18 |ARTS & CRAFTS HOMES Winter 2017
UP FRONT&BOOKS
We humans like to classify things. Science
guides us when it comes to rocks and
primates. Architecture is thornier, though,
manifesting not through atomic structure
or DNA but rather subject to changing tech-
nologies and fashions, designer whim or
ignorance, local conditions, and the money
at hand. “What style is my house?” is often
a question not easily answered.
Since the mid
1980s I’ve kept on my
desk a copy of A Field
Guide to American
Houses. It is the best
and most compre-
hensive taxonomy of
American domestic architecture (i.e., houses).
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it has been revised by its original author,
Virginia McAlester, who added new sections;
the paperback edition was recently released.It is big, over 800 pages, but this is no lavishly
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of detailed drawings and b&w photos of real
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with exhaustive descriptions of window types
and porches, entry doors and roof lines, plus
subtypes, and vernacular or regional variants,
and information on occurrence or range,
along with historical tidbits.
The revised book includes a new
section on neighborhoods; expanded and
all-new house style categories; an appen-
dix on recent construction approaches
(including prefab and “green”); and 600 new
photos and line drawings. The timeline now
extends from 1 7 th-century settlers’ houses
through Postmodern, New Traditional, and
Millennium houses. Helpful introductory
texts help us “see” neighborhood devel-
opment and individual houses as an urban
planner or architect might. —Patricia PooreABOVE From the chapter on Craftsman houses, “some typical porch supports and porch
railings.” PHOTOS McAlester created a taxonomy for Styled Ranch houses of the mid-20th
century. They include Spanish and Colonial Revival Ranches (top), and also Neoclassical,
French, Tudor, and “Other” Ranches, this one with a pagoda roof (right, top to bottom).A FIELD GUIDE TO
AMERICAN HOUSES
Revised second edition
by Virginia Savage McAlester.
Knopf, 2015 (pb.), 849 pp., $29.MISSION REVIVAL