks — it would almost have to be. In the early 19th century flooring was untreated, random-width pine planks. Toward mid century floors were starting to be painted and by the later decades oak, parquet and marquetry floors were coming into widespread use. Tile and stone were common in entries, kitchens, and late in the century, bathrooms. Oil cloth, what we now call linoleum, appeared in the 1870's and was in wide use by the turn of the century.

The Victorian Kitchen
Replace the huge wood-burning iron stove with a modern range and a Victorian kitchen would look familiar to all of us over 50. Some of the implements would be strange: the lark spit, sugar nippers, spice tin and marmalade cutter might be a little mysterious, but the iron skillets, brass pots, steel cutlery and chinaware would be old friends. Victorian Door Styles Typical Victorian cabinet door and drawer styles.

There were cupboards and working tables, but no built-in cabinets, and probably a sink or two after piped water became common. There might have been a new Hoosier cabinet after the turn of the century. Keep in mind, however, that in the era of cheap labor, most cooking was done by servants. Anyone well-off enough to afford a Victorian house was probably Photo: Heartland Appliances Victorian Kitchen A modern Victorian-style city kitchen featuring reproduction Victorian appliances from Heartland Appliances. Completely modern in function, these appliances incorporate Victorian style elements into appliances that did not actually exist in the Victorian Era, such as refrigerators and wall ovens. also able to afford a cook. Kitchens, therefore, were usually not all that elaborate. Good thing, too, otherwise they would be expensive to reproduce. A Victorian kitchen would have a lot of overhead racks for pots and pans, and hooks and open shelving for cookware and dishes.

Cabinets: A Victorian kitchen should not look built in. Built-in cabinets came much later to American kitchens — not becoming common until the mid-20th century. Cabinets should look like furniture — a collection of tables and cupboards with the odd pantry or two. Base cabinets should have legs, particularly turned legs, to give more of a Victorian Kitchen A Victorian kitchen was often located in the basement or an outbuilding to keep cooking grease and odors from permeating the house — and to reduce the fire hazard. Most pots, pans and utensils were hung from the walls and ceiling. If there were any cabinets, they were just movable cupboards and sideboards. Food preparation and baking competed for space at the large central island table that doubled as the servants dining table. Cooking was done in a fireplace or, in the late Victorian, on a wood- or coal-burning iron stove. furniture effect. Cabinet depths should vary, some shallow and some deep. The furniture effect is enhanced if the cabinetry is given more than one finish, some stained, some painted. As long as the colors complement each other, even three or four different finishes can be used. Open cabinetry works well, along with wall shelves in place of wall cabinets. Hooks and pegs for storing utensils have a place in a Victorian kitchen.

Victorian kitchen cabinets should have ornate raised panel doors, usually with a flat top and often with applied beading or other mouldings. Rich, dark stained cherry, chestnut, elm, birch or oak cabinets are typical of urban Victorian. Light stained or natural wood is unusual. For country Victorian, painted cabinets are the rule. Door styles and finishes can be mixed and matched for special effects. Cabinets should appear to be relatively massive — a feeling helped by heavy crown molding. Light and airy is not a Victorian characteristic. Tall wall cabinets should go all the way to a standard 8-foot ceiling (which ideally would be pressed tin) or to the 8-foot level of a higher ceiling. The upper shelves are used to store rarely used items. There are no soffits. The wall behind the counter top was often paneled with simple tongue and groove boards or beadboard installed vertically.

Countertops: A Kitchen in a Box — The Hoosier Kitchen Cabinet
Around 1899 J. S. McGuinn of Indiana got an idea for a self-contained food preparation center by taking a baker's cabinet and compacting it into a practical work center.

He founded the Hoosier Manufacturing Company to make them, and by 1920 his hoosier cabinets were in millions of American homes. Sold as timesavers for mom, but also, more importantly, sold on an early form of installment plan: $1.00 down and $1.00 a week, they were the kitchen revolution of a time before most homes had built-in kitchen cabinets. (If $1.00 a week sounds cheap, consider that in 1913 it was about 10% of a workingman's wages — not at all cheap.)

Hoosier Cabniets

Four to five feet wide, with built in sugar and flour bins (including a shifter at the bottom), numerous drawers and shelves, spice jars, racks for pots, pans and bowls, and a zinc-lined bread box, the Hoosier cabinet was virtually a compact kitchen in a box in which all of the clutter could be hidden behind attractive cabinet doors.

It captured the trend current at the time for a well-organized life ("a place for everything, and everything in its place") that also gave rise to the self-contained office, the Wooten Patented Cabinet Office Secretary. The original Hoosier spawned many initiators, some of whom were true innovators, including McDougall, Sellers, Napanee, and Castle — any of which, if in good shape, bring many, many dollars at antique sales today.

