What Style is Your House: Second Empire

Courtesy of Worcester Heritage Preservation Society

The Second Empire style is one of the easiest to identify.  Its most prominent feature is the Mansard roof, which creates usable floor space out of the attic by breaking the roof slope into two parts.  The top surface is nearly flat and barely visible.  The roof then drops down steeply as it approaches the outer walls of the building.  Dormers (window openings on the roof) are used liberally in mansard roofs in order to bring light into the attic space.  Multi-colored slate shingles and cast iron crestings were often added to the roof in order to make them fancier.

Attics of Gothic and Greek Revival style homes were wasted as living space because of their slanting ceilings while the Mansard roof allowed for livable space with full headroom and side windows.  Many Greek Revival style houses in Worcester were “mansardized” by replacing their roofs with the new Mansard style .

Grand by day and sometimes spooky by night, it has been stereotyped by Hollywood as the classic “haunted house.”  The style was named after the reign of Napoleon III, which was called the Second Empire.  It is also called the Mansard style because of its unique roof design.  Beneath the roofline, Second Empire style buildings are trimmed with elaborate wooden ornaments.  Unlike other styles, there was no one pattern of decoration unique to it, but instead, architects borrowed from other styles that were popular at the time.  It is similar to Italianate in many ways:  bracketed eaves, window hoods, ornate verandas and the use of Classical details like pediments and quoins.  Often you will find paired windows and double entrance doors.

Many large businesses and government buildings were built in the Second Empire style.  Thus the stule was closely identified with the political and economic trends of the 1860s.  After the Panic of 1873 and the ensuing depression, the Second Empire style quickly became unpopular because it was identified with everything that was rotten in America.  Builders then began to favor more “wholesome” styles such as the Queen Anne and the Stick Style