The shingle style is an American

architectural style An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...

made popular by the rise of the New England school of architecture, which eschewed the highly ornamented patterns of the Eastlake style in Queen Anne architecture. In the shingle style, English influence was combined with the renewed interest in Colonial American architecture which followed the 1876 celebration of the Centennial. The plain, shingled surfaces of colonial buildings were adopted, and their massing emulated. Aside from being a style of design, the style also conveyed a sense of the house as continuous volume. This effect—of the building as an envelope of space, rather than a great mass, was enhanced by the visual tautness of the flat shingled surfaces, the horizontal shape of many shingle style houses, and the emphasis on horizontal continuity, both in exterior details and in the flow of spaces within the houses.

History

McKim, Mead and White McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm based in New York City. The firm came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in ''fin de siècle'' New York. The firm's founding partners, Cha ...

and Peabody and Stearns were two of the notable firms of the era that helped to popularize the shingle style, through their large-scale commissions for "seaside cottages" of the rich and the well-to-do in such places as Newport, Rhode Island and the village of East Hampton on the southeastern tip of Long Island. Perhaps the most famous shingle style house built in America was " Kragsyde" (1882) the summer home commissioned by Bostonian G. Nixon Black, from Peabody and Stearns. Kragsyde was built atop the rocky coastal shore near

Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts Manchester-by-the-Sea (also known simply as Manchester, its name prior to 1990) is a coastal town on Cape Ann, in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is known for scenic beaches and vista points. According to the 2020 populati ...

, and embodied every possible tenet of the shingle style. The William G. Low House, designed by

McKim, Mead & White McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm based in New York City. The firm came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in ''fin de siècle'' New York. The firm's founding partners, Cha ...

and built in 1887, is another notable example. Many of the concepts of the Shingle style were adopted by

Gustav Stickley Gustav Stickley (March 9, 1858 – April 15, 1942) was an American furniture manufacturer, design leader, publisher, and a leading voice in the American Arts and Crafts movement. Stickley's design philosophy was a major influence on American ...

, and adapted to the American version of the

Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

. Additionally, there are several other notable styles of Victorian architecture, including

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

, Second Empire, Folk and

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 ...

. Some concentrations of shingle style architecture are listed in the

U.S. National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of sites, buildings, structures, districts, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Significant listed historic districts include:National Register's NRIS database * Bay Head Historic District in

Bay Head, New Jersey Bay Head is a borough situated on the Jersey Shore in northern Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 930, a decrease of 38 (−3.9%) from the 2010 census count of 968, ...

, with several dozen shingle houses *

Houses in Sycamore Historic District The houses in the Sycamore Historic District, in Sycamore, Illinois, United States, cross a variety of architectural styles and span from the 1830s to the early 20th century. There are 187 contributing properties within the historic district, ...

, in Sycamore, Illinois * Fenwick Historic District, perhaps Connecticut's largest concentration, with 17 * Montauk Association Historic District, on Long Island * Houses in the Glen Ridge Historic District of Glen Ridge, New Jersey The style was named, together with the

Stick Style The Stick style was a late-19th-century American architectural style, transitional between the Carpenter Gothic style of the mid-19th century, and the Queen Anne style that it had evolved into by the 1890s. It is named after its use of linear " ...

, by Yale University architectural historian Vincent Scully in his 1949 doctoral dissertation ''The Cottage Style''. This was followed by several magazine articles on the subject, culminating in Scully's ''The Shingle Style with the Stick Style'' in 1971 and ''The Shingle Style Today'' in 1974.Scully, ''The Shingle Style Today'', p. 1

Characteristics

Architects of the shingle style emulated colonial houses' plain, shingled surfaces as well as their massing, whether in the single exaggerated

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 ...

of McKim Mead and White's Low House or in the complex massing of Kragsyde. This impression of the passage of time is enhanced by the use of shingles. Some architects, in order to attain a weathered look on a new building, had the

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae * Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona ...

shakes dipped in buttermilk, dried and then installed, to leave a grayish tinge to the façade. Shingle style houses often use a

gambrel A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, while the lower slope is steep. This design provides the advantages of a sloped roof while maxim ...

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

. Such houses thus emanate a more pronounced mass and a greater emphasis on horizontality.

Shingle style overseas

The shingle style eventually spread beyond North America. In Australia, it was introduced by the Canadian architect

John Horbury Hunt John Horbury Hunt (1838 – 30 December 1904), often referred to as Horbury Hunt, was a Canadian-born Australian architect who worked in Sydney and rural New South Wales from 1863. Life and career Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of ...

in the nineteenth century. Some of his shingle style homes still survive and are heritage-listed. Some of his most notable examples of the style are Highlands, a home in the Sydney suburb of

Wahroonga Wahroonga is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 18 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Ku-ring-gai Council and Hornsby Shire. ...

