What kind of house is this?

April 10, 2007 5:41 PM

Architects: What can you tell me about this house?

On the linked page, the first image is the House of Mystery from DC Comics. It appears to be some kind of Victorian-style house. What sorts of architectural statements could you make about this house? I'm thinking of the particular style, the technical names of its architectural details, etc.

The link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel_(comics)

posted by vraxoin to Grab Bag (1 answer total)

Best answer: It's been a while since I worked at the architectural preservation society (cheap Italianate after Italianate, ugh) so I'm a little rusty with my house-spotting. I'll give it a go, though.

Working off the first picture, since the second is a different style:

My first impression is that there are too many towers to compare it to a real house. Terminate it at the top pointiest one and it could be like something down the road from me. (The area's full of Queen Annes.) Your stereotypical haunted house is more likely Second Empire than 'Victorian,' though - that mansard roof is spooky. It's definitely not Gothic revival (windows, nothing poking out of the sides - just front facing).

So, there's sort of a spindle Queen Anne thing going on for the first floor (round turret, porch that *might* wrap around, spindles and not columns on the porch), but a Second Empire second floor (mansard roof with dormers and braces under the eaves). And then those extra towers look, well, tacked on afterwards. Slightly more Queen Anne than Second Empire, because it's asymmetrical. Those projecting dormer windows kill it, though - I don't recall seeing those on Queen Annes. I'll pay attention on my way home tomorrow and see if I see any. (Hm, a few here may show some dormer-type windows, but I'm not convinced. That second story roof is bugging me, too.)
posted by cobaltnine at 6:19 PM on April 10, 2007