VICTORIAN ERA

The Victorian House -- a dilapidated, drafty, spider infested white elephant which only the ghoulish Adams family could love. In fact, in the not-so-distant past, the Victorian House and the haunted house were almost synonymous in the American mind.

The Victorian House has received unfair treatment. It started in the 1930s when modernist architects and interior designers, without any attempt to understand the times, criticized the buildings and interiors of the previous era as dark, uncomfortable and imitative examples of bad taste. This negative attitude lasted well into the last half of the twentieth century. People need time to assess things objectively and, fortunately, enough time has now passed for a fair evaluation of the Victorian home. Today, many people appreciate Victorian architecture; families even live in Victorian houses and like them!

The Victorian period lasted from 1837 to 1901 -- the years in which Queen Victoria graced the British throne. This period was a time of incredible change in both England and the United States. American historian Henry Adams would later state that nothing in his broad education had prepared him for the technological, social, and cultural changes which occurred in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Although Victorians appreciated the inventions and improvements of the Industrial Revolution, they also felt threatened by the urbanization and other transformations which it brought.

The prosperity of the Victorian era, along with new and easier construction methods, made possible a notable increase in building construction. By choosing designs inspired by romanticized ideas of the "long ago and far away," the Victorians made architecture one of their coping mechanisms. As a result, a series of creative styles loosely based on historical precedent and exotic location, characterized by a picturesque appearance, and increasingly more visually complex, dominated construction during this era. Although each had its own name and features, the styles have come to be known collectively as ”Victorian." Competent architects were expected to design in all of them. However, only four styles -- the Gothic Revival, the Italianate, the Eastlake, and the Queen Anne Revival -- were built with any regularity in Louisiana. And, Louisiana builders freely adapted these to serve local needs and building traditions.