Tudor Houses

    Tudor houses found in America are known as Tudor Revivals. Now to non-architect buffs that term can be confusing, and not knowing what it meant myself, I visited one of the finest Tudor revival homes in America, Stan Hywet Hall, to find out.
    My guide for the day, Mark Gilles, the director of Historic Structures at Stan Hywet Hall, explained that the Tudor revival was a time when architects "revived" the style of architecture that was popular during the Tudor period in England, hence the name Tudor revival. The period in England lasted from roughly the 16th to 17th century; however, it wasn't until the 1920s that the Tudor style became extremely popular in America. But don't think we were the first to start using it. The Tudor revivals' popularity began in the country that inspired the style.
    "In England you saw a revival of the Tudor that started in the 1830s," Gilles said.  "That started before our civil war. After our civil war, then you started seeing the Tudor Revival coming from England to America. So, again, your more affluent families were the ones starting to import the Tudor Revival in the 1870s and 1880s, and then it really became popular during the 1920s. That's when you really had an explosion of Tudor Revival going on."
    The Tudor revival style remained popular in America until the 1940s to1950s. While it's easy to be fooled into thinking the Tudor revival became popular for aesthetic purposes, you'd only be half right. Wealthy families in America were drawn to the Tudor revival style for what it stood for rather than what it looked like.
   "Tudor represented the very earliest colonial homes," Gilles said. "The homes you had being built in Plymouth at the time, were your half-timbre homes. ... That kind of represented the oldest type of colonial architecture."
    Being the oldest style of architecture drew the wealthiest level of society because they wanted to look as if they had lived there for years. Possessing an older lineage was important to many during that time period due to the large numbers of immigrants coming to America.
    "The more traditional English Tudor was brought over to have that appearance of ancestry," Gilles said. "Here we're older, we're established, we're not like the new immigrants coming in. So, that was the appearance they wanted to create for themselves, and they did it very well."
    Gilles was not kidding. When I asked if the owners of Tudor revivals were seen as prestigious, Gilles responded by telling me that the Tudors were nicknamed at the     "Stockbroker's House." Basically, people who built Tudor houses weren't doing to bad for themselves, and it showed.
    When setting out to find one of those stockbrokers' houses, there are many key characteristics to look for. Typically, Tudor houses were made of stone, brick or stucco and had steeper pitched roofs, bargeboards, half-timbering and the classic Tudor arches. Those Tudor arches are seen on both the doors and windows. The windows in Tudor houses are vertical and grouped in twos or threes, according to Gilles. Made from leaded glass, each window was comprised of numerous small windowpanes.
    While those characteristics give you an idea of what was used to construct Tudor houses, the most defining characteristic might be the way they were laid out. Tudor houses were to appear as if they had "evolved over time," as Gilles said. As a result, Tudor houses could not be symmetrical. It would look too planned. Instead, the layout of a Tudor home is always asymmetrical in order to appear more natural.  
"Tudor Revival is more of an organic architecture," Gilles said. "It's something that grows out of the ground."
    When looking at a Tudor house, you can see how it looks as if it grew from the ground - and not just for it's predominantly dark brown color. Tudor houses appear more earthly than those of other styles, and it is that raw quality that makes them stand out in a line up - that, and the half-timbering. When you see half-timbering, you know your looking at a Tudor house. Excuse me. I mean a stockbroker's house.