Illustrated Architecture Dictionary ............ Styles of Architecture............Tudor/Tudor Revival FURNITURE

Tudor / Tudor Revival Architecture in Buffalo, NY
(sometimes includes Jacobean Revival)

1890-1940

On this page:

Tudor

Tudor revival:

• Description
  
  
• Half-timbering
  
  
• Illustrated Features
  
  
• Additional Examples of Tudor Revival

See also:

• Tudor/Tudor Revival furniture
  
  
• Francis R. Kowsky, Tudor Revival Domestic Architecture in Buffalo

Tudor - 16th century

The reign of the Tudors, 1485-1603, covers the last phase of the Gothic style and the beginning of the Renaissance.

• Henry VII (ruled 1487-1509)
• Henry VIII (ruled 1509-1547)
• Edward VI (ruled 1547-1553)
• Mary I (ruled 1553-1558)
• Elizabeth I (ruled 1558-1603)

Elizabethan style is often described as Early Renaissance.

Sometimes, the architecture during King James's reign (Jacobean), also, Renaissance. is included in Tudor style.

Motifs: Heraldic symbols .....  strapwork .....  roundels .....  portrait busts .....  arabesques .....  grotesques .....  obelisks .....  caryatids .....  Tudor roses .....  cabochones (square inserts in a floor pattern) .....  acanthus .....  and vines.

Examples:

• William Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon, England
  

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Tudor Revival - 1890-1940

This is another of the period revival style houses of the early 20th century (e.g., Georgian Revival, Spanish Revival, Colonial Revival.) Note that some historians would classify the style as beginning in the late 19th century.

The period 1910-1930 was a time of free borrowing of historic styles as more people could afford single-family houses and there was no real consensus about a modern architectural style (as was the case with Queen Anne, Shingle, and Georgian successively from from 1875 to 1910). Houses in this period are sometimes lumped together as "period revival."

Sometimes Tudor Revival is referred to as Elizabethan or Half-timbered houses

Derived primarily from English Gothic and Renaissance buildings of the 16th and early 17th centuries, including those of Elizabethan (Elizabeth I, 1558-1603) and Jacobean (James I, 1603-25) periods.

Some Tudor houses mimic humble Medieval cottages -- they may even include a false thatched roof. Other Tudor homes borrow ideas from late Medieval palaces. They may have overlapping gables, parapets, and beautifully patterned brick or stonework.

Enormously popular in the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the suburbs, where only the Colonial Revival rivaled it in popularity.

Modified versions became fashionable in the 1970s and 1980s.

Two principal types: estate house, suburban house

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Half-timbering:

• Characteristic of Medieval buildings when the beams held the buildings up and the spaces between them were filled with plaster.
  
  
• A "half-timbered" building has exposed wood framing. The spaces between the wooden timbers are filled with plaster, brick, or stone.
  
  
• In the 19th and 20th centuries, it became fashionable to imitate Medieval building techniques. Many Queen Anne and Stick style houses were given false half-timbering. Timbers were applied to wall surfaces as decoration.
  
  
• In the U.S. however, half-timbering is only a decorative - albeit distinctive - covering of frame construction. In the United States, harsh winters made half-timbered construction impractical.

For examples of half-timbering in England, see William Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Illustrated Features

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Additional examples of Tudor Revival:

• How House Stucco
  
  
• Spencer Kellogg Jr. House Onondaga limestone
  
  
• Miller House Onondaga limestone

• Louis Greenstein House

• Stephen M. Clement House / Red Cross Onondaga limestone
  
  
• John W. Cowper House Stucco (Jacobean Revival)
  
  
• Rand House Onondaga limestone
  
  
• Buffalo Seminary Brick (Jacobean Revival)
  
  
• Bush/Depew House  Half-timbering
  
  
• 201 Middlesex Rd   Onondaga limestone / Half-timbering
  
  
• Holley House LOCKPORT  Brick
  
  
• Matthews House Elizabethan Revival; Brick
  
  
• Annunciation RC Church Rectory
  
  
• Saturn Club Onondaga limestone / Half-timbering
  
  
• Ullmann House, 260 Middlesex Rd.
  
  
• Photo: 655 LeBrun, Eggertsville Brick
  
  
• Photo: 57 Nottingham Terr. -  Half-timbering
  
  
• Photo: 295 Depew Ave. Brick; Half-timbering
  
  
• Furniture: Saturn Club

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Text sources:

• "A Field Guide to American Houses," by Virginia & Lee McAlester. New York: Knopf, 2000
  
  
• Tim Tielman, consultant
  
  
• Tudor / Medieval Revival 1890 - 1940 (J. Craven)  (online Nov. 2018)
  
  
• "The Visual Dictionary of American Domestic Architecture," by Rachel Carley. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1994

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Photos and their arrangement © 2002 Chuck LaChiusa
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