-Historic Survey-

VI. Architectural Heritage

Introduction

Late Victorian Period Styles:

Stick/Eastlake

The Stick style is found in California in the late Victorian period (1870-1900) and has it roots in Andrew Jackson Downing's ideas of Gothic architecture. Downing published pattern books with picturesque houses that referenced earlier Gothic architecture, but focused on simpler ornamentation and more modest building types. This style is significant because it "boldly expressed wooden structural elements like half timbering, brackets, and exposed timber roofs."⁴⁰ The stick style represents a shift in architecture because it advocates simplified forms of ornamentation and encourages consideration of the surrounding landscape. This style is significant to the field of architecture in that these concepts are embraced and expanded upon during the Craftsman style period.


Figure 11. 1106 W. Rowland Avenue

Queen Anne

The Queen Anne style, as it became known in the United States, emerged out of the ideas of a British architect named Richard Norman Shaw. Shaw drew inspiration from the aesthetics that emerged during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. "Shaw's Old English and Queen Anne styles so successfully captured the new mood of the 1870s that many British and American architects quickly took them up."⁴¹

Buildings in the Queen Anne style took on many forms from the most elaborate mansions to modest cottages. It was a truly unique aesthetic that could be manipulated to fit into all contexts and appeal to almost all people of the time. The proliferation of the style led to its reign as America's dominant housing style from 1880 to 1910.⁴²

Due to the wide variations seen in the Queen Anne style, it is difficult to list all of the common characteristics. Typically, Queen Anne houses have a steeply pitched and gabled roof, front porches, and decorative wall textures like patterned masonry or shingles. These houses are, in their essence, representative of the Victorian period and their overall shape is almost always vertical in nature, like that of fashions at the time.

"Valencia Park," also known as the Jobe house, is a good example of the Queen Anne style because it shows the verticality and asymmetrical characteristics of Queen Annes. It also exhibits elements of the emerging Craftsman aesthetic.


Figure 12. The Jobe House

Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements:

Bungalow/Craftsman

The Craftsman style in the United States was inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement, originating in England. The movement focused on the value of hand craftsmanship and high quality natural materials and was a reaction to the excess and fussy ornamentation found in Victorian period styling. The style is found in California in the early 20th century (1900-1930).


Figure 13. 521 N. Orange Avenue

The Craftsman style is most easily recognized by its extensive use of wood. Interiors are characterized by the decorative use of unpainted high-quality woods, treated simply to highlight their natural beauty. Exposed structural components are often featured as decorative elements. Other characteristic features are the low-pitched roofs with wide overhanging eaves, exposed rafter tails, and large front porches.


Figure 14. 505 S. Hollenbeck Avenue

The style has many variations from the most modest bungalow to elaborate estates, and is one of the most common architectural styles found in the California landscape.

Note: the term "bungalow" typically refers to single-story examples, while "Craftsman" is a more general term.

Late 19th Century and early 20th Century Revivals: Foursquare

The Foursquare house is an American Tradition that reflects the role of real estate speculators and plan-book designers. "The Foursquare may be seen as a stripped-down version of late-18th and mid-19th-century forms; including the Georgian block and the square Italianate house."⁴³ Most often the form of a Foursquare house is a large cube mass. The simple form lent itself to pattern books and mail-order catalog houses.

A Foursquare is named after its most common plan which features a room located in each of the four corners, upstairs and downstairs. American Foursquare houses are characterized by: simple cube massing; a hipped roof, often with a dormer; center-hall symmetry; and classical or colonial detailing.⁴⁴


Figure 15. 1038 E. Puente Avenue

Colonial Revival

The Colonial Revival Style takes on many shapes and forms and was popular in the United States from about 1880 through the 1950s. The style is considered part of the Eclectic movement in which various historical forms were revived without strict adherence to precedent. This is one of the reasons that houses from this style vary widely in appearance. Dutch Colonial Revival was a popular sub-type that took hold in Southern California. One of West Covina's significant houses is a Dutch Colonial Revival.

The characteristic features of Colonial Revival are an accentuated front door with a decorative crown and pilasters, symmetrical fenestration, and multi- lite sash windows. There are nine principal subtypes of the Colonial Revival style and they include: asymmetrical, hipped roof with full-width front porch, hipped roof without full-width front porch, side-gabled roof, centered gable, gambrel roof, second-story overhang, one-story, and three-story.⁴⁵

The Dutch Colonial types seen in West Covina feature a continuous dormer on a gambrel roof. This dormer application is almost never seen in original Colonial houses, but is often seen in the Revival versions.


Figure 16. Dutch Colonial House at 137 Lark Ellen Avenue

Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival


Figure 17. 1314 E. Puente Avenue

Spanish style architecture experienced a revival in Southern California in the early 20th century (1920s-1940). "The Mediterranean style was at the height of its popularity during the early Twenties and was regarded by the public and architects alike as the most appropriate expression for architecture in California."⁴⁶

Spanish Colonial Revival examples from this period vary from small, flat roofed buildings to elaborate multi-level eclectic versions. West Covina has several fine examples of this style of architecture. The characteristic features of this style include red tile roofs, smooth stucco exteriors, and asymmetrical facades often with arched openings. Roofs can be flat, gabled, or hipped. Stylistic elements often include colorful tiles, arched fenestration and decorative vents crafted in either stucco or tile (see Fig. 17).

