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Stick Style 1860-1890
Stick Style houses often have sawn wood decorations
high up in the gables, and these geometric patterns give it its
name, but the key to identifying this style is the pattern of
heavier wood trim on the exterior wood walls suggesting an internal
structure of posts and beams. These run horizontally, vertically,
and, less often, diagonally. They frame windows - often set in
pairs - and doors, sills, wall edges and roof lines. These houses
are wood frame with clapboarding between the simulated beams.
Steep gables rise from side walls resulting in cross-gabled roofs
with tall chimneys. Facades are asymmetrical and floor plans are
complex. Elaborate porches with stick work will be present and
sets of windows will usually be topped by a small hood.
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The best example of the Stick Style is also
one of the earliest: the Art Association of Newport, RI,
designed by Richard Morris Hunt in 1863. The distinctive
beam patterning is clearly seen in the exterior walls, and
the integrated porch is also characteristic.
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Decorative detail is loosely drawn from Gothic sources,
never classical, but represents the creative use of the scroll
saw, primarily. Colors are varied and usually several are used
to pick out walls, trim and details. Darker colors were favored
originally, but today the "painted ladies" are done
in all colors.
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Worcester, MA's best Stick Style house is
on Fruit Street, shown here. The stickwork in the dormers
and porch gables is typical but it is the horizontal and
vertical simulated beam patterns that identify the style.
Note the paired windows with hoods and cornice brackets.
Machine-sawn woodwork was inexpensive and used to full advantage.
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The inspiration for Stick is English Gothic of the
Victorian age, seen in dark brick public buildings with tall towers
and Gothic trim. These were influenced by the English art critic
John Ruskin whose architectural theories were widely read. The
Stick Style carried his ideas into domestic architecture.
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This mill-owner's house in Whitinsville,
MA, of 1875, shows all the Stick Style refinements. Like
the others it is asymmetrical, with overhanging roof lines,
stickwork, paired windows, false framing and porches. Complex
floor plans were made possible by balloon framing - lightweight
structural members rather than a frame of heavy timbers
- which is found in all post-Civil War house construction.(the
porch glazing is modern)
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