Italianate in Buffalo (2024)

Source: Old House Journal RenaissanceRevival

Villa Style

Some guides categorize the Italianvilla as a subtype of Italianate, whose principal feature isa tower,

The style wasborrowed from the rural architecture of northern Italy and introducedby way of England in the late 1830s. Again it was the plans of AlexanderJackson Davis circulated in Andrew JacksonDowning's books(see below) that helped popularize the style.

The outstandingfeature of the Italian Villa style is the combination of the tall tower witha two-story "L" or "T" shaped floor plan.

The roof withprojecting eaves has a gentlepitch resembling the pedimentshape of classical temples.

Other distinctivefeatures are the grouping of either straight or round-headed windowsinto threes or small arcades,and the placement of porches or arcaded loggiasbetween the tower andhouse or at the corners.

A smooth stuccofinish highlights the classic simplicity of the design, while anexuberance of enriched ornamentation provides a baroque appearance. Theoverall composition is an asymmetrical balancing of classical formsintending a picturesque quality.

Renaissance Revival furnishingswere used in Italianate villas and other classically inspired houses.

Italianate

Italianate is a term used to denote anAmerican architectural style from the mid-nineteenth century which cameabout as part of a larger Romantic movement in the arts. Thesebuildings are commonly recognized by their tall, narrow windows andtheir low-pitched roofs with overhanging eaves.

Italianate buildings in America were not built by or for Italianfamilies. Actually, there were few Italian people in the U.S. atthistime, but the idea of rural Italy was romanticized by Americans and byAmerica's early European-educated architects.

Italianate -IdentifyingFeatures

Two or threestories (rarely one story)
Low-pitched hipped roof
Widelyoverhanging eaves having scroll-sawnbrackets beneath, singly or in pairs
Single-storyentry porches
Front doorssingle or paired
Doors andwindows: rectangular, round arched, or segmentally-arched
Windows:Paired and triple
Windows:Tall, narrow
Window:Sashes most commonly with one- or two-pane glazing
Window crowns: hooded, bracketed, framed
Window crowns: full arch, segmental, pedimented(triangular or curved)
Windows: Lintelsexecuted in wood or iron.
Square cupola (belvedere)
Tower -villastyle
Italianatecommercial buildings: first floor façade often of cast iron, the secondof brick.
Italianatecommercial buildings: capping the building is a requisite heavy,bracketed cornice. (Example: 116 MainStreet, Albion, NY

Italianate/ Bracketed Style
1840-1885

See Also

The Buffalo News from Buffalo, New York

The Italianatestyle, along withthe Gothic Revival, began inEngland as part of the Picturesquemovement, a reaction to theformalclassical ideals in art and architecture that had been fashionable forabout two hundred years. The movement emphasized rambling, informalItalian farmhouses, with their characteristic square towers asmodelsfor Italian-style villa architecture.Note that other, more formal,Italian models from the Renaissanceor ancient Rome had led to theprevious era of classicism. Italy, rather paradoxically, thus remaineda principal source of artistic nurture during the reaction against theearlier ideals it had inspired.

The first

Italianate houses in theUnited States were built in the late1830s; the style was popularized by influential Andrew JacksonDowning, a widelyrespected American landscape gardener who also published housepatternbooks in the 1840s and '50s.

Downing's one-year partner (Downing died in a fire) was Calvert Vaux who himselfpublished a fairly influential pattern book entitled Villas and Cottages.Sixyears later, Vaux moved to New York City and soon partnered with thesuperintendent of a new park that was being created. The park wasCentral Park and the superintendent was Frederick Law Olmsted.Theywent on to win the design competition for Central Park and alsothedesign for the parkssystem in Buffalo. Vaux also designed structures for some of the Buffaloparks.

Downing's building designs were mostly for single family rural housesbuilt in the

Picturesque Gothicand Italianate styles.Believing thatevery American deserved a good home, he designed homes for threeclasses: villas for the wealthy, cottagesfor working men and farmhouses for farmers. He intended forevery family tobe able toafford one of these homes, but of course this did not occur.

Downing believedthat architecture and the fine arts could affect the morals of theowners, and that improvement of the external appearance of a home wouldhelp "better" all those who had contact with the home. The general goodof America was benefited by good taste and beautiful architecture, hefelt. Others in the 1840s believed that the proper home environmentcould assure eternal comforts in heaven. The private home was becomingthe place for moral education and the focus of middle class America'ssearch for the meaning of life.

By the 1860s the[Italianate] style had completely overshadowed its earlier companion,the Gothic Revival

The decline ofthe Italianate style, along with that of the closely related Second Empire style, began with thefinancial panic of 1873 and the subsequent depression. When prosperityreturned late in the decade, new housing fashions - - particularly the Queen Anne style -- rose quickly todominance.

The Italianate style dominated American houses constructedbetween 1850and 1880. It was particularly common in the expanding towns andcitiesof the Midwest as well as in many older but still growing cities of thenortheastern seaboard. Italianate houses are least common in thesouthern states, where the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the 1870sdepression led to little new building until after the style had passedfrom fashion.

