The Victorian Home.
While many a travel book may praise Petaluma for it’s former world egg basket glory, historically intact downtown, or continuing agriculture & dairy industry, I believe one it’s most enduring gifts are its wonderful historic neighborhoods. Walking trails of pure Americana: tree-lined streets, lush parks, and gorgeous Victorian homes.
Not that Petaluma has a shortage of variety in it’s Vintage homes, ranging from Spanish-Ecletic, Neo-Classical, and even a few mid-century moderns, but any casual stroll will quickly reveal our town’s founders’ Victorian preference. High-peaked rooflines, intricate trim pieces, three-section bay windows…for long time Westside residents these details seem to evoke feelings less of grace or beauty and more a feeling of, simply, “home.” So in homage to a decidedly “Petaluma Style”, I offer up a brief history and commentary on the Victorian.
The ‘Fairbanks Residence’ on D Street. +8500 SqFt Queen Anne
Though we’ve seen them hundreds of times, any casual glance at one of the many grand residences along D Street or Keller Street will certainly conjure up a feeling of awe or majesty. Just look at these things: turrets, stained glass, spires, colonnades, as your 8-year old will certainly point out, they’re basically wooden castles! Believe it or not, this description isn’t too far off from what the original architects were aiming at, the “Victorian” style (more accurately a home of the “Victorian Era”) was a reaction to the predominant Neo-Classical style of the early 1800s – designers of the time were shooting for the polar opposite and thus created the “Gothic Revival” style.
200 Prospect Street. Petaluma’s highest residential sale: $2,495,000
The term “Gothic Revival” adds a whole new dimension to these familiar homes – the whimsical turrets and widow’s walks now become imposing, it’s no wonder that this is the style of the Haunted House! The early churches on 5th street or Western showcase perhaps more explicitly the design cues echoed in our early residences.
In homage to both this wonderful style and the home of my own clients, let us take a look at a turn of the century Victorian home on Keller Street.
218 Keller, Beautifully Preserved 1901 Queen Anne Victorian
Believe it or not, this was actually considered “modest” in it’s time, especially on account that it was built for perhaps one of the more wealthy early Petalumans, William Howard Pepper, founder of Pepper School, Petaluma’s first Kindergarten. Construction was completed in 1901, and the Argus Courier then described it as a “Modern Cottage.” Cottage at just under 3000 Square Feet or not, certain architectural elements pin this home as Victorian from just the facade.
Wide plank horizontal siding, a rounded bay window, fishscale detail siding, decorative fascia, and corbels at the gable ends of perhaps could be called a “semi-turret”.
Vintage details 101: a few design goodies you’ll find on many a vintage home, be it colonial, craftsman, or even spanish. In general, I find that if you find wood siding, peaked roofline(s) and any of these details, you’re most likely looking at a Victorian.
Corbels:
From Wikipedia, “A piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight.” As the entry states further, “…(a detail) used since Neolithic times.” Regardless of it’s stone age roots, I always think of corbels associated with classical architecture – around Sonoma County meaning vintage old Banks, government buildings, and antique furniture.
Two examples from Wikipedia
Conveniently enough, the second example is from a 15th century cathedral in France, the inspiration for the Gothic-Revival, “Victorian” style.
Two Corbel styles on the front facade of 218 Keller
Fish Scale and Diamond shingles:
These details apparently aren’t noteworthy enough to find their way into wikipedia, yet any Vintage home buff would probably disagree on their importance. An obviously more tedious and time intensive form of siding than just horizontal redwood or square cedar, Diamond and Fish Scale shingles in my opinion can differentiate between a large home and a grand home. Below is an example from 200 Prospect Street, one of Petaluma’s great Queen Anne Victorian homes, and 218 Keller, which has both.
Fishscale Shingles. 200 Prospect Street, Petaluma.
Diamond and Fishscale shingles. 218 Keller Street, Petaluma
Shiplap Siding:
I know … there are much more interesting features than siding that make up a Vintage home, turrets, colonnades, balconies, but consider this, there wasn’t one 19th century architect that didn’t have to consider exactly what type of siding to use – in some cases, the very siding alone determined the home’s style. (1) According to the venerated Abram’s guide, the Victorian style had four distinct sub-categories, which I believe can be in general classified by their siding: Stick and Queen Anne (horizontal wood siding), Richardsonian (masonry & brick), and the Shingle style (wood shingle).
Shiplap siding: horizontal wood siding with recessed edges to make an overlapping joint. Some siding has tighter seams to create an almost flush surface while others have distinct exposed grooves. This type of siding is opposed to clapboard, a style found in the older Colonial and New England saltbox styles and, curiously, the 50s and 60s – both in the tract and custom homes of those eras.
Shiplap siding on 218 Keller Street. While just creating horizontal lines,
this type of siding does a lot to break up large monotonous exterior surfaces.
Front Porch
The front porch is a great feature for any style of home. Due to the doric columns, the this porch perhaps isn’t authentically “Victorian”, but I think authentically vintage and charming nevertheless.
Interiors
As is the case today, the interior design of a certain home style hinges almost as much on the furniture as the physical architecture. More specifically speaking, the function of a given room is just as telling of the historical period as the design of it. For example, the contrast between the Greek Revival Parlor and the Victorian.
Greek Revival parlor, the Gentlemen’s room of the 1850s.
In the Greek Revival home, the parlor was the Man’s room and the house was probably that of wealthy business person or landowner who though himself to somewhat of an aristocrat. Therefore the room was refined, sparse, austere.
A particularly lively Victorian parlor, not a single square inch unaccounted for.
The Victorian Parlor, in contrast, was the Woman’s room, and the home could now have been of middle-class ownership. The Victorian Woman, who often did not work, would spend hours a day with needlework which she proudly displayed on just about everything, from the curtains, to the pillow cases, to table cloths, to whatever other possible surface could be adorned. As one could imagine, the room was also a place of gathering for her friends and the atmosphere and decor was fittingly cozy and inviting. Furniture was arranged in intimate, conversation settings where one could imagine well to do women chatting, knitting, and gossiping for hours on end over tea.
100 years later, the Parlor of 218 Keller Street has been stripped of it’s Victorian wallpaper and furnishings (some would say thankfully) yet with its moldings, tall ceilings, bay window and sliding pocket doors it still has it’s trademark vintage details intact.
218 Keller Street Parlor
Even with with it’s contemporary neutral colors, one could see how naturally overstuffed chairs, floral wallpaper, and a persian rug would fit. (That is, if you wanted it that way!)
So keep all this in mind the next time you stroll through a Westside neighborhood, those grand old homes weren’t just the product of our ancestors’ version of keeping up with the Jones’s, they’re a part of our history.
Built with old-growth, American Fir and Redwood, designed by local architects, built by local carpenters, or delivered mail-order from Sears, these buildings weren’t just the residences of stogy, “old money” landowners or businessmen, these buildings were the homes of the emerging middle-class.
Born in Aesthetic revolt to the classical architectural styles, and likewise to the mannerisms and politics of their patrician, Euro-centric owners, the style itself is an American invention, and pure Americana. It was the home of shopkeepers, tradespersons, salespeople and budding entrepreneurs … take a hearty breath the nostalgia the next time you admire one, because for all intents and purposes, the Victorian home in it’s time was itself the American dream.
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