Please help my identify my house style

[oldhouseluvr]

I have a copy of the Field Guide that James referred to and looked up house styles that might be applicable to your home. I am no expert but it looks to me like your house falls into the Folk Houses: National category and more specifically is considered an I-House. The Field Guide mentions that these were found predominantly in the eastern part of the country, particularly in the Tidewater South. I have to run, but will try to come back later and add more info for you.

[Loke]

Thank you for looking it up! I really appreciate your input and find it very helpful.

[James]

Ok now with a picture we can start to figure out a few things. So you think it was built aroun 1860. Seems very possible. Could even be older. Where is it? Just the state would help some.
What is the floor plan. Is there a central hall in the front portion? Looks a little narrow for that put camera angle could be deceptive. If there is no central hall then the front portion would be referred to as a hall and parlor. And it is regardless definitely an I house with a rear wing ell, a very big one at that. No central hall plans tend to be earlier than the ones with the central halls, but that is in no way an absolute rule. Lots started without a central hall and then a wall would be added to create one, if there was sufficient space. The style of the staircase could help date it as well. The simpler and plainer it is, generally the earlier. But again, not absolute. The pocket book of the original owner was always a facter in how fancy, just like today.
Not a fan of vinyl here but you didn't do that so won't say anything beyond its to bad but some things can't be helped. The replaced windows hurt in trying to date it because the style of the original windows tell you alot about when it was built. But again, can't be helped.
It looks like a VERY nice place, and huge. Tho I am guessing its basically one room deep so it may look bigger than it really is. Lots of old places tend to do that, the one room wide deal allowed for lots of cross ventilation in the pre air conditioning days.
As for researching it, you need to go to the court house and starting tracking it back through the grantor grantee indexs to see who owned it over the years and what the deed says about it. You might get a good idea of who and when it was built from that. When I got mine on the register we had to trace the property back to the royal land grants in the 1740's. Its all public records. Hopefully the records are all still intact and not lost over the years to fires floods or invasion(a real problem if you're in Virginia or Georgia and a few other places).
The vernacular farmhouse works for me as to a name for the style, tho it is a bit of a catch all. Can't think of anything better for it.

[Loke]

We are in Indiana. Our title work dates the house at 1860. Unfortunately the court house does not have records dating back that old, due to a flood, I was told. I have been to the library a couple of times to look at plats(??) to see if I could locate the "farm". It doesn't help that I am not originally from this area and don't have much knowledge of it or reading any kind of maps!!

If entering in the front door, there is no hallway. Entering in the side door, there is a hallway. According to the owner who bought the house in 1959, she said that the staircase was not very wide & faced the opposite direction, but she had it turned around & widened. There was not originally a hallway upstairs, you just walk from room to room, but in 2007 there was a hallway put in upstairs. It is a 3,000 sq ft home, but it doesn't feel that big to me as there is no open spaces or shared rooms. Here is a picture of the front room. Also, we had a new bay window installed in 2010, but is much muh smaller than the other one. We are not at all happy with it & may have them re-do. I am going to try to attach 2 pictures of it in 1960...we'll see how it goes!

[Loke]

you can see another door on the side...

[James]

Ok, so that sounds like it was built as a simple two over two hall and parlor plan farmhouse. With the rear ell likely being an early addition just as you suspected(but could be original). The original stair(shame they changed it) likely might have been an enclosed stair. No real style to speak off, beyond whatever might have been on the original front porch. Seems the front porch you have now is not old. Not to surprising, certainly the current trim looks very modern. Lack of any original halls makes it sound like it was certainly a bit more of a working class home. The higher up the social scale you go the more likely you are to find nice wide halls. My place originally had none either and the only one now is in part of the enclosed back porch between what is now the kitchen and the bath, which occupy opposite ends of the old porch space.
3000 square feet sounds very large to me. My place is less than half that(tho for when it was built this place was bigger than average, lots of folks lived in simple one room with lofts and a shed room off the back. Even the surviving homes of a NC. Governor and a Speaker of the US House from NC in the early 19th century consist of one room with a loft.)
Vernacular farmhouse definitely seems to fit it, as it does not fall into any of the classical "styles", the person who built it was just building a place to live, not looking to impress people with a show place. Tho clearly more recent owners have defintely been more ambitious.

[Don M]

I agree with James; I think he has nailed it well. The fact that you have a second narrow back stairway makes me think that part of the house was an early addition as James said. My stone farmhouse circa 1830-40 has a similar small back stairway & it was added probably in the 1860s as it was in existance in 1880s when we have a written description of the house. Our house has a back wing much like yours although ours has a central front hall with staircase & symetrical parlors on each side. Ours was 2 rooms deep on either side of a central hallway. Your home is very nice & I really like your deep front porch.

[Loke]

Thank you all for your help and for your insight, I really appreciate it!

[melissakd]

Hello and welcome!

I agree that your house looks like it began as an I-house.

My house was built in Indiana in 1864! : )

Your picture from 1960 shows several 6-over-6 windows; I would suspect that the two-over-two windows are original, and the small-paned ones were replacements.

If you are able to make it to Fort Wayne, the public library has a terrific genealogy department where you might be able to find out more about your house and land. I had a wonderful time researching mine. Your public library and historical society could help too.

I started a thread yonks ago about researching your house...I ought to dig it up and finish it

MelissaKD