Emlenton
Franklin
Oil City
Tionesta
Titusville
Pleasantville
Meadville
Tidioute
Endeavor
Warren
Sheffield
Bradford
Smethport
Ridgway

Styles

Adam
Greek Revival
Classical Revival
Gothic Revival
Italianate
Second Empire
Stick
Queen Anne
Shingle
Colonial Revival
Neoclassical
Tudor
English Cottage

QUEEN ANNE

In the 1870's, Americans took notice of the use of expensive terra-cotta tiles and the half timbered and stucco walls being employed by English architects when designing the new manor houses for very wealthy English clients.  No longer interested in the Italian Renaissance look, English architects led by Richard Norman Shaw created new designs which were reflections of old Tudor styles from the 17th century.  In keeping with old English building practice, the upper floors were often cantilevered out beyond the first floor walls.  Ceramic tile, brick and decorative wall panels were commonly used by Shaw and his contemporaries to finish these new designs.  Tall, elaborately executed chimneys were a common element of this English style.  The English press mistakenly referred to this work by Shaw and others as Queen Anne.  Americans were infatuated with this look and sought ways to incorporate elements of the English Queen Anne into their own vernacular buildings.

To do so, American designers and builders adapted the style details of the English Queen Anne to the basic American Stick.  By the early 1880's, American Sticks were being finished with wood shingles in the gable ends and around the belt line of the first and second floors.  The use of wood shingles was America’s way of copying the far more expensive terra cotta tiles applied to the new English manor houses.  Half timbering was applied to the gable ends of the American Stick, clearly mimicking the English practice.

Some classical details continued to be used sparingly by Shaw and the English.  Classical detailing was also incorporated in American Queen Anne designs reflecting a renewed interest in America’s Colonial past.  This new interest in classicism in America was reflected by the practice of giving the old Stick frame classical cornices at the eaves, closed pediments at the gables, and wood panels with classical motifs like sunbursts, acanthus leaves and such.
The American Queen Anne was now and then given a tower at a prominent corner.  This tower was usually, not always, round.  The prominent round corner tower may have actually been more a French provincial castle influence than something borrowed from the English.
Taken as a whole, these various design influences served to give the old Stick style a new nature by breaking up the continuous plane of the flat wall and giving that wall surface a textured skin.  In doing so, the old American Stick became the new American Queen Anne.
The house at 123 W. Second Street in Oil City was built about 1872.

	123 West Second Street, Oil City, Pennsylvania

Emanuel Wolfe, a dentist, bought this house in 1881.  He had the structure remodeled in 1887 to the way you see it today.  The wall surfaces display considerable horizontal and vertical stickwork.  Note the belt of wood shingles about a good part of the house between the first and second floors.  Though the third floor gables are not cantilevered, the impression they might be is created by enclosing each of the gables with a cornice.  The gable wall surfaces are covered with wood shingles.  Half timbering in the Reed Street gable facade suggests medieval English architecture.  The dramatic earth tone shades used to paint this house are historically accurate for the 1880's.