Italianate Style: Renaissance Architecture in the New World

A Romantic Past Re-created in the Present

 

More than just a “simple box with a lot of ornamentation,” Italianate architecture is a less formal, more romantic, and flexible style that could be applied to mansions and grand country estates as well as middle-class homes and row houses. Taking a cue from the Renaissance villas and rambling farmhouses of northern Italy, the style is fanciful, and a stark contrast to the clean and symmetrical lines of Neoclassic architecture.

From 1840 to 1885, Italianate style was the most popular design in the American architectural scene. When it surged in the U.S. in the 1840s – mostly through the work of landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing – it was transformed by architects into something truly American. Because it was more informal, architects had artistic freedom to apply its concepts not only to sprawling manor homes but also to urban townhouses, modest homes, and public structures.

And with an emerging large and prosperous middle class eager to embrace the style’s celebration of the wealth and romance of the Italian villa, Italianate architecture sprouted from coast to coast – and reached its peak after the Civil War.

Let’s explore the Italianate architecture style, its origins and defining features, key architects of the style, and some of the existing historic examples.

 

Italianate Architecture and its Origins

The Italianate style began in England in the early 19^th century as a reaction against the rigid formalism and order of the classical ideals in art and architecture. It is often classified as part of the Picturesque – or Romantic – movement that emphasized asymmetry, variety, irregular floor plans, whimsical features, and natural landscaping.

Inspired by breezy Italian villas, Italianate buildings have a boxy or square feeling to them and “freer more asymmetrical massing and ‘romantic’ features such as towers, cupolas and bay windows.” The style is also distinguished by its nearly flat roofs, the use of ornamental brackets set under wide cornices, and door and window hoods.

As the Italianate continued to evolve in the U.S. in the mid-19^th century, it became particularly popular in the expanding towns and cities of the Midwest, the older cities of the Northeastern seaboard, and the growing cities of the West, particularly San Francisco.

 

Key Elements of the Italianate Style

1.  Let’s start with a rectangular structure that can consist of two or three stories. The simple shape lends itself to a variety of ornamental features in Mediterranean styles that can enhance the overall look of the building or residence.

 

2.  Italianate homes have low-pitched or flat roofs – similar to Tuscan style homes – that may sometimes include a squared-off cupola-like dome. The overhanging eaves – with single or double brackets or corbels in a variety of shapes – highlight the cornice.

 

 

3.  Windows in the Italianate style are tall and narrow and come in sets of threes or in pairs. A number of them are rounded on top – like an inverted “U” – while others are topped with ornamented pediments. Usually, the first floor windows are taller than the ones on the second level. Shutters are seldom found in Italianate windows.

 

4.  A classic porch is also part of the Italianate character. Compared with other Victorian styles, the porches are restrained in sizes and decorative touches. Most Italianate residences have one-story porches or a small portico anchored by columns.

 

5.  Italianate homes were the first to have doors with large glass panes instead of the traditional sidelights with the small panes. Both single and double doors were common in the homes and were mostly outfitted with a large hood supported by brackets.

 

6.  Brick and wood were the main materials in the construction of Italianate buildings and residences, while cast iron was used for decorative purposes. Cast iron became popular because of new technology in the 19^th century that made mass production easier and faster. You can find cast iron decor in window and door crowns of homes and in front facades of commercial structures.

 

Pioneers of the Italianate Style

Andrew Jackson Downing

Credited with establishing the popularity of Italianate architecture in the U.S. – and its most influential advocate – Andrew Jackson Downing was a landscape designer and writer from Newburgh, New York. He published two pattern books about Italianate and related styles that promoted well-designed, tasteful houses set in generously spaced rural landscapes.

Downing’s books – Cottage Residences (1842) and The Architecture of Country Houses (1850), which contained architectural plans, drawings, landscaping, and examples that builders could use to replicate the styles – were widely distributed and consulted. Because he was a landscape artist, he relied on architects like Alexander Jackson Davis and Calvert Vaux to illustrate his books.

 

Alexander Jackson Davis

A New Yorker like Downing, Alexander Jackson Davis started as a lithographer and architectural illustrator before he focused his efforts as an architect and designer of buildings. Before publishing Rural Residences, his first pattern book for picturesque residences in the Gothic Revival and Italianate styles, he illustrated Downing’s pattern books.

