I have been thinking about writing short blog entries about styles of home architecture I find inspiring. While there are many, including Tudor, Carpenter Gothic, and Spanish Revival, I would like to start with Dutch Colonial Revival, a style common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I finally got around to looking up the style of my childhood home (where my parents still live) about two days ago. I knew when it was built and that there are quite a few styles of this house in PA (and here in NY), so I googled “house plans 1929” which eventually (after a lot of clicking) led me to Dutch Colonial homes. According to antiquehome.org, these houses are characterized by “[a] gambrel roof, with or without flared eaves, and the frequent use of dormers.” Interestingly, since I was little, I always thought my house could be considered a "farm" house because of the gambrel roof (even though we lived in the suburbs and I had no idea what a gambrel roof was at the time). Below is not a picture of my parents' house, but a sample I found on the web that looks somewhat similar, in order to illustrate this style.
Photo credit: Antique Home Style
Sears and Roebuck, as well as other companies, offered Dutch Colonial plans in catalogs (see links at end of entry) that future homeowners could purchase and have built.
Having reviewed the floor plans for these homes, it seems to be common that these homes have a living room that extends the full length of the house (which results in a very narrow room) with a fireplace at one end or in the center of the room (as is the case in my parents’ home), a dining room and kitchen taking up the rest of the first floor, and 3 bedrooms and bath on the second floor.
Working with dollhouses has introduced me to many new kinds of architecture and has increased my interest in architecture in general. Likewise, I often try to find dollhouses that model a particular style that I like.
Here is what Google has yielded when I searched for “Dutch Colonial Dollhouse”:
I would love to build a scale version of my childhood home and I love how the first dollhouse link shows someone starting such a project in 1/2” scale. It certainly would not be difficult to build (at least a prototype) in foamboard once I get all of the needed measurements. Add that one to the list of things to do!
If anyone has any more information on Dutch Colonial Dollhouses, please feel free to comment!
More Links on Dutch Colonial (Revival) homes:
Don't forget this creepy one. :O
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I love this!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
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