Folk Victorian Attic

Martinez folk victorian home has attic pull down staircase martinez ca the house with a walk up porch was once displayed as part of the martinez historic home tour.

Folk victorian attic.

The machine age was in full swing and the railroads carried huge new inventories of new materials and patterns available for homes of this time. One example is found with the bowlers an adventurous family who volunteered to spend three months in a victorian townhouse for a british television series the 1900 house. At the time the town was a bustling hub for the illinois central railroad. Victorian houses may be beautiful but living in a genuine victorian might be harder than you think.

Likely built in the 1890s as a folk victorian the house sits on what was once known as silk stocking row where water valley s prominent families lived in gracious architecturally distinctive homes. Stripped of every modern convenience the house was professionally. The siding was originally cedar and cypress so we replaced it with the same. Intricate detailing and ginger breading showy paint schemes all encompass the style that swept the nation from 1870 1900.

Because my front porch is seriously sad plain 2 x 4 bannisters and 2 x 2 balusters it looks like i have some fabrication work cut out for me. Some pieces we had to get custom made from a woodworker but the majority of. I found a piece in the attic of my folk victorian that i assumed was an attic vent cover but it didn t fit either vent. Roof vents enhance the overall comfort of the house by providing escape hatches for hot stale moist air which can reach temperatures of 150 degrees in summer.

In its essence the folk victorian style is simply a pimped up folk home. Victorian house plans are ornate with towers turrets verandas and multiple rooms for different functions often in expressively worked wood or stone or a combination of both. The style gained popularity between 1810 1910 as an affordable alternative to the pricier queen anne and second empire styles of design. We have a 1912 folk victorian w a remodeled attic but it still has the original siding and plaster and lath for the most part downstairs.

Chad thinks the folk victorian dates to around 1903 town records are spotty and reports conflicting and was originally built as a simple square two story with the kitchen and bath in outbuildings. The simpler expressions of this style fall into the folk victorian category. It s similar to the center image above but mine looks more like tulips. The founders of the movement took the bare bones of a rustic folk home added a few pretty dressings and voila a new style was born.