The ItalianateEra in Buffalo
1840-1880

By 1850, Buffalonians wereinterested in two new styles: GothicRevival and Italianate. Thesestyles had roofs extending beyond theactual walls and were considered more picturesque. than the columned Greek Revival buildings. Italianate-stylebuildings kept the gradual roof slopes of the earlier homes and addedscrolled wood brackets to "support" the projecting overhangs. Sometimesan Italianate had a tower or anobservatory at the top. The Italianatewindows occasionally had round tops, and were sometimes ornamented withelaborate cast-iron designs of foliage. Double doors becamecommon. Inaddition, baywindows entered the architectural vocabulary of the 1850s.

Nationally, thepost-Civil War period was a booming time. Buffalo continued to grow,businesses were thriving, and many of the oldest downtown homes weredemolished to make room for new commercial development.

Buffalo became known as "The City of Beautiful Trees.~ There were largemansions on tree-lined avenues and smaller brick and frame homes on theside streets.

The Italianatestyle was used throughout the East and West Sides of Buffalo. Buffalo'sEast Side is chock full of commercial buildings in the Italianatestyle, although they have not necessarily been well preserved.

The best area tosee Italianates in Buffalo is in Allentownwhich has an unusual concentration of surviving older buildings, withover a hundred brick Italianates in a single district. It is possibleto do a walking tour of Allentown and see most of the buildings in asingle afternoon. In fact, walking is the best way to see them, becauseit is difficult to drive through Allentown's small one-way streets. Inaddition, there are the Tracy Street row of Tifft houses, only stepsfrom Allentown.

In 1994,Allentown ranked as the second largest preservation district. in thenation.

ElaborateItalianate-style mansions were built on Franklin Street in Allentown.Henry Hellriegel and others built a whole block of middle-class homeson North Pearl Street in the late 1870s, with the Italianate influenceevident in many of them. The Tim family built rows of modestItalianate-style homes on Allen, College, Mariner and Tracy Streets.

Octagon Houses

Octagon stylehouses often used Italianate style ornamentation.

ItalianateHouse Interiors in Buffalo

Inside Buffalo's 1830s and 1840shomes, the side near the front door was devoted to a hall and staircase.A front parlor and a rear diningroom occupied most of theremaining first floor, although sometimes there was a pantry ora bedroom downstairs. Front and rear windows admittednatural light. Inthe evenings, candles or oil lamps were lit in the parlor, and membersof the family worked, studied or read around a common table.

The secondand third floors had bedrooms, each of which included a chamberpot andbasin, since bathrooms did not yet exist.

It is also worthnoting that by the 1840s, middle class kitchens in Buffalo were nolonger in the basem*nts. The formal first floor was usually reservedfor special visiting occasions. Struggling working class families oftenhad to share their homes with other families or boarders, whereasmiddle class families might take on fashionable boarders for profit orfor pleasure. The notion of each family maintaining a separateresidence had not yet entirely caught on.

Walls and ceilings were plastered or painted in light colors, and anyinterior woodwork was painted to match. The ceilings might also haveplaster medallionsand plaster cornices.Commonly, wallpaper borderswere mounted below the cornices of principal first floor rooms.Interior doors were finished to at least look like mahogany or walnut.Some middle class homes had wall-to-wall carpeting, which was made bysewing together several strips of 24-inch-wide carpeting. Bedroomssometimes had straw mats instead of carpets. Clothes were stored inclothes presses. and trunks, since there were virtually no closets.

Water: By the 1860s, a water supplysystem was developed. Water was taken from the Niagara River, pumped toa reservoir and distributed to wealthy homes via underground pipes.This was when bathrooms began to appear in the homes of the well-to-do.These families did not have to use wells or pump water for cooking andwashing. Gas also became available, as a source of interiorillumination. Pipes were run through the walls to outlets in the rooms.The fixtures were lit by opening a valve and lighting the gas. Cookingstoves began to replace kitchen fireplaces and brick baking ovens, butthey were still fueled by wood or coal, requiring the families toconstantly tend the fires. Colors: During the Civil War era,darker and richer colors became popular, both inside and outside of thehomes. Wallpaper and other indoor ornaments appeared in greaterquantities.

After the Civil War, central heating became available, eliminating theneed for individual stoves or fireplaces for each room. This consistedof a fireproof enclosure in the basem*nt to burn coal, and ductsleading to each room. In the 1870s, laundry was still done by filling alarge wooden tub with water that was heated on the stove. A largeflatiron was also heated on the stove for the ironing of clothes.

In the early 1880s, steam heat was used in some homes. For this, asecond, smaller enclosure utilized coal to heat water and turn it intosteam, which was circulated through pipes to radiators in the rooms.Also in the 1880s, iceboxes became commonplace, with a block of icebeing delivered each day for placement in the insulated wood cupboard,where produce and milk were kept. In addition, a few fortunate peoplewere able to install private telephones, flush toilets and permanentbathtubs in their homes.