A French Country home has a rustic yet upscale charm. French Country architecture is designed after French chateaus and became popular with American soldiers returning from World War I.
French Country homes offer a unique house style featuring:
- Steep pitched or hipped roofs
- Tall ceilings and windows
- Traditional materials including clay, stone, and brick offer a rustic appeal
- Exposed wooden beams in ceilings and walls
French Country homes are designed with their environment in mind. They often feature neutral colors with soft, nature-inspired pops of color like sunshine yellows and grass greens.
Queen Anne homes were popularized in the later Victorian era, beginning around 1880. This style is the quintessential Victorian home for many, with ornate woodworking and decor inside and out.
Queen Anne homes have key regional differences across the country, but maintain these essentials:
- Textured walls with decorative shingles or half-timbering
- Large round or polygonal tower at the home’s corner
- Steeply pitched and asymmetrical roof
- Decorative spindles on porches and trim
- Decorative single-pane or stained glass windows
Queen Anne architecture is most common in homes, but can also be seen in schools, churches, and office buildings.
1. From this valley they say you are going, I will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile, For they say you are taking the sunshine, that brightens our pathways awhile. (CHORUS) Come and sit by my side if you love me, do not hasten to bid me a-dieu, but remember the Red River Valley, and the cowboy who loved you so true.
2. I’ve been thinking a long time, my darlin’, Of the sweet words you never would say, now, alas, all my fond hopes must vanish. For they say you are going away. Repeat Chorus: Come and sit by my side if you love me, do not hasten to bid me a-dieu, but remember the Red River Valley, and the cowboy who loved you so true.
3. Do you think of the valley you’re leaving? Oh, how lonely and sad it will be! Do you think of the kind hearts you’re breaking, and the pain you are causing to me? Repeat Chorus: Come and sit by my side if you love me, do not hasten to bid me a-dieu, but remember the Red River Valley, and the cowboy who loved you so true.
4. I have promised you, darlin’, that never, will a word from my lips cause you pain; And my life, it will be yours forever If you only will love me again. Repeat Chorus: Come and sit by my side if you love me, do not hasten to bid me a-dieu, but remember the Red River Valley, and the cowboy who loved you so true.
Second Empire homes were a modern Victorian-era style that started in France before spreading through the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. Second Empire architecture features similar ornate Victorian trends, though generally offers a simplified Victorian aesthetic.
These elements help identify a Second Empire home:
- Uniquely shaped Mansard Roof
- Decorative window framing and dormers
- Decorative rails or balustrades around terraces and staircases
- Iron roof crest and eaves with support brackets
Second Empire homes are also easy to identify since they’re the only Victorian-era style that often features a symmetrical, rectangular floor plan.
Prairie-style homes were made famous by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. These homes celebrate and complement the natural beauty of the Midwestern landscape with low and long shapes in the floor plan and building elements.
Prairie-style houses showcase:
- Long and low-to-the-ground builds
- Flat or shallow roofs with overhanging eaves
- Thin bricks or stucco exteriors to match the house shape
- Minimalist yet stylized ornamentation
Prairie houses inspired the flat planes and natural elements popular in Mid-century houses.
The American Farmhouse is a simple and timeless style. Farmhouses are designed to be practical first and foremost. They’re common across the US and often showcase regional variations, like wrap-around porches in the South.
Farmhouses have evolved with time and location, but often feature these elements:
- Rectangular floor plan
- Large front porches
- Natural wood and stone materials
- Few and small windows
- Formal front rooms separated from family rooms
Of course, the easiest way to identify a farmhouse is that they’ll often be situated on a large plot of farmland.
The Pueblo Revival was inspired by the indigenous Pueblo people’s architecture in the Southwestern US. Pueblo homes were made of adobe or stucco and designed to handle the extreme temperatures of the desert.
Architects in California began to explore the Pueblo style in the late 19th century and the Pueblo Revival style spread across New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado.
The Pueblo Revival hit its peak in the 1930s in Santa Fe, and these Pueblo-style elements are still popular in the Southwest:
- Rounded corners and irregular shapes
- Earth tones that reflect the desert colors
- Stepped effects with higher floors becoming smaller
- Flat roofs with parapet trim
- Exposed roof beams extending past the walls
The Pueblo Revival style is also commonly called Adobe or Santa Fe style architecture.
American popular music has had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, bluegrass, country, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, punk, disco, house, techno, salsa, grunge and hip hop. In addition, the American music industry is quite diverse, supporting a number of regional styles such as zydeco, klezmer and slack-key.
Distinctive styles of American popular music emerged early in the 19th century, and in the 20th century the American music industry developed a series of new forms of music, using elements of blues and other genres of American folk music. These popular styles included country, R&B, jazz and rock. The 1960s and 1970s saw a number of important changes in American popular music, including the development of a number of new styles, such as heavy metal, punk, soul, and hip hop. Though these styles were not in the sense of mainstream, they were commercially recorded and are thus examples of popular music as opposed to folk or classical music.
Mediterranean home styles are made of stucco, so they’re most common in warm climate states like Arizona and California. These homes grew in popularity in the 1920s and ‘30s after being featured as homes for the rich and famous on the silver screen.
Mediterranean-style homes include Spanish and Italian architectural elements. These key features make them easy to spot:
- Stucco walls painted white or brown
- Classic red tile roofs
- Arched doorways and windows
- Ornamentation including wrought iron, heavy doors, and decorative tiles
Mediterranean homes still carry the feelings of class and luxury they were built with over 100 years ago, with an added element of history and charm.