19TH
CENTURY VERNACULAR HOUSE TYPES
A number of homes in the Beverly-Morgan Park area may be defined
as 19th century vernacular house types. They range in construction
date from the earliest houses in the area, through Gable Front
houses, some of which were actually built until the 1920s. Some
older types have been classified by form or plan such as T-Form
and L-Form. Unfortunately, often because of their simplicity,
the historic character of many of these housing types has not
been fully appreciated. Consequently, many have been greatly
altered.
GABLE FRONT HOUSES AND COTTAGES
(1870-1920)
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The Gable
Front house and Gable Front cottage is a vernacular house type
from the late 19th- and early 20th-century characterized by
its roof type. The roof has two sloped sides that meet at a
center ridge. The triangular ends of the walls on the other
two sides are called gables. In a Gable Front House or Cottage,
the gable end faces the street and is the front of the house.
It is often a working-class home, usually frame with a rectangular
plan, minimal projections on the front facade, and front entry
on the open end of the gable. Often the porch extends the full
width of the front of the house. A Gable Front house is two
or more stories tall while a cottage is 1 to 1 1/2 stories.
It was a simple type for local builders to construct and is
therefore common.
GABLED ELL
(1870-1920)
Gabled
Ell houses were commonly built between 1870 and 1920. Their
floor plans were either L-shaped, with a porch in the interior
corner of the L, or T-shaped, with the projecting stem toward
the street. The side wing or wings are not separate, but rather
an integral part of the building core. These houses were usually
frame and simple in design, 1 1/2 or 2 stories tall, with an
intersecting gable roof at the same height as the main roof.
They sometimes had applied ornament around doors and windows.
The Gabled Ell provided more light and cross-ventilation than
other house types.
GAMBREL FRONT
(1880-1930)
The Gambrel
Front house is similar to the Gable Front, except that the principal
roof is a gambrel shape, not a gable. A gambrel roof has two
flat surfaces on each side of a central ridge and each is at
a different pitch. This type of roof generally characterizes
the Dutch Colonial Revival Style. The examples classified as
the Gambrel Front type have no other characteristics of that
particular high style.
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