The Stick style was a late-19th-century American architectural style, transitional between the Carpenter Gothic style of the mid-19th century, and the Queen Anne style that it had evolved into by the 1890s. [1] It is named after its use of linear "stickwork" (overlay board strips) on the outside walls to mimic an exposed half-timbered frame. [2] [3]
The style sought to bring a translation of the balloon framing that had risen in popularity during the middle of the century, by alluding to it through plain trim boards, soffits, aprons, and other decorative features. Stick-style architecture is recognizable by the relatively plain layout, often accented with trusses on the gables or decorative shingles.
The stickwork decoration is not structurally significant, being just narrow planks or thin projections applied over the wall's clapboards. The planks intersect mostly at right angles, and sometimes diagonally as well, [4] resembling the half-timbering of medieval – especially Tudor – buildings. [5]
The style was commonly used in houses, train stations, life-saving stations, and other buildings from the era.
The Stick style did have several characteristics in common with the later Queen Anne style: interpenetrating roof planes with bold panelled brick chimneys, the wrap-around porch, spindle detailing, the "panelled" sectioning of blank wall, radiating spindle details at the gable peaks. Highly stylized and decorative versions of the Stick style are often referred to as Eastlake.
Stick–Eastlake is a style term that uses details from the Eastlake movement, started by Charles Eastlake, of decorative arts on stick-style buildings. It is sometimes referred to as Victorian stick, a variation of stick and Eastlake styles. Stick–Eastlake enjoyed modest popularity in the late 19th century, but there are relatively few surviving examples of the style when compared to other more popular styles of Victorian architecture.
The Eastlake movement was a nineteenth-century architectural and household design reform movement started by British architect and writer Charles Eastlake (1836–1906). The movement is generally considered part of the late Victorian period in terms of broad antique furniture designations. In architecture the Eastlake style or Eastlake architecture is part of the Queen Anne style of Victorian architecture.
The Herman C. Timm House is a house listed on the National Register of Historic Places in New Holstein, Wisconsin, United States. The house is a significant example of Stick style architecture, a rather rare predecessor of Queen Anne style architecture in the United States. The house was the home of an original settler and prominent citizen, Herman C. Timm.
The John N. A. Griswold House is a historic house located at 76 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. It was built in 1864 for John Noble Alsop Griswold, an Old China Trade merchant and member of the Griswold Family, and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the American Stick style, one of the earliest buildings in that style, and one of Hunt's first works in Newport.
The First Congregational Church is located at 53248 N Avenue in the Linden Lake Historic District in Lake Linden, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and is significant for its impeccable architectural integrity.
The First Universalist Church, known locally as the Church on the Plains, is a historic church building on Main Street in Kingston, New Hampshire. Built in 1879 to a design by the regionally prominent architect C. Willis Damon, it is a fine local example of Stick/Eastlake architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and is now owned by the local historical society.
Queen Anne style architecture was one of a number of popular Victorian architectural styles that emerged in the United States during the period from roughly 1880 to 1910. Popular there during this time, it followed the Second Empire and Stick styles and preceded the Richardsonian Romanesque and Shingle styles. Sub-movements of Queen Anne include the Eastlake movement.
The New Mill and Depot Building of the former Hawthorne Woolen Mill are located in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. The two structures were built on an existing textile mill complex in the 1870s.
The Oscar Nichols House is a historic building located on the east side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. The house was built in 1884 by Oscar P. Nichols, who was a partner in the Davenport Nursery. The house is an example of Stick-Eastlake style of architecture. It is a version of the Queen Anne style where the wooden strips were applied to the exterior of the structure in vertical, horizontal. and on the diagonal to give it a basket-like quality. Other decorative elements applied to exterior of this house include the decoratively carved front porch that features an openwork tympanum at its gable end, the diagonal stickwork in the front gable end, a belt course of vertical strips between the first and second floor and molded vergeboards. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.
