Bride of "Mailbag"
(Image courtesy of the Diane Taylor Collection)
Hey Aaron,
Thanks for your e-mail and the links. I'm still puzzling over this stucco issue. Most of the significant Chicago buildings I found online that feautured stucco were built in the 1910s and 1920s, whereas our place, a 1.5 story cottage, is circa 1905.
It seems like most of the housing stock I see in Chicago with stucco has a more Prairie/Mission feel to it, whereas our place...I'm not quite sure. We have a detailed peer mirror in the hall with oak Corinthian columns and little wood decorations, which suggest Victorian to me. But all of the other woodwork is fairly utilitarian. Nothing fancy.
You can tell that the profile of our house was changed at some point. To enlarge the living room, the bay window was knocked out and the room squared off. I'm wondering if perhaps stucco was added at this point.
I'm driving my husband nuts with these inquiries, since we can't afford to do much with the siding for the next few years, it's a moot point to him. However, as we add light fixtures, replace woodwork and do general renovations inside, I'd like to know whether I should be doing something with a Prairie inspiration or a Victorian one.
I imagine few people want to live in a museum, but I would like the house to have some sort of historical coherence or authenticity.
I think I may seek advice from the [neighborhood] Preservation Society.
Thanks again for the links. Your web site has been so helpful if not aspirational. (As in, "Maybe one day I'll be able to use power tools with such ease!")
Cheers,
Keri
* Changed to protect identity of sender.
Hey Keri,
It's Jeannie here. I'm going to field this one for Aaron.
You would be pleased as punch to poke around in the local bookstore for this book
by Gustav Stickley (actually, it's a reprint of articles from his original magazine.) He talks about the Craftsman bungalow between 1903 and 1916, though there are Craftsman bungalows that date back to 1900 in the United States, especially made of stucco (Stickley really liked this building material as is evident in his early blueprints for houses. Greene & Greene did as well.) The Arts & Crafts movement began overseas prior to 1900 and some very forward looking architects and builders began to incorporate some of the principles into their houses by 1900.
The Craftsman tradition is actually a set of principles AND an architectural style. That is why, although you see themes in the Craftsman homes, no two are--or should be--entirely alike. It is easier for makers of "restoration" architectural details and fixtures to "brand" certain designs as "Craftsman" versus "Arts & Crafts" versus "Prairie". In practice, only the very, VERY rich could afford a home that was completely brand new--furnishings and all--inside and out.
Many homes were "transitional"...a mixture of the new and what was most recently popular. A number of architectural styles overlapped in the timeline...Gothic Revival, Italianate, Stick, Eastlake, Queen Anne, Romanesque and Second Empire (1840 to 1900) overlapped somewhat with Arts & Crafts, Craftsman, Prairie (1860 to early 1900's) which overlapped with Art Nouveau (1890 to 1905), Beaux Arts and others. Later on, Art Deco (1925 to 1935) affected the design of many bungalow homes.
This means that you can indulge a variety of architectural details that fit your house...you don't have to be "lock step" in what marketers are trying to sell to you as "strictly bungalow". The book, Bungalow Nation, is a real celebration of these variations in style.
Even if you pick out one feature, such as light fixtures, you'll see everything from this to this to this in different bungalows. I like Rejuvenation Hardware a lot (well...I like them a ton actually :), but I think their marketing of "the lighting of different eras" can be slightly misleading. For example, they imply that these fixtures would only be seen in a home from the 1920's-30's, when you could find a fixture similar to this one in a home built earlier. A lot of this is meant to reduce confusion for consumers and make choices easier. If you know that architectural style timelines overlap, you tend to see the suggestions less as "rules" and more as "guidelines."
At the turn of the century, some homes changed from gas to electric, which changed the style of lighting used (with gas lighting, shades had to point up to accomodate a flame. With electricity, they could point down or up.) That doesn't mean that EVERYONE converted over to electricity all at once. Just like everything else, there were people who wanted electricity now and folks who wanted it later. Craftsman homes with gas lighting definitely existed. (In fact, in your neighborhood, the boulevards converted from gas to electric lighting in 1914...makes me wonder...)
