Architectural Style
Queen Anne Victorian
1880–1910
Style Overview
Queen Anne Victorian in the SGV.
Elaborate late-Victorian style that dominated American residential architecture from the 1880s through about 1905. The SGV inventory is small compared to San Francisco, but significant examples survive in the oldest neighborhoods of Pasadena, Monrovia, and Sierra Madre. The Queen Anne Cottage at the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia, built 1885 to 1886 for Lucky Baldwin, is a National Register landmark and the canonical local reference for the style at its most elaborate.
Characteristics
Identifying Queen Anne Victorian.
- Asymmetric massing with prominent front-facing gables
- Corner turrets or polygonal towers in higher-end examples
- Wraparound front porches with turned posts and spindle work
- Decorative shingle patterns in upper gables (fish-scale, octagonal, diamond)
- Stained or leaded art glass in feature locations
- Steep gabled and hipped roofs
- Multi-color exterior paint schemes ("painted ladies")