So I managed to prance around my old neighborhood from which I just moved from this fall (2010) and took a look at the dominant architectural style there in regards to house building. It was easy to use this area because whatever the style would be, I knew that their would be alot of examples. When I first moved to 976 Lafayette ave I noticed that the houses all seemed the same to me, I did not know then but I do know now that those houses all had similar patterns for a reason. The houses on the block and around the surrounding streets were that of Buffalo's doubles, "Industrial Vernacular" design. Allow me to post a couple for you to analyze while you read further on their design.
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| A picture of how my house looked when I first moved into it...(976 lafayette ave) |
As you can see these houses are only slightly different and hold very similar qualities. The Industrial Vernacular style is "architecture that indicates a traditional type of housing utilized by ordinary wage earners. In North America the vernacular house is of wood construction, and occupies a famil-centered location, to the extent possible, away from the place of work. The double house technique was implemented around 1890 to 1929 in Buffalo and provides one third of housing structures in Buffalo. Double houses are a step up from tenement housing and normally provided shelter for two families. The convenient part of these types of houses was that middle-class people can own these, anyone can create them, and they can chose to live in these houses or rent them, normally doing both. Owners normally had other options after time and turned these double houses into double rental facilities which helped them move out and attain a single home. These houses are around 20-feet wide, long lots extending back, tall narrow balloon frame houses, and were normally two and a half story two-flat buildings with porches or overhangs. I wont be to specific on details right now and say that briefly I noticed that all of these houses I have posted normally have a porch, an attic, two full stories, a porch or a covered deck(add on-top of porch), at least three windows on second floor which usually jut out of wall, a window for the attic, and the door/door-way is off-center. These houses were built to hold families, even two families which could even be related, they were made by wood and were cheap considering the materials, and were a step up from tenements which meant some type of advancement for poeple who started living in these houses which normally had 2-4 bedrooms and decent accomodations. All in all this style remains persistent in Buffalo today and is still a huge number of the housing Buffalo holds, and I see no reason for change as I have normally lived in these houses my whole life.
As you can see these houses are only slightly different and hold very similar qualities. The Industrial Vernacular style is "architecture that indicates a traditional type of housing utilized by ordinary wage earners. In North America the vernacular house is of wood construction, and occupies a famil-centered location, to the extent possible, away from the place of work. The double house technique was implemented around 1890 to 1929 in Buffalo and provides one third of housing structures in Buffalo. Double houses are a step up from tenement housing and normally provided shelter for two families. The convenient part of these types of houses was that middle-class people can own these, anyone can create them, and they can chose to live in these houses or rent them, normally doing both. Owners normally had other options after time and turned these double houses into double rental facilities which helped them move out and attain a single home. These houses are around 20-feet wide, long lots extending back, tall narrow balloon frame houses, and were normally two and a half story two-flat buildings with porches or overhangs. I wont be to specific on details right now and say that briefly I noticed that all of these houses I have posted normally have a porch, an attic, two full stories, a porch or a covered deck(add on-top of porch), at least three windows on second floor which usually jut out of wall, a window for the attic, and the door/door-way is off-center. These houses were built to hold families, even two families which could even be related, they were made by wood and were cheap considering the materials, and were a step up from tenements which meant some type of advancement for poeple who started living in these houses which normally had 2-4 bedrooms and decent accomodations. All in all this style remains persistent in Buffalo today and is still a huge number of the housing Buffalo holds, and I see no reason for change as I have normally lived in these houses my whole life.
A very careful look at these houses. You really pick up on their similarities. They are SO similar--look at that second-story set of three windows that bow out from the house--that we can guess they were built by the same builder at about the same time, maybe on speculation. The little variations are interesting too. Look at the attic windows. Did the builder make them all the same and then owners later changed them, or did the builder provide a few models to vary the look, make the block more appealing?
ReplyDeleteThey're also ugly.
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