Handout D

Vocabulary List:

Agricultural: Buildings and structures that relate to the growth and production of
crops and livestock.

Architecture: The art or practice of designing and building structures.

Bay: A regularly repeated spatial element defined by beams and their supports,
such as a door and windows.

Cladding: A general term that refers to materials used to cover the exterior of a
building.Cfadding can be shingles, wood siding, brick, stone, concrete, metal or
glass.

Clapboard: A type of cladding; a thin horizontal (wood?) board with a thicker,

lower edge; used as siding.

Commercial: Types of buildings or structures that relate to businesses.

Dormers: A vertical window projecting from the slope of a roof; it usually has its
own roof. Dormers have specific names, such as shed dormer or gable dormer,
that are based on the type of roof that the dormer has.

Double hung window: A window with two sashes, each movable by a means
of sash cords and weights.

Eave: That portion of the roof that projects beyond the walls.

Elevation: An external side of a building.

Ell: An extension or addition to a building that is at right angles to the length of the
building.

Facade: The main face or front of a building.

Fanlight: A semicircular or fan-shaped window with panes of glass that are ar-
ranged in a fan shape; usually found over entrance doors.

Fenestration: The arrangement and proportion of windows and doors in the

walls of a building.
Foundation: The part of a structure that is in direct contact with the ground and
serves to transmit the load of the structure to the earth.

Gable: The triangular end of an exterior wall in a building with a ridged roof.

Gable Roof: A sloping or ridged roof that terminates at one or both ends in a
gable.

Gambrel Roof: A roof having a double slope on two sides of a building.

High Style: Refers to formal architectural styles (such as Federal or Greek Re-
vival) that were designed by trained architects or construction practitioners and that
adhere to accepted details, patterns and elements. Homes of high style usually
reflect the affluence of their owners.

Hip: An external angle formed by the meeting of two sloping roof surfaces.

Hipped Roof: A roof formed by four pitched roof surfaces.

Lintel: A horizontal structural member that supports the weight of a building over
an opening like a door or a window. On a building's interior, they are often covered
over with plaster or dry wall, but on the exterior of a building they are often left
exposed and can add decorative elements to a building.

Pen: The simplest structural unit, normally about the dimensions of a single room.

Pilaster: A rectangular column or shallow pier that is attached to a wall; quite

frequently decoratively treated so as to represent a classical column.

Pitch: The degree of slope; with a roof, it refers to the degree of slope that a roof
takes from the center ridge line(s).

Plan or Floor Plan: Internal arrangement of space as viewed from above.

Return: The continuation of a molding from one surface to another. A common

example is an eave return, where the eave is carried a short distance onto the
gable end of a building.

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Side light: A long fixed window located beside a door or another window; often
found in pairs.

sill:The framing element that forms the lower side of an opening such as a door or
window; a window sill forms the lower lip on the outside of a window and can add
decorative elements to a building if left exposed.

Transom Window: A small window or series of panes above a door or window.

Veranda: A roofed space attached to the exterior wall of a house that is supported
by columns, pillars or posts; similar to a porch, but a porch usually more specifically
refers to a covered shelter over an exterior door. A porch is a type of veranda, but a
veranda is not necessarily aporch.

Vernacular: An architectural term used in many ways. It can refer to a local inter-
pretation of a grander style of architecture and may contain various elements of
different architectural styles. It also can refer to a lack of a defined architectural
style or a common local building tradition.

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Front Door Placement

Single Single Gable-End 2-Doors 2-Doors Upper

Centered Off-Center Symmetrical Floor Center

Chimney Placement

Center Off Center Off Center

Within Roof Surface

Gable End, Flush Both Gable Gable End Exterior

Ends, Flush

Double Gable End, Flush Gable End Interior

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Window Types

Hopper Window Casement Window Horizontal Sliding Window

Window and Door Treatments

Segmental Pediment .Triangular Pediment Entablature

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Window and Door Treatments
,;Fransorn

Trabeated FanLight

WOOD SIDING PATTERNS

Beveled Siding Beaded Clapboard Weatherboard

IF
i

/'
Drop or Novelty Board and Batten Wood Shingles

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Window and Door Treatments

Plain Sill Lug Plain Slip Sill Decorated Slip Sill

Keyline -,

Stilted Arch Semicircular or Flat Arch

Round Arch

Segmental Arch Tudor Arch Pointed Arch

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DORMERS

GABLED DORMER SHED DORMER WALL DORMER

WINDOW

D(XJBLE HUNG DOUBLE HUNG DOUBLE HUNG DOUBLE HUNG

1/1 LIGHTS 2/2 LIGHTS 9/6 LIGHTS 12/12 LIGHTS

MULLION WINDOW PALLADIAN WINDOW AWNING WINDOW

WITH TRANSOM

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BRICK PATTERNS

nn n l c l l d
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_ I L _ n o o

