How to Identify a Tudor Style House

From 1890 to 1940, the Tudor, or Tudor Revival, style of architecture was popular in the United States. The earliest houses were quite grand and modeled after English Medieval-based structures from the Renaissance period. These first examples of the Tudor style were sometimes called "Jacobethan" after the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, when the style was popular in England. Later on, the houses in America were smaller and took on fewer Renaissance characteristics. Still, they continued to be very stylized, if rambling, designs.

Instructions

1. Look at the front of the house, or facade. Tudors are two stories high. They have an elegant, tidy appearance, despite not being symmetrical. Tudor houses have the distinction of usually being side-gabled--that is, the gables for the main unit of the house are on the ends, not the front. However, there is usually a gable that crosses the main section.

2. Look closely at the roof. Tudor houses have steeply pitched roofs that are reminiscent of the steeply thatched roofs of medieval houses. There should be a large chimney with multiple chimney pots over the flues, and fancy parapeted gables.

3. Look at the house's walls. Tudors have ornamental half-timbering on the gables. Half-timbering is a structural technique in architecture in which beams of wood show through the wall material, but in America most of the half-timbering you see is decorative only. The walls will be clad in stucco or brick or, less commonly, wood or stone. There will likely be stone trim.

4. Examine the doorway. Tudors have an arch, either a round arch or Tudor arch--that is, with straight sides meeting in a point. The door itself may be set back in a dark entryway. Tudor style doors tend to have Renaissance characteristics such as stones that project into the brickwork like cornerstones.

5. Look at the windows. Tudors have either oriels or bay windows sticking out of the wall. If you see casement windows, the windows should have multiple panes, be tall, and appear two or three in a row, giving an impression of symmetrical yet finely detailed decoration.

Tips & Warnings

• In the United States, you are more likely to see Tudor style houses on the East coast or in the Midwest, but they were built all over the country.

• Don't assume any American home with decorative half-timbering is Tudor style. If it has walls of wood, it is probably the Queen Anne or Stick style. If it has stucco or masonry walls, then it's probably Tudor style.