California is known for its impressive inventory of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. In Rexford Newcomb's 1937 book on Spanish Colonial Architecture, he praised the use of this style in California. "California...with its wide range of climate, its long mission history, its unique mountain-desert-maritime geography and its varied flora, has been very responsive to historic precedent and has made the most of it."⁴⁷


Figure 18. Spanish Colonial Revival House at 611 N. Vincent Avenue

Mission Revival examples are characterized by shaped parapets that reference the early California Missions.

Monterey (Revival)

Beginning in the mid-twenties, architects delved deeper into the roots of Spanish style for their inspiration and became interested in the architecture of early California. They studied the remaining examples, somewhat concentrated around Monterey, constructed between 1815 and 1855. The style was dubbed Monterey due to the location of the historical examples. Borrowing from this tradition, architects revived the Monterey style and adapted it for Southern California. This style was typically constructed between 1925 and 1940.

The Monterey Revival style differs from traditional Spanish Colonial Revival in that it harkens back to earlier colonial traditions. As stated in Robinson's book on residential architecture:

A connecting link existed between the earlier work and a desire for more restrained, simple homes, and an appreciation for the simplicity of mass and detail and the utter absence of ornamentation of the older California houses had a beneficial effect. In the new work the balcony was made the feature of the style.⁴⁸

These houses typically were two-stories tall with white-painted stucco facades and little to no ornamentation other than the prominent balcony and decorative shutters. Roofs can be sheathed in either red tile or shingles, depending on the availability of local materials.⁴⁹


Figure 19. Excellent Example of the Monterey Revival Style featuring the characteristic wood balcony, located at 833 S. Coral Tree Drive

Tudor Revival

During the 1920s, builders and architects were interested in forms that were pleasing and picturesque. A popular architecture publication of the time, Architectural Record, showcased the new aesthetic. Mark Gelernter, architectural historian and author, says that each issue "began with a picturesque and atmospheric image of a European village or house, giving architects specific ides about how to achieve similar effects in their own designs."⁵⁰

Architects translated these ideas into buildings that were a revival of English and French medieval architecture. Characteristics of this style were steeply pitched roofs, massive chimneys with elaborated chimney pots, and often decorative half-timbering.

The Tudor Revival style was an extremely popular one and examples can be seen in most Southern California 1920s era subdivisions.


Figure 20. 1211 W. Workman showing the characteristic steeply pitched roofs of the Tudor Revival style

Modern Movement:

The Modern architectural style takes on many forms. The most common are Minimal Traditional and Ranch. Minimal Traditional style houses typically appear as simplified versions of earlier styles. They have pitched roofs, but the pitch is not as steep as Queen Anne or Tudor Revival; they have porches, but they are usually smaller than those of Craftmans; they have chimneys, but the detailing is more streamlined.

Ranch houses start to depart from earlier forms by moving to a much more horizontal emphasis in form. The roofs typically are low-pitched and unadorned. A single-car garage incorporated into the facade is another common feature; this shows the increasing ownership of automobiles.

Minimal Traditional

In West Covina, an area called "Sunkist Village" was developed and many of its houses are designed in the Minimal Traditional Style. Here is an example of a Minimal Traditional house in the "Sunkist Village" subdivision. It shows a common cross-gabled roof of medium pitch, a small front porch, and a brick chimney.


Figure 21. 1010 S. Sunkist Avenue

Hipped roof versions of the Minimal Traditional style can also be seen in the Sunkist Village area. These examples typically have a symmetrical facade and a small front porch overhang over the centered front entrance.


Figure 22. 921 S. Sunkist Avenue

Ranch

Towards the beginning of the 1950s, the Ranch style started to replace the earlier Minimal Traditional style. The Ranch style became the dominant building style for post-war suburbs. West Covina experienced enormous population growth in the 1950s and housing was built in the Ranch style to accommodate the boom.

The Ranch style is characterized by its single-story form, low-pitched roof, and asymmetrical facade. Many examples have a single-car garage incorporated into one end of the house. Other Modern era styles, in addition to the Ranch, include split-level and shed.

________________________________________
⁴⁰ Mark Gelernter, A History of American Architecture: Buildings in Their Cultural and Technological Context (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1999) 328.

⁴¹ Gelernter, 178

⁴² Gelernter, 178

⁴³ James Massey and Shirley Maxwell, House Styles in America: The Old-House Journal Guide to The Architecture of American Homes (New York: Penguin Group, 1996) 214.

⁴⁴ Massey, 216.

⁴⁵ Virginia and Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000) 322-323.

⁴⁶ Paul Robinson, Residential Architecture in Southern California (n.p., 1939) 27.

⁴⁷ Rexford Newcomb, Spanish-Colonial Architecture in the United States (New York: J.J. Augustin, 1937) 38-39.

⁴⁸ Robinson, Residential Architecture in Southern California, 27

⁴⁹ Robinson, Residential Architecture in Southern California, 27

⁵⁰ Gelernter, 234

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