Example of Queen Anne Victorian Style Architecture in San Francisco, CA via Wikipedia
So how can you have a Queen Anne Victorian? Who was this Queen (usually heard in the Castro in an entirely different context, but I digress…)? How did she get involved? And what, exactly, is a Queen Anne Victorian anyway?
In Britain, Queen Anne Style refers to English Baroque styles created during the reign of Queen Anne during her reign from 1702 – 1714. However, San Francisco is far, far from England, and according to our friends at Wikipedia, the define the American style as:
In America, the Queen Anne style of architecture, furniture and decorative arts was popular in the United States from 1880 to 1910. In American usage “Queen Anne” is loosely used of a wide range of picturesque buildings with “free Renaissance” (non-Gothic Revival) details rather than of a specific formulaic style in its own right.
That seems like a whole lot of words that don’t exactly help me nail down what a Queen Anne Victorian in San Francisco would look like. Fortunately, they go on to list some typical architectural details that you would expect to see:
Distinctive features of American Queen Anne style (rooted in the English style) may include an asymmetrical facade; dominant front-facing gable, often cantilevered out beyond the plane of the wall below; overhanging eaves; round, square, or polygonal tower(s); shaped and Dutch gables; a porch covering part or all of the front facade, including the primary entrance area; a second-story porch or balconies; pedimented porches; differing wall textures, such as patterned wood shingles shaped into varying designs, including resembling fish scales, terra cotta tiles, relief panels, or wooden shingles over brickwork, etc; dentils; classical columns; spindle work; oriel and bay windows; horizontal bands of leaded windows; monumental chimneys; painted balustrades; and wooden or slate roofs. Front gardens often had wooden fences.
But what I still don’t understand is why it’s called Queen Anne if it was during the reign of Queen Victoria?
