A gablefront house, also known as a gable front house or front gable house, is a

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

(or "folk") house type in which the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

is facing the street or entrance side of the house. They were built in large numbers throughout the United States primarily between the early 19th century and 1920. A gablefront cottage is a smaller variant, consisting of either a single story or a story-and-a-half. They were typically used as working-class dwellings, most being rather simple in design. However, they may contain some ornamentation such as

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

around the doorways or roof line. Many gablefront houses contain front porches.

History

The gablefront house developed after 1825 and coincided with the popularity of the American Greek Revival style, which placed emphasis on the gable-end of the house in the form of a

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

; often associated with

Greek temple Greek temples (, semantically distinct from Latin , " temple") were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in ancient Greek religion. The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, since the sacrifices and ritu ...

s. The gablefront house allows the narrow part of the house to face the street, usually on a rectangular lot. The gablefront house became a uniquely American folk house type. The gablefront house cropped up in styles ranging from Greek Revival, to

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

, to Queen Anne, to a simpler vernacular style home. The gablefront house form remained popular into the early 20th century.America's Favorite Homes: Mail-order Catalogues as a Guide to Popular Early 20th-century Houses, 1990

Variants

Gabled ell

One variation of the gablefront house is the gabled ell. The gabled ell incorporated a side gable, which was typically added-on to the house. The add-on was usually in order to obtain additional space, light and cross-ventilation.

T-plan

Another variation of this house form is the T-plan house. The T-plan house consists of gable-ends on either side of the front-facing main gable.

References

External links