, and Pibrac, in the nearby suburb of Warrawee. The latter house has been featured in a television commercial. Gatehouse, also in Wahroonga, was not one of Hunt's designs, but is heritage-listed.

Examples of the shingle style

File:Wattsshermanhouse.jpg, William Watts Sherman House, Newport, Rhode Island (1875–76),

Henry Hobson Richardson Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...

, architect File:Copy of 3BellevueFront1880.jpg,

Newport Casino The Newport Casino is an athletic complex and recreation center located at 180–200 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island in the Bellevue Avenue/Casino Historic District. Built in 1879–1881 by ''New York Herald'' publisher James Gor ...

, Newport, Rhode Island (1879),

, architects File:HorseshoePostcard.jpg, Horseshoe Courtyard,

, Newport, Rhode Island (1879),

, architects. Circa 1900 postcard. File:BEACH HAVEN HISTORIC DIST. OCEAN COUNTY, NJ.jpg, Holy Innocents Episcopal Church,

Beach Haven, New Jersey Beach Haven is a Borough (New Jersey), borough situated on the Jersey Shore in southern Ocean County, New Jersey, Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough is located on Long Beach Island (LBI) and borders the Atlantic Ocean. ...

(1881–82), Wilson Brothers & Company, architects File:Isaac Bell House, Newport, RI.jpg, Isaac Bell House, Newport, Rhode Island (1882),

, architects File:StoughtonHouse.jpg, Mary Fiske Stoughton House, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1882–83),

, architect File:Wm Kent Cottage Tuxedo Park NY 1886 Bruce Price.jpg, William Kent Cottage,

Tuxedo Park, New York Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. Its population was 645 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh metropolitan area as well as the larger New York metropolitan area. Its name ...

(1886, demolished),

Bruce Price Bruce Price (December 12, 1845 – May 29, 1903) was an American architect and an innovator in the Shingle style architecture, Shingle Style. The stark geometry and compact massing of his cottages in Tuxedo Park, New York, influenced Modern ...

, architect File:St. Mary's front view cropped.jpg, St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo Episcopal Church, Tuxedo Park, New York (1888),

William Appleton Potter William Appleton Potter (December 10, 1842 – February 19, 1909) was an American architect who designed numerous buildings for Princeton University, as well as municipal offices and churches. He served as a Office of the Supervising Architect, ...

, architect File:William Berryman Scott House.jpg, The

William Berryman Scott William Berryman Scott (February 12, 1858 – March 29, 1947) was an American vertebrate paleontologist, authority on mammals, and principal author of the White River Oligocene monographs. He was a professor of geology and paleontology at Pr ...

House (1888), designed by A. Page Brown, at 56 Bayard Lane,

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

in the Princeton Historic District File:(1)Pibrac in Warrawee.jpg, Pibrac (1888), Sydney, Australia,

, architect File:Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio (west side zoom).JPG, Frank Lloyd Wright House and Studio, Oak Park, Chicago, Illinois (1889),

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

, architect File:Charles Lang Freer House.jpg,

Charles Lang Freer House The Charles Lang Freer House is located at 71 East Ferry Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The house was originally built for the industrialist and art collector Charles Lang Freer, whose gift of the Freer Gallery of Art began the Smithsonian I ...

, Detroit, Michigan (1890), Wilson Eyre, architect File:Massey House Blue Island August Fiedler.png, Harry and Stella Massey house, Blue Island, IL (1890) August Fiedler, architect File:(1)Highlands Wahroonga Sydney.jpg, Highlands (1891), Sydney, Australia,

, architect File:EssexTownHall.jpg, Essex Town Hall and TOHP Burnham Library, Essex, Massachusetts (1893–94), Frank W. Weston, architect File:Bethesda-by-the-SeaPalmBeachFL.jpg, Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church,

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from West Palm Beach, Florida, West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach, Florida, ...

(1895), John H. Lee, architect File:Owl's Nest - Washington, D.C..jpg, Owl's Nest (aka Crounse House),

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

(1897), Appleton P. Clark Jr., architect File:New West Mansion.JPG, Modern replica of a shingle-style house (c. 2004), opposite Queen's Park, New Westminster, British Columbia File:Edward Drummond Libbey Residence, exterior views, 2018 - DPLA - aa7c307be24b855d9bbf422d04ae5238 (page 7).jpg, Edward D. Libbey House in Toledo, Ohio an example of Shingle Style with Colonial Revival architectural elements, 2018

References

External links

A Look at Shingle Style Architecture: Reflections of the American Spirit
article at ThoughtCo.
Definition with examples
at Phorio Standards {{Authority control 19th-century architectural styles 19th-century architecture in the United States House styles *Shingle style Victorian architectural styles

Shingle style The shingle style is an American architectural style made popular by the rise of the New England school of architecture, which eschewed the highly ornamented patterns of the Eastlake style in Queen Anne architecture. In the shingle style, Engli ...