Architectural Styles 

Buildings are used for many purposes and are therefore classified into houses, stores, churches, governmental, and industrial. We will only concern ourselves with single-family residential and commercial structures, which are commonly found in Eau Claire and in the western Midwest. Buildings are classified into distinctive styles:
Residential Styles
Commercial Styles
Study each so that you can recognize them when you are walking in Eau Claire and other U.S. cities. A list of references is provided. Look at other architectural photos at ArchNet.





You have two ways to search for particular building (residential and commercial) styles:
1) Click on the letter to find an architectural style.
2) To find specific styles by name, decade, number of stories, and building materials, use search.

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The great variety of house styles can be grouped by decades using the number of stories. Multiple and single stories houses were built in each decade, but certain heights predominated, as shown in the graph. But less common height types were also built: for example, one-story two-pen houses were built in the 1880s-1890s; two-story Art Deco houses were built in the 1930s; and one-story houses with huge roofs were built in the 2000s. Some of the typical house styles for each of the heights are listed.
2.5 stories                          
2 stories                        
1.5 stories                          
1 story                          
Decades 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
High Styles Greek Revival
Queen Anne
Italianate		 Revival styles:
French Provincial
Normandy
Spanish
Tudor		 Arts & Craft
Bungalow		 Cape Cod Early Ranch
 		 Ranch
Split-Level		 Shed
New England Colonial
(energy crisis)		 Neo-Eclectic styles
Common Styles Upright & Wing Cubic smaller versions of revival styles smaller, simpler versions of the above simpler, cheaper versions of the above styles ordinary versions of Neo-Eclectic styles

Created by Ingolf Vogeler on 18 April 1997; last revised on 10 April 2009.