Model Home Styles

Use this guide to help you determine which home style best represents your model home.

Spanish Eclectic (1915-1940)

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Identifying features:

  • Asymmetrical facade
  • Stucco wall surfaces
  • Low-pitched roof, usually with little or no eave overhang
  • Arches above doors and principal windows or beneath porch roofs
  • Ornamental effects include patches of molded decoration, stained or otherwise darkened wood, and wrought-iron grillwork

Tudor Revival (1890-1940)

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Identifying features:

  • Facade dominated by one or more prominent cross gables, sometimes with half-timbering
  • Massive chimneys, commonly crowned by decorative chimney pots
  • Tall, narrow windows, commonly in multiple groups and with multiplane glazing
  • Steeply pitched roof, usually side-gabled
  • Entry has rounded or flattened, pointed arch

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Victorian Shingle (1880-1990)

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Identifying features:

  • Unpainted wood shingles covering entire exterior
  • Prominent roofs, either steeply-pitched or with long slopes
  • Rough-surfaced stone or field rubble used as contrasting materials
  • Turrets and verandas integrated into overall design
  • Extensive porches

Prairie Style (1900-1920)

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Identifying features:

  • Low, horizontal silhouette
  • Wide overhanging eaves extending from main house to emphasize horizontal lines
  • Broad, low-pitched roof
  • Massive square porch supports
  • Walls of light-colored brick or stucco and wood
  • Rows of small casement windows; stained-glass accents in stylistic floral or geometric designs
  • Walls at right angles; no curves
  • Large, plain rectangular chimney

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Craftsman Bungalow (1905-1930)

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Identifying features:

  • Low-pitched, gabled roof (occasionally hipped) with wide, un-enclosed eave overhang
  • Roof rafters usually exposed
  • Decorative beams or braces under gables
  • Porch support bases extending to ground level (without break at level of porch floor)
  • Porch supports usually squared and sometimes slanting inward

Colonial Revival (1880-1940)

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Identifying features:

  • Front door accentuated with decorative crown and/or entry porch
  • Facades with symmetrically balanced windows and centered door
  • Windows with double-hung sashes, usually with multiplane glazing in one or both sashes
  • Windows frequently in adjacent pairs or triples

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Ranch House (1932-1980)

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Identifying features:

  • Asymmetrical one-story design
  • Low-pitched roof, with the hipped version the most common
  • Moderate or wide eave overhang
  • Partially enclosed courtyards or patios
  • Large picture windows
  • Built of local materials (wood, stucco, brick, or stone)
  • Shaped like an L or U and surrounds a patio
  • Large expanses of glass

Cape Cod Cottage (1750-1850; 1940-1950)

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Identifying features:

  • Steeped roof
  • Story-and-a-half with single-gabled ends
  • Multi-paned windows
  • Ridge-centered chimney

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Georgian (1698-1720)

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Identifying features:

  • Square, symmetrical shape
  • Hipped-roof
  • Main entrance emphasized with columns, pilasters, and broken pediment
  • Decorative crown over front door
  • Decorative flattened columns on each side of door
  • Paired chimneys
  • Windows with double-hung sashes, typically with six to twelve small panes per sash
  • Cornice emphasized by decorative moldings; most commonly tooth-like dentils

Dutch Farmhouse

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Identifying features:

  • Gambrel roof
  • Flaring eaves covering porch
  • Wide overhangs
  • Shed-type or gable-type dormers
  • Cubic rooms
  • Rounded windows in gabled attic area

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Split Level

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Identifying features:

  • Partially submerged basement with living quarters
  • Low-pitched gable roof
  • Asymmetrical
  • Large windows; double-hung, sliding, and picture
  • Sliding glass doors leading to patio
  • Lack decorative detailing, aside from decorative shutters and porch-roof supports

Regency (1820-1860)

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Identifying features:

  • Huge front verandas and large French doors
  • Stunning veranda
  • Asymmetrical
  • Regular rectangular floor plan

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