A variety of cladding types on Queen Anne Revival houses provide contrasting textures. This can include narrow siding, drop siding, patterned shingles, and drop-siding within a frame. The façade is often decorated with moldings highlighting floors, while ornamentation such as gingerbread, ornamental spindles, and brackets enliven porches and gables. Windows are usually double-hung, and may have leaded or stained glass in upper sections.
From Heritage House Tour 2015: "Starting in 2004, the work to restore the exterior was a big undertaking but the handsome result has elevated the whole block. The house was lifted to restore its original relationship to the street, which had been raised. The wrap-around porch and original rooflines were reinstated, and the exterior repainted in historic colours from Benjamin Moore & Co. with the help of a VHF True Colours grant. Windows on Bute Street were restored and new, custom, high-efficiency ones made to match for elsewhere on the house"
Found in the Strathcona neighbourhood, this heritage home features a large turret seen at the forefront of the photograph, typical of the Queen Anne style. We can notice the asymmetrical shape of this home, the irregular roof lines, and the partial porch at the background of the image.
From Heritage Site FInder: "Opposite the Lord Strathcona Community School sits this Queen Anne house. Built in 1902, the Principal’s house, as it’s known, is an impressive mix of late Victorian and Queen Anne, with a witches-hat turret, stained glass windows, ornate bargeboards, gable roofs, and a magical garden. Gregory Henry Tom, Lord Strathcona Community School’s first principal, bought the corner lot from the Vancouver Improvement Company for $420 and paid another $1,000 for a house, designed and built by William Cline."
From our Heritage Site Finder: "Roedde House was built for Gustav and Matilda Roedde in 1893. Its design is generally attributed to the early B.C. architect, Francis Rattenbury, notable for the Legislative Buildings and Empress Hotel in Victoria. The architectural style is “Queen Anne revival”, incorporating a cupola, bay windows, upstairs porch, and downstairs verandas. The West End was rapidly becoming a fashionable neighbourhood at the time. In the 1980s, the exterior was restored, and in 1984 the Roedde House Preservation Society was formed to implement the interior restoration of the house."
From Heritage Vancouver's 2011 Bulletin: "The building is an excellent example of the Late Queen Anne style, with neoclassical influences, and features many fine surviving details and materials. It is also one of the few surviving grand homes of the Edwardian period built in the area. The application proposes to relocate the heritage building to the west side of the site, rehabilitate it, and designate it. The site is to be subdivided and a new house constructed on the resultant new vacant parcel. An HRA is proposed to grant the subdivision variance and to authorize the requested zoning variances, including density."
From Heritage House Tour 2015: "Starting in 2004, the work to restore the exterior was a big undertaking but the handsome result has elevated the whole block. The house was lifted to restore its original relationship to the street, which had been raised. The wrap-around porch and original rooflines were reinstated, and the exterior repainted in historic colours from Benjamin Moore & Co. with the help of a VHF True Colours grant. Windows on Bute Street were restored and new, custom, high-efficiency ones made to match for elsewhere on the house"
Found in the Strathcona neighbourhood, this heritage home features a large turret seen at the forefront of the photograph, typical of the Queen Anne style. We can notice the asymmetrical shape of this home, the irregular roof lines, and the partial porch at the background of the image.
From Heritage Site FInder: "Opposite the Lord Strathcona Community School sits this Queen Anne house. Built in 1902, the Principal’s house, as it’s known, is an impressive mix of late Victorian and Queen Anne, with a witches-hat turret, stained glass windows, ornate bargeboards, gable roofs, and a magical garden. Gregory Henry Tom, Lord Strathcona Community School’s first principal, bought the corner lot from the Vancouver Improvement Company for $420 and paid another $1,000 for a house, designed and built by William Cline."
From our Heritage Site Finder: "Roedde House was built for Gustav and Matilda Roedde in 1893. Its design is generally attributed to the early B.C. architect, Francis Rattenbury, notable for the Legislative Buildings and Empress Hotel in Victoria. The architectural style is “Queen Anne revival”, incorporating a cupola, bay windows, upstairs porch, and downstairs verandas. The West End was rapidly becoming a fashionable neighbourhood at the time. In the 1980s, the exterior was restored, and in 1984 the Roedde House Preservation Society was formed to implement the interior restoration of the house."
From Heritage Vancouver's 2011 Bulletin: "The building is an excellent example of the Late Queen Anne style, with neoclassical influences, and features many fine surviving details and materials. It is also one of the few surviving grand homes of the Edwardian period built in the area. The application proposes to relocate the heritage building to the west side of the site, rehabilitate it, and designate it. The site is to be subdivided and a new house constructed on the resultant new vacant parcel. An HRA is proposed to grant the subdivision variance and to authorize the requested zoning variances, including density."
Click on the diagram or expand the term index to learn more about the features.
Balustrade
An entire railing system, as along the edge of a balcony, including a top rail, bottom rail, and balusters.
Cladding
Also referred to as siding, cladding is the outermost layer of the wall system, providing resistance to the natural elements and acting as a control device for drainage. Depending on the house style, various kinds of stucco, horizontal and vertical boards may be used as cladding. Types of cladding/siding: Board and Batten Clapboard Drop Lap Masonry Shakes Shingle Shiplap Stucco
Column
A supporting post, generally round. In classical orders, the column consists of a base, shaft, and capital.
Double Hung Window
A pair of superimposed wooden sashes that are offset so as to slide up and down within the same frame. A double hung window that has horns on its upper sash are most likely pre World War I.
Front Stairs
Bridging the porch and street, the front stairs provide easy access to the home through the use of treads and risers. Staircases are found in a number of configurations on the façade in response to accessibility and style.
Porch
A covered platform, usually with its own roof, attached to a building, serving as a covered entryway. May be limited to covering the front door area or may extend along the full length of the façade.
Turret
A circular or polygonal projecting bay or structure, usually with a steep pointed roof.
Form
These now-uncommon houses have asymmetrical multi-storey profiles with a turret – that is, a projecting bay, often hexagonal or octagonal, extending from the house walls and topped with a pointed roof that might be hipped or conical. The house’s main roof may be gabled or hipped. Many are clad in a variety of textures, including fishscale shingles and narrow board siding. Porches may have a pediment in line with the front door and posts with elaborate fretwork brackets (“gingerbread”). Remaining Queen Anne style houses are local landmarks, especially in Grandview.
Details
- Steep, irregular roof
- Corner tower or turret, sometimes with conical roof
- Asymmetrical shape
- Partial or full width porch – often wrap around
- Bay windows
- Gingerbread (elaborate fretwork braces)
- A variety of surface textures (ie. fishscale shingles)
Materials
Background
The Queen Anne Revival style has little to do with the actual English Queen Anne or architecture from her reign (1702 – 14). One of the most popular styles of the late Victorian era, the Queen Anne Revival style developed in Britain thanks to a renewed interest in architecture of the late medieval period. Following its introduction to North America, it quickly adapted for the new environment. Rather than symmetrical masonry buildings in the English style, the Vancouver Queen Anne Revival is a confection of textures and gingerbread ornamentation. The term is used specifically to describe turreted pre-World War One houses.
Pattern books and the first architectural magazine, The American Architect and Building News, made the Queen Anne Revival popular. In Vancouver, an abundance of locally manufactured pre-cut detailing . Middle- and Upper-class homes in Vancouver, as in much of North America, made use of gingerbread detailing. The elaborate detailing, textures, and turrets of the Queen Anne style are among the most iconic of the Victorian-era styles.