Seen Around Town: Razor Blade Bank Slot

Have you ever seen a horizontal slot in a bathroom wall or the back of a medicine cabinet and wondered what use such a strange design feature could possibly have? It turns out that these small slots date to the early- to mid-20th century, when razors didn’t come with snap-on heads but rather with replaceable […]

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Style 101: Mid-century Ranch

The Ranch style originated in southern California in the mid-1930s. In the 1940s, the Ranch was one of the small house types financed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), along with Minimal Traditional and other small house styles. The Ranch house began to pick up popularity as the financial controls that encouraged small house building […]

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Style 101: Italianate

The Italianate Style developed out of the Picturesque movement in England, which was a reaction to the rigid Classical model of past architectural styles. Ironically, the inspiration for this counter-style to Greco-Roman influenced architecture also derives from traditional Italian architecture. This time, it was the rambling Italian villa that inspired the architects of the late […]

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Style 101: Prairie

The Prairie style is one of the few American-born styles of architecture. The precursors to the Prairie style originated in Chicago with the (appropriately-named) Chicago School of architecture. This Chicago School was not a physical school but rather a movement connected to the work of such well-known architects as William Le Baron Jenney, H.H. Richardson, […]

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Style 101: Folk Victorian

The Folk Victorian style developed in the late 19th century as a lower-cost alternative to the Italianate and Queen Anne styles also popular during that period. The spread of the style was aided by the railroad, which allowed for widespread access to lumber yards and pre-manufactured wood detailing. Turned posts, spindlework detailing, and decorative brackets […]

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