Why Victorian architecture?greenspun.com : LUSENET : San Francisco History : One Thread |
Where does the Victorian influence in the residential architecutre come from? and from what period?
-- Maren Maier (mmm93@columbia.edu), March 20, 2001
It is named so because of the reign of Queen Victoria. It mostly began in about 1870 to 1900. it includes all architecture of the time, so it is dificult to define in absolute terms. There are 3 distinct periods; Italianate, Eastlake (stick), and Queen Anne. San Francisco & the Bay Area had more so called Victorian architecture than any other area in the world.It also developed a style all it's own. The reasons were the Gold rush and especially the Silver Comstock lode in Nevada, SF was the richest fasted growing city in the world and they were building in the style of
-- Craig Smith (palmedo@aol.com), April 23, 2001.
Another reason Victorian architecture caught on here was the local building material: redwood. Because it's soft it's easy to carve by machine, all that fancy trim could be mass-produced.
-- Janet Bailey (author, The Great San Francisco Trivia & Fact Book) (janetbailey@sprintmail.com), April 30, 2001.