But, if you can't find a perfect match for your kitchen at the antique store, don't worry, we can build one for you to your precise specifications — and for quite a bit less money. Just contact us for more information. Victorian countertops were usually marble, wood or zinc-plated steel. Individual worktables or Hoosier cabinets might have enameled steel tops. In fact zinc and "porceliron", a type of enamel steel similar to that used on modern cooking ranges, are more or less the defining work-surface treatments of the era. Granite, soapstone, manufactured stone or stone-look laminates would also work. Tile and Corian®-type solid surfacing do not. Mix and match countertops, some zinc, some stone, some wood to give more of a furniture feel. A mass of countertop in the same material extending the length of the cabinetry is not the effect we are looking for. An island in a Victorian kitchen can be made to look like a tall table with a chopping block top. We have also seen concrete countertops used to good effect in Victorian-style kitchens. But you have to be careful with this material. If it looks too much like concrete, it seems out of place.

Flooring: For flooring, random-width plank wood, or true linoleum are the first choices. Ceramic and stone are OK, if not strictly to period. Vinyl sheet flooring can simulate linoleum and using modern laminate flooring to simulate the look of wide plank wood is also an option. The Victorians were vigorously innovative, so, although bamboo and cork were not floorings of the period, probably no Victorian would object to their use.

Mouldings: An ornate compound crown molding is almost required. But this heavy crown treatment assumes you have a typical 9 or 10-foot Victorian ceiling. If not, then some aesthetic adjustment must be made. Base molding should be deep, at least 6", and at least 3/4" thick. By contrast, modern base molding is usually just 3/8" thick and not more than 3-1/4" deep. Chair rails are rare, but picture molding, usually incorporated into shelving, is used to hang pans and other kitchen implements at eye level. Victorian Resources
Furnishings
Magnolia Hall. Reproduction Victorian furniture and accessories.

Victorian Furniture Company. Reproduction Victorian furniture and accessories.

Hardware
Ed Donaldson. Restorer of original antique hardware, primarily door and window hardware, but also some cabinet pulls and household hardware. We particularly like the boot scrapers. The items available change constantly. Ed will also restore you own antique hardware find to as good as new.

House of Antique Hardware. Reproduction period door, window, cabinet and furniture, lighting and electric, and house hardware. Paxton Hardware, Ltd. This is the company used by custom furniture makers for authentic reproduction hardware and furniture restoration supplies. The company still manufactures a lot of its own hardware here in the U.S. If you can't find it anywhere else, odds are good you will find it here.

Signature Hardware. Faucets, clawfoot tubs, sinks, commodes and vanities; door, window and interior hardware, grills, registers and lighting.

Interiors
Asthetic Interiors. Aesthetic Movement, late Victorian and early Arts & Crafts wall coverings including custom wallpaper repdroduction services.

Bradbury & Bradbury. Reproduction Victorian wall coverings and decorator fabrics. See illustration above.

Decorating With Lace. Victorian lace curtains.

Heartland Appliances, Inc.. Modern appliances with a Victorian look. (See photo above.)

Historic Style. Wallpapers, borders and friezes from 1740 through the 1960s organized by period, including the most complete collection of Wm. Morris papers that we know about. M-Boss, Inc. American made tin ceiling panels.

The Tin Man Reproduction pressed tin ceiling panels.

Victorian Collectibles, Ltd. Victorian era wallpapers.

Vintage Tub and Bath. Everything for the Victorian bath, and many other things for the kitchen and the test of the house. Victorian Station. All things Victorian: architectural and interior design, the Victorian lifestyle and period literature.

Lighting
Rejuvenation: Classic American Lighting & Houseparts. Period light fixtures and hardware including registers, bath and kitchen hardware, door hardware and period electrical, including light and outlet plates for pre-1920's electrical systems. There is no Victorian Collection per se, so you will have to explore the Early Eclectic and Historic Revivals collections to find suitable lamps. Or get Lighting Advice from the store's always helpful customer service.

Magazines
Victorian Homes Magazine. Bi-monthly print magazine dedicated to the history, restoration, decoration and building of Victorian homes.

Tile
Extra Special Tile Company. Reproduction Victorian-era ceramic tiles from the Victoria and Albert collection. See illustration at right.

L'Esperance Tile Works. Dedicated to the art and preservation of handmade ceramic tile using authentic pre-industrial techniques.

Are any of these links broken? Please let us know.


Appliances: Modern appliances tend to look out of place in a Victorian kitchen — more so than is the case with any other kitchen style. We cannot do without them, so special efforts need to be made to disguise them. Modern appliances with a Victorian look are available. Modern refrigerators and dishwashers can also be used if hidden behind panels that match the cabinetry.

Most Requested Feature: A separate butler's pantry is the most requested Victorian kitchen feature. In the original Victorian house, the butler's pantry was a transition room between the hot, bustling and noisy kitchen and the quiet, cool dining room where the family gathered for dinner. It stored dinner- and servingware and often doubled as a wet bar after dinner where gentlemen guests gathered. In its modern incarnation, the butler's pantry often contains a sink and dishwasher for quick after-dinner cleanup, and the liquor and wines. An undercabinet refrigerator is also convenient. It replaces the sideboard for storing dinner ware and serving pieces, linens and silverware.