So you could have a chandelier like this in a mostly Craftsman bungalow. Or maybe your house is "Eastlake meets Craftsman". Maybe it is a very authentic Eastlake home! (Some ornamentation but mostly utilitarian style which is occassionally lumped together with the Victorian-era and sometimes with the Arts & Crafts movement because of the overlap in the timeline. I love Eastlake...we found an Eastlake table that is so wonderful.) Our house is kind of "Prairie-influenced Craftsman." We think.
2 different Eastlake mirrors...click picture to enlarge
What does this mean for you?
It means you're very intuitive. You've seen evidence of different styles in your home and you are curious about that. Good for you! I suggest that you remain true to the house and your tastes and look for WHAT YOU LIKE versus what modern marketing dictates you should have. This may mean a pleasant mixture of styles that recreate the unique style of your house.
The typical Chicago-STYLE bungalow is not the only bungalow style in Chicago. Although the HCBA has a vested interest in promoting this particular style, its eagerness to do so has led to some real confusion about bungalows in Chicago. There are MANY types of bungalows in Chicago. Chicago-STYLE is one TYPE...typically a 1.5 story brick that was relatively cheap to construct and favored by the blue collar workers looking for affordable homes at the time. And they have some very beautiful designs. But there are ALSO beautiful Craftsman, Prairie, Tudor-revival, Art Deco...MANY different types of bungalows in and around the city of Chicago.
Strangely, the public relations blitz by the HCBA has really helped to make OTHER styles of bungalows relatively affordable. Since everyone is looking for the brick, 1.5 story structures and their prices are becoming premium, beautiful bungalows of other styles and types of construction are often overlooked and remain relatively affordable considering the amount of space you get. But they still have all of the great bungalow bells and whistles!
We'd love to see pictures of your bungalow...if you have anything digital to send, mail it over. I'm fascinated by stucco and I think it to be such a great material for building lasting homes.
Take good care--
jm
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Comments
About Rejuvenation Hardware...something to remember is that they're a Portland, Oregon store. It took styles longer to make it out here, and the dating is probably localized to what would be in Portland homes built in the relevant eras.
All the original hardware in my house (built in 1911) is copper! Door handles, hinges, and the ceiling fixture in the dining room.
Posted by: Kai Jones | October 1, 2004 4:43 PM
I was very excited when we bought our house...I thought because of the time-period it was built, etc., that it was Arts & Crafts style [my favorite]...but with more digging, and looking at the hardware, I've found it's probably more Eastlake - which is cool, and all, but it's hard to find books and such about how to make it look Eastlake again. Like, were they into wallpaper? Who makes Eastlake wallpaper?
I did find a cool eclectic/eastlake light fixture at Rejuventation...it was a bat/serpent thing. Really cool, but out of our price range at the moment :/
Posted by: tchotchke | October 3, 2004 9:26 PM
Tchotchke--
I would begin by looking at a copy of Hints on Household Taste by Charles Eastlake. We were given a quick tour of a pal's "in progress" Eastlake/Italianate home in Logan's Square yesterday and it is breathtakingly beautiful. As far as lighting, they had a lot of original lights found in their house, as well as built-ins. The built-ins had a little bit of a curve to them, but were plainer than Victorian furniture. They had glass doors and so on. The lighting was fascinating. The metal was a bronze color (the color of older brass) and we saw a entryway light that looked like the Raleigh with only 2 lights, a living room light which looked like a white Tiffany-style bowl, and an exterior light from somewhere in the house (it was in the basement) that looked like the Euclid but was wall mounted instead of hanging.
No bats :)
The house was kind of a "reserved Victorian" style...no swag or pomp or big floral prints or really carved and swirly molding. It had gentle curves, some dentil molding, and a fireplace that was even a little more simple than this (with tile that lined the interior before the firebox began). For more information about the Eastlake style, you can read items like this.
Think late Victorian, early Arts & Crafts, AND Neoclassical. Think "simple decoration versus overdoing it" (which characterized early Victorian). Check out this bed & breakfast in NY for some clues to the Eastlake style.
You've got options! How cool!
Posted by: jm | October 4, 2004 9:26 AM