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I am restoring an 1899 Folk Victorian house located in Iowa... This article is the greatest I have discovered! The photos of each of the rooms and the accompanying descriptions of the furnishings for those rooms is the most fine-tuned and helpful! [It] has been a great inspiration to me to continue my restoration, knowing that my ideas and concepts for each room in my house are "the way it was!".

Mary R., Iowa
The Victorian Styles: Queen Anne, Italianate, Gothic Revival and Eastlake
J. M. Edgar, CMC, CRC

Victorian house styles flourished in post-Civil War 19th century American. The trend throughout the later part of the 19th century was toward more ornate homes showcasing the increasing wealth produced by the Industrial Revolution. Mass production processes had made even very elaborate ornamentation relatively inexpensive, and the expansion of Gothic Revival Style Gothic Revival house. The sweeping curved porch is typical. In a smaller footprint, this style may be seen all over the Midwest as the "Folk Victorian" style. Many were built from kits sold by Sears, Roebuck & Co. The house came as pre-cut lumber in two boxcars to be assembled by the owner or a local builder. railroads made it possible to ship great quantities of mass produced goods into every city and hamlet. This abundance was increasingly reflected in American housing styles and decoration.

Gothic Revival
The relatively simple gothic revival style was the first departure from the rectangular Colonial footprints of the 18th century. Earlier houses, built primarily of local materials, were usually devoid of ornamentation except what could be laboriously produced by local craftsmen. It was expensive and thus sparely used. Victorian architecture changed all that. The Gothic house was the initial example of industrial abundance reflecting the increasing wealth of Americans. Its irregular shape, arched windows and steeply pitched complex roof, elaborate vergeboard trim along roof edges, high dormers, the use of lancet windows and other Gothic details heralded an break from the less elaborate architectural styles of the earlier period.

Italianate
The Italianate style began in England in the 1840s. For most of two centuries English homes had tended to be formal and classical in style, following the trend established in the 15th century by Christopher Wren. With the Italianate Photo: Nebraska Historical Society Italianate Style The 1869 Italianate house of Thomas P. Kennard is now the Nebraska Statehood Memorial. It is the oldest house in Lincoln's original plat still standing. style, however, builders began to move toward romantic, fanciful recreations of Italian Renaissance homes.

When the Italianate style migrated to the United States in the 1850s, it was almost immediately stamped with a purely American character — much less fanciful and much more practical. The homes were typically two to three stories in height, with flat or hip roofs, bay windows with inset wooden panels, corner boards and two over two double-hung windows. The windows often had curved or molded window caps. It could be build of just about any material — stone and brick for the affluent, wood siding for the rest of us, and it could be scaled to fit even a fairly modes budget. Queen Anne Style The "F"-Street "Castle". This elegant Queen Anne in Lincoln's Near South neighborhood is being restored by its current owners.
The elaborate mouldings nd pressed metal fittings required for the style were becoming abundant and cheap due to growing mass production. As a result, by the late 1860s, Italianate had become the most popular house style in the United States.

Its primacy was short lived, however. Starting in the 1870s it was being overtaken by more ornate late Victorian styles such as Queen Anne and Eastlake, and by the 1890s was retired. During its short reign, however, a great many were built. The prosperity resulting from the Civil War and increased industrialization made the 1870s something of a boom time, resulting in lots of building primarily in the Northeast but also in the then rapidly growing Midwest.

Queen Anne
Common from about 1870, Queen Anne houses were built of stone, brick and wood siding, often featuring shingles and ornate exterior decoration. They often feature towers, turrets, wrap around porches, and other fanciful details. But many such homes, especially those built without the aid of an architect, lacked elaborate ornamentation. Essentially, any Victorian Era home with a turret is probably going to be classed as a Queen Anne no matter the amount of decoration.

Eastlake Style The Yates house. An example of the Stick or Eastlake Victorian style house elaborately decorated with spindles and other ornamentation. The style at its most extreme is characterized by overwhelming excess, featuring large projecting bay windows, towers, turrets, porches (often on multiple stories), balconies, stained glass decoration, roof finials and crestings, walls carvings and/or inset panels of stone or terra-cotta, cantilevered upper stories, acres of decorative trim, patterned shingles, belt courses, elaborate brackets, banisters and spindles — even the chimneys on Queen Anne houses were often spectacularly crafted.

Stick-Eastlake
The Stick-Eastlake Style, popular from about 1860 to 1890, is sometimes considered to be a High Victorian elaboration of the Gothic Revival style. The single most distinguishing feature of the style is small vertical, horizontal, or diagonal planks placed on top of the exterior walls. The style is often associated with houses featuring enormous, overhanging, second-story porches which led to the name "Swiss Chalet" houses. Elaborately decorated and very fanciful Stick houses are often referred to as the "Eastlake" style because of the lavish use of furniture designer Charles Eastlake's favorite ornamentation, the spindle. Eastlake himself hated the style, and even filed a lawsuit to have his name disassociated from it. Obviously, he was not successful. The elaborate Eastlake style is now virtually synonymous with the phrase "Victorian house", at least in the Midwest.

Shingle Style
Shingle Style The Arthur C. Ziemer Shingle Style House in the Lincoln Near South neighborhood. Elements of the emerging Arts & Crafts Style can be seen in this late Victorian house now renamed Maple Lodge. The Shingle style is a muting down of elaborate Victorian fussiness that evolved from the vacation homes and hunting lodges of the well-to-do. It is considered by many to be the transition style between Victorian excess and the simple Craftsman and Prairie houses of the early 20th century. It is distinguished by the use of natural or single-color shingles as exterior covering and the lack of elaborate ornamentation -- the shingles are the ornamentation. Unlike most other styles, the Shingle style is purely American. It has no European antecedents. Folk Victorian Style A Queen Anne style Folk Victorian house in Lincoln's Near South district restored to Victorian colors. Unfortunately, the interior has been ruined by a succession of ill-conceived "remodels" that did away with the original ornate trim.

Folk Victorian & Carpenter Gothic
While architects were building stately stone and brick Queen Anne and elaborate Eastlake homes for the well-to-do, we "just folks" were also building houses and taking full advantage of the growing availability