The Samuel Hoffman Jr. House is a historic building located in the West End of Davenport, Iowa, United States. Samuel Hoffman Jr. was a bookkeeper at the German Savings Bank downtown. The house exhibits details of the Stick-Eastlake style such as the diagonal and short vertical stickwork on the gables. It also features molded bargeboards and decorative strips applied to the window on the east side. The porch, which is not original to the structure, features simple and geometric details that do not distract from the rest of the house. The residence has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.
The William D. Alexander House is a historic house located in Provo, Utah. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is asserted to be the only period example of Stick Style architecture in the state of Utah.
The Judson C. Cutter House is a Stick style house built in 1882 in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1978 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, then recognized as the best remaining example of Stick style in the city.
The Orfordville Depot was built in 1886 by the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad and served as a de facto social center for the tiny community of Orfordville, Wisconsin for decades. In 1988 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Folk Victorian is an architectural style employed for some homes in the United States and Europe between 1870 and 1910, though isolated examples continued to be built well into the 1930s. Folk Victorian homes are relatively plain in their construction but embellished with decorative trim. Folk Victorian is a subset of Victorian architecture. It differentiates itself from other subsets of Victorian architecture by being less elaborate and having more regular floor plans. Examples include the Bacon Hotel, Albert Spencer Wilcox Beach House, Lost Creek Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Depot (1892), James B. Carden House (1885), Ephriam M. Baynard House, and Sibley's General Store (1899) in the Sibley's and James Store Historic District.
The Drewsville Mansion is a historic house on Old Cheshire Turnpike in the Drewsville village of Walpole, New Hampshire, United States. Built in 1880, it is a regionally rare example of vernacular Stick/Eastlake style architecture, located in an area that has predominantly even older buildings. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
The Theodore Parker Lukens House is a historic house, located at 267 North El Molino Avenue, in Pasadena, California. Built in 1886–87, the house is among the oldest standing in Pasadena. Architect Harry Ridgway designed the Victorian house; while its design is mainly influenced by the Stick and Eastlake subtypes, it also includes elements of the Queen Anne style. The house features multiple deep gables and gabled dormers with decorative stickwork hanging from the edges. The two-story front porch is supported by decorative posts and features patterned bargeboards above the first floor designed to resemble curtains.
Gingerbread is an architectural style that consists of elaborately detailed embellishment known as gingerbread trim. It is more specifically used to describe the detailed decorative work of American designers in the late 1860s and 1870s, which was associated mostly to the Carpenter Gothic style. It was loosely based on the Picturesque period of English architecture in the 1830s.
New Haven station is a historic train station located at New Haven, Allen County, Indiana. It was built in 1890 by the Wabash Railroad. It is a one-story, wood-frame building, with Stick Style / Eastlake movement ornamentation. It measures approximately 50 feet long and 20 feet wide and has a gable roof and board and batten siding.
The E.J. Baird House is a historic building located in Millersburg, Iowa, United States. Baird was a prominent citizen here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He grew very wealthy through his involvement in commerce, banking, and farming. Baird operated a very successful general store in Millersburg, which was the primary source of his income. His 2½-story frame house is an outstanding example of Victorian "pattern book" architecture, with influences from the Victorian Gothic, Queen Anne, and Eastlake styles. The Victorian Gothic is found in the vergeboard on the gable ends. The Queen Anne style is found in the two-story projecting bay that is capped with a pyramid-shaped roof. The Eastlake influence is more dominant than the others. Its decorative influence is found in the sunburst on the projecting front dormer, the decorative brackets along the eaves, and the large porch with its lattice-like base, spindle balustrades, and turned posts. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
In the New World, Queen Anne Revival was a historicist architectural style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was popular in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries. In Australia, it is also called Federation architecture.
The Henry R. Watson House is a single-family home located at 7215 North Ann Arbor-Saline Road in Saline, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
small wooden boards [...] that were often horizontal, diagonal, and vertical. [...] These decorative cross timbers were also called stickwork.
The stick-style home, popular from 1860 to 1890, was a wooden home with a gabled roof that featured diagonal wooden trusses in the gables much like the Tudor revival.
Media related to Stick style architecture in the United States at Wikimedia Commons