Architectural
Styles in Rensselaer County:
Italianate Style:
1840s and 1885s
The Italianate Style was inspired by the breezy
openness of Italian villas. Abandoning the rigid forms of the
Greek Revival Style, Italianate buildings have freer more asymmetrical
massing and "romantic" features such as towers, cupolas
and bay windows, but unlike Gothic Revival buildings, Italianate
buildings have a boxy or square feeling to them.
The style is chiefly distinguished by the heavy
use of ornamental brackets, set under wide cornices and under
door and window hoods. Mass production of these ornamental brackets
and hoods made them readily available and relatively inexpensive.
It is not uncommon to find earlier styles which were transformed
into Italianate structures during the mid-19th century.
Italianate homes were covered with clapboards and
painted in rather deep yellow-green, gray or blue-gray colors.
The brackets were usually painted in a strong contrasting color
such as pale yellow or dark green. Many colonial and federal style
houses were "remodeled" in the late 19th century into
Italianate structures. this was done by adding brackets, elongated
windows and bay windows.
In houses, look for:
[Route 7]
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Houses
are often simple, cubic building shapes with hipped roofs.
A "hipped" roof is one that slants on all four sides.
The eaves of this house are supported by wooden brackets at
the cornice line (where the walls meet the roof).
Tall, two-over-two double-hung windows, bay
windows.
Porches with carved posts.
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[Church Street, Hoosick Falls]
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The projecting central bay of this
house mimics the tower popular in this style. |
[Maple Avenue, Troy]
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The tower
of this front-gabled house has a mansard roof and iron cresting.
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[Castleton]
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A hipped roof with a small central
gable is common in some regions. The small tower on the roof
is called a cupola. |
 
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An important
distinguishing feature of the Italianate is the wide, overhanging
eaves supported by large decorated brackets at the cornice
line.
Double doors, often arched. |
 
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Round-headed
windows with curved wooden or brick arches. The
window moldings are more prominent than in earlier styles.
Some windows have curved or triangular pediments.
Many extend from the wall and are called "hooded"
window moldings. |
Bay
windows and porches add to the shape of the house. |
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In commercial buildings, look for:
[Vanderbilt Hotel,
Stephentown]
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This commercial
example has a cupola. |
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Cast iron ornamentation
in storefronts and over windows. |
Photos by Lorraine E. Weiss; Drawings
by Andrea J.Becker
Next style: Second
Empire
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