Common or American Bond English Bond

Stretcher Header Soldier Row Lock

D-9
Roof Pitch

Low
0 Moderate
0 Steep

Roof Types

Gable
#
Hipped Truncated Hip

Pyramidal
@
Mansard Shed

Salt box Gambrel

0 Conical

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Plan Shape

Rectangle Square L-Shaped T-Shaped

Number of Stories

One Story One and One-Half TWO-

St0ry

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Single Pen (c. 1790 1840): -

1 or li/*stories
side gabled
square or slightly rectangular in shape
facade has either 1 or 2 bays (i.e. a door
and 1 window)
entry is often centered or located at oppo-
site end of the house from the chimney
front and back doors are generally directly
opposite from each other
location of windows can vary
was a common style when people first
settled West Virginia Single Pen Floor Plan
were often made of logs, but could be
built with stone or cut wood boards usu-
ally had few windows because glass
was expensive and hard to obtain
very few are left in West Virginia

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Double Pen (c.1790 - 1840):

composed of 2 rooms of equal dimensions

similar building type as a single pen
also a settlement period building type

Double Pen Floor Plan

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 r
r r \ i
I

Iii
I-House (c.2820 1890) -

2 stories
one room deep
2 rooms wide
roof is most commonly gabled, but also
can be hipped or flat
symmetrical facades with 3 or 5 bays
i \
chimneys are typically at the gable ends
but can be in the center of the house
1 or 2 story front porches are common
1 or 2 story rear ell additions are common
(usually held the kitchen)

I-House Floor Plan

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Rowhouse (c.1820 1920) -

one house in a row of attached houses

shares at least one wall in common
with another house in the row
usually 2 or 3 stories tall
2 or 3 bay facade
raised basement
steps lead to entrance and porch
often have a side hallway type of floor plan
rear additions are common

Row House Floor Plan

D- 16
Four Over Four (c.1910 - 1925)

named for its floor plan,

which is four rooms over four rooms
rooms are usually divided by a

.central hallway
usually 2 stories tall
gaiLdrwt
symmetrical 3 to 5 bay facade
side walls typically have 2 bays
chimneys usually located at each
gable end

Four Over Four Floor Plan

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Shotgun (c.1860 1900) -

small, 1 story tall

rectangular floor plan
1 room wide
2 rooms deep
main facade and entrance - -n
always on the gable end
doorways of the middle rooms
are usually located to extreme left
or right
may have been introduced to this
country by African Americans via Haiti
widely constructed by companies as
inexpensive worker housing
rarely found in rural settings

1
Shotgun Floor Plan

D- 18
Gabled Ell (c.1865 - 1885)

1 or 2 story house
irregular floor plan
intersecting gable roof
asymmetrical placement
of doors and windows
common in rural areas or
small towns
main facade usually has a porch
gable ends may have attic vents
or decorative shingles
the rear facade may also have a
porch and other additions

D- 19
American Four-Square (c.1900 - 1925)

2 or 2 stories tall
nearly square floor plan
usually topped by a pyramidal
hipped roof
basements are slightly raised
requiring flight of stairs to front entrance
usually has central dormer on front
a 3 or 4 post front porch may extend
the full width of the house
1 of the most popular house types of
the 1st two decades of 20th century

1/ Front Porch
\I
American Four-Square

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Bungalow (c.2905 - 1930)

can have 11/2or 2 stories

long, sweeping gable roof
overhanging eaves
massive porch posts
exposed roof rafters
cladding may have combination of
brick, cobblestone, stucco, clapboard,
or split-shake shingles
chimneys may be on interior or exterior of
building
may have dormer on main facade
common house type during 1920s and 1930s Front Porch

Bungalow Floor Plan

D-2 1
Cape Cod (c.1925 1950) -

Attached Garage

1 or 11/2 stories tall

steeply pitched gable roof
symmetrical 3 to 5 bay facade
often has dormer windows
on main facade
one of the most common forms a
of Colonial Revival style houses

Cape Cod Floor Plan

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Ranch k. 1940 - 1970)

always 1 story tall

low pitched roof
irregular floor plan
usually has an attached garage
houses are commonly clad with
brick, wood or stone
usually has large rectangular and
picture windows
front porches, if present, are very small
may have sliding glass doors Ranch Floor Plan
and patios on rear of house

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Split Level (c.1950 1980) -
L

stories are divided into 2 or 3 levels

(which roughly equal a 1/2 story) plus
a basement
usually has a landing inside the front
W 4 . r a+
111 t h a 3 & q s off- of #!e
I c e$
!
a
entrance that lead up to the kitchen,
living room and dining room and down
to the basement
second set of stairs leads from living
room/kitchen level up to the bedroom Elevation Drawing
level of Split Level
garage is typically attached to the
house at the level of the entrance
landing

D-24