Colonial Revival architecture

Colonial Revival architecture reinterprets colonial-era American building forms, especially through symmetrical façades, classical details, and historically inspired materials. It became a prominent style for houses and public buildings from the late nineteenth century onward.

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Georgian architecture: An eighteenth-century architectural style marked by balanced façades, classical proportions, and restrained ornament. Georgian houses supplied a major model for Colonial Revival symmetry and proportion.
Centennial Exposition: An international exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876 to mark the centennial of American independence. Its historical displays helped renew public interest in colonial American design.
Drayton Hall: A plantation house near Charleston, South Carolina, completed in the eighteenth century and preserved as a historic site. Its Georgian proportions became a prominent precedent for revival architecture.
Neoclassical architecture: An architectural movement that revived the forms and proportions of ancient Greek and Roman buildings. Colonial Revival often uses classical elements but anchors them in American colonial precedents.
Federal architecture: An early American style using classical forms, delicate ornament, and often elliptical or fan-shaped motifs. Federal-era details became another source for Colonial Revival designers.
Colonial Williamsburg: A restored historic district in Virginia presenting buildings and streetscapes from the colonial era. Its restoration made colonial forms highly visible and influential in the twentieth century.
The Breakers: A Newport, Rhode Island, mansion completed in 1895 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, designed by Richard Morris Hunt. Its scale and historical references illustrate the period's broader revivalist taste.
Tudor Revival architecture: A revival style drawing on English Tudor and late medieval architecture, often with steep roofs and half-timbering. Its English medieval references differ from Colonial Revival's classical and early American vocabulary.
Palladian window: A window composition with a central arched opening flanked by shorter rectangular openings. Its classical symmetry appears frequently in Colonial Revival façades.
Historic preservation: The practice of protecting and maintaining buildings, sites, and landscapes valued for their historical significance. Preservation projects supplied models that architects adapted for new construction.