Architectural style · c. 1880–1950
Colonial Revival
A return to Georgian and Federal forms, but larger and more regular, with an emphasized entrance portico and dormers.
Interest in early American buildings grew after the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, and by 1900 Colonial Revival was the country's favorite domestic style. It borrows the symmetry, sash windows, fanlights and pediments of the colonial and Federal period, but at a larger scale and with more regular proportions, often with a columned entry porch or portico and a row of dormers.
Restorations such as Colonial Williamsburg in the 1920s and 1930s fed the style. Many country inns and resort hotels of the early 20th century are Colonial Revival, deliberately evoking the old coaching inn for motorists on the new highways.
Where you'll see it: Nationwide, in every decade from the 1890s to the 1950s.
How to recognize it
- Symmetrical front with a centered entrance
- Entry porch or portico with columns and a pediment
- Fanlight or transom with sidelights
- Multi-pane sash windows, often in pairs
- Dormers in a side-gabled or hipped roof
- Larger scale and more regular detail than true colonial buildings
