Reasons for the Style
Around the turn of the century, the Colonial Revival style gained prominence and has retained much popularity throughout the 20th century. Several factors accounted for this style's popularity including:
- The 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition, which emphasized accuracy and correctness in the use of historical style and which established the Neoclassical and Colonial Revival styles as the dominant styles in American architecture
- The American centennial (1876), which stimulated an unprecedented interest in American heritage and colonial American architecture
- The growing tendency in the late 19th century among America's trend-setting architects to build period houses in a variety of eclectic styles, which often incorporated colonial elements
Key Features
Historical accuracy in the Colonial Revival style was really confined more to specific elements than to the building as a whole. For instance, a Colonial Revival house is usually of much larger scale than its 17th- or 18th-century prototype, and it may bear the influence of more than one phase of the colonial period. Elements of the style include dentils, heavy cornices, entrances with fanlights and sidelights, pedimented dormer windows, keystones, and quoins.
Local Examples
Most of the county's examples of the Colonial Revival style are residential buildings.