The Shingle Style was a high-style yet simpler alternative to the Queen
Anne style mainly in the last two decades of the 19th century. Shingle
Style houses represented a selective use of elaboration in conjunction
with wall surfaces covered with wood shingles. The massing of Shingle
Style houses varies widely but usually incorporates design elements had
the effect of smoothing the often complicated the roof lines and
extensions of the Queen Ann Style. It often incorporated chimneys with
decorative brickwork, jettied cross-gables, engaged towers or turrets;
and long-sloping roofs over 1-story elements. The use of the shingle
cladding, which was often used, resulted in a smoother appearance for
the walls (compared to contemporary Queen Anne houses). In many Shingle
Style houses, some features were overstated for effect, such as wide
towers or turrets and jettied gable areas. An innovative window
treatment of the Shingle Style used exterior cheeking around inset
windows in a horizontal band, often with the lintel and sill
incorporated into a horizontal band extending along the wall surface.
One subset of the Shingle Style features gambrel roofs. For example,
the houses at 646 West 9th Street and 447-449 West 7th Street in Erie
City feature intersecting gabled and gambrel masses. Houses of this
type represent the springboard of the first phase of the Dutch Colonial
Revival style, which often featured two intersecting gambrel masses.
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