Term: Colonial Revival (architecture)
Definition:
a style popular ca. 1895-1920 that used colonial motifs, such as broad classical porches, gables, decorative swags, festoons, and pediments. The John S. Gittens house (1895), at 823 North Broadway in De Pere's North Broadway Street Historic District (NRHP 1983), is a good example of this Colonial Revival style. The simplicity and regularity of the style lent itself well to standardization. Some forms of the Colonial Revival are properly referred to as Georgian Revival, because of their reference to early American Georgian architecture. These Georgian Revival structures, like the Richard T. Ely house (NRHP 1974), built in Madison in 1896, tend to be larger in scale and more richly finished than Colonial Revival buildings. Testimony to the enduring popularity of both the Colonial Revival and Georgian Revival was their popularity in the 1920s-1940s. View more information elsewhere at wisconsinhistory.org.
View pictures relating to architecture at Wisconsin Historical Images.
[Source: Cultural Resource Management in Wisconsin (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1986).
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