As an architect, Davis recorded his most productive period from 1840 through 1860, when he designed a number of country houses in the Gothic Revival Cottage style. While these residences were mostly in the Hudson River Valley, Davis had clients in other states, including Indiana and North Carolina.

In 1846, he designed Blandwood for North Carolina Governor John Motley Morehead. The mansion is the country’s earliest Italianate Tuscan villa.

Davis designed approximately 18 or more Italianate houses in the 1850s. Among them was Winyah Park, the 300-acre country estate of Colonel Richard Lathers in New Rochelle, New York. For his design, Davis was awarded the first architectural prize at the New York Worlds Fair of 1853–54. He would design four more houses for Colonel Lathers  estate.

 

Richard Upjohn

British-born Upjohn who emigrated to the U.S. became known for designing Gothic Revival churches and for helping to popularize the Italianate style. He was a founder and the first president of the American Institute of Architects.

Upjohn’s first Italian villa design was the Edward King House in Newport, Rhode Island, for the largest landowner in town. Built between 1845 and 1847, the brick mansion with its three-story tower was the earliest representation of the Italianate style, and was Newport’s most majestic home at the time.

Upjohn would later design another house in the Italianate style – Kenworthy Hall. The plantation house in Alabama is the Southern counterpart of the Edward King House.

 

John Notman

One of the most important early American architects, the Scottish-born John Notman is credited with introducing the Italianate style in the U.S. He is also known for the use of brownstone. Notman, who was born in Edinburgh, emigrated to the U.S. in 1831 and subsequently settled in Philadelphia. Like Richard Upjohn, Notman also designed churches and was a founding member of the American Institute of Architects.

Among the country homes and villas designed by Notman were

• Riverside, a residence built for Bishop G.W. Doane in Burlington, New Jersey

• Alverthorpe in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, for prominent Philadelphia merchant Joshua Fisher

• Fieldwood, designed for Richard Stockton Field, a descendant of a major colonial family in Princeton, New Jersey

• Ogontz for Civil War financier Jay Cooke in  Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

• Athenaeum of Philadelphia, built in 1845 and the first Italianate building in his adopted city.

 

Henry Austin

A prominent and prolific architect born in Hamden, Connecticut, Henry Austin designed many homes and public buildings in the New Haven area. Austin, who practiced for 50 years, also worked with Alexander Jackson Davis.

Austin worked in a variety of styles popular in the 19^th century. Between 1840 and 1850, he designed buildings and residences in the Gothic, Italianate, Egyptian, and Moorish Revival styles – at times combining elements from the different concepts.

Among the churches that he designed were: the First Methodist Church, Congregational Church, Trinity Episcopal Church, and the Second Congregational Church.

His Italianate designs include the James E. English House, Willis Bristol House, the James Dwight Dana House, and the Moses Yale Beach House for the American inventor and publisher who started the Associated Press.

While some of his buildings have been demolished, a great number have been preserved and are still around in New Haven and other parts of Connecticut.

 

Key Regions with Italianate Style

The Italianate style swept the country in the mid-19^th century. In Cincinnati, Ohio, the first boom town of that era, there is the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood that is believed to be the largest collection of Italianate buildings in the U.S. The homes were built by German-American immigrants who settled in the area. The city is very mindful of preserving this impressive collection – and is beginning renovation efforts.

In addition to Cincinnati, Covington, Kentucky; the Garden District of New Orleans; and parts of California feature Italianate architecture. In San Francisco, the Painted Ladies, row houses in the Queen Anne style, are celebrated examples of the time period that saw the rise of Italianate style, and they display aspects of the romantic, whimsical architecture.

 

If you’re fascinated by the decorative brackets and details on the front porch, the lovely bay windows, and the tall rounded ones, and other fanciful accents, remember that the Italianate style offers tremendous design flexibility and adaptability.

 

Footnote: The top photo in lead image of this article is a very striking 2-story, 5-bedroom Mediterranean style home with the classic elements of Italianate architecture. For more details on the beautiful home with 6,121 sq. ft. of living space, go to Plan #195-1173.

 

Additional Sources:

Old House Online

Wentworth Studio

HGTV  

Pennsylvania Historic & Museum Commission