A Victorian Bathroom
Photo: Thomas J. Crapper & Co., Ltd. Decorated Victorian Toilet An original, highly decorated Victorian toilet. Rare and expensive at the time, these were often shown off to guests. The Victorians invented the modern bath with running water, porcelain fixtures and a flushing toilet. And to celebrate their inventiveness, proceeded to add as much fuss and detail as they could to the room. Victorian bathrooms, especially in England and the Northeast United States were elaborate fanciful rooms.

The Clawfoot Tub: The defining characteristic of a Victorian bath is a large clawfoot tub. Photo: Extra Special Tile Company. Victorian Bath A reproduced Victorian bath featuring period tile from the Victoria & Albert Collection of the Extra Special Tile Company. The tub, connected to running water, was an innovation that sparked a change in the hygiene habits of American. Prior to the Victorian Age, a bath once of twice a year was the norm. More frequent bathing was considered somehow unmanly and even dangerous to the health. The Victorians changed that. A whole raft of organizations and societies trumpeted the benefits of frequent bathing — with soap, mind you — and by the turn of the 20th century, weekly bathing was the rule, at least in the cities.

Thomas Crapper Toilet An original Thomas Crapper toilet with wall-hung 3-gallon "high" tank. Despite the name, and common belief, Crapper probably did not invent the siphoning toilet, but was one of its first industrial manufacturers. Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd. has been producing bathroom fixtures continuously since 1861. If you are lucky, your Victorian bathroom already has a clawfoot tub, so all we need to do it get it cleaned up or refinished. Most of these tubs have a thick coat of porcelain enamel, so thick that it can be refinished several times. So if your tub is not rusting away (and sometimes even if it is), it can be restored to nearly new condition in about a day. If you don't have a tub, or it's in just in too cruddy a condition to save, there are plenty of local and national sources of new and refurbished tubs. New tubs have some nice features, including compatibility with modern plumbing fixtures, and can include a whirlpool or Jacuzzi.

Victorian faucet A modern version of a Victorian brass bathroom faucet and bowl. The finish never needs polishing, unlike early brass faucets that turned green overnight. Unfortunately, if you do have the original clawfoot tub, you probably also have the original plumbing. Plan on replacing most of this. It may be lead pipe, or more probably in this part of the country, galvanized steel. But in either case it is well beyond its useful life and needs to go. The faucets that work with clawfoot tubs are special. The most compatible with modern bathing are the "telephone" style arrangements with separate hand shower. (See: Sources of Supply: Faucets for detailed information on faucet features and manufacturers).

But if the clawfoot does not fit your room, any modern drop-in fixture will work provided the enclosure built to house the tub is Victorian in style.

The Flushing Toilet: The modern flushing toilet was actually invented in England in 1596, but did not come into widespread use until the last half of the 1800s. The signature feature of Victorian-era toilets is the placement of the tank several feet above the bowl. This is what is commonly thought of as the "high tank" toilet. The placement of the tank several feet above the bowl was more a matter of function than style. These early toilets were very inefficient. Waste was removed from the bowl and through the trap below the bowl by water flowing out holes in the rim around the top of the bowl. For the water to have sufficient pressure to completely remove waste, tank had to be placed at least several feet above the bowl. Typical tanks released 3 gallons of water per flush, more than twice what a modern toilet uses, and made enough noise to wake up the house.

Toilets were often hand painted and highly decorated as befit a device that was both rare and expensive. Tanks were made of tin-lined wood, cast iron and vitreous china. Tanks were sometimes decorated, but not as elaborately as bowls.

After the introduction of the siphonic jet flush toilet in the 1890's, the high tank was no longer required as a matter of function but sanitaryware manufacturers continued to offer them as an option to low tanks. The high tank had become a design tradition of Victorian style and remained popular until the early 20th century when tastes changed to modern toilets that looked clean and functional.

Victorian vanity A rather simple Victorian this vanity. The Victorian Vanity: A Victorian vanity was not just a place to wash up, but also a place to display wealth and taste. It is almost impossible to get too garish. Original vanities would have been fine wood sideboards, commodes or dry sinks adopted to use as a vanity by the addition of a bowl and plumbing. Marble, especially white marble, was the typical top, but other stones and porcelain tiles were also used. Tile in small formats: 2" x 2" mosaics and smaller were favored.

Almost any faucet manufacturer makes faucets that are elaborate enough for use in a Victorian bathroom. Selecting a finish for your Victorian faucet is fairly easy. There are two, polished nickel and polished brass.

Brass was the original faucet finish. Its limitation was that it needed nearly daily polishing before modern finishes made it nearly tarnish-proof. Chrome actually did not come into widespread use until the 1920s. Before that, faucets were plated, if at all, with polished nickel.

Brass and nickel, then, are the authentic Victorian faucet finishes. You can, of course, go with hand-rubbed oiled bronze or some other more modern finish, but it will likely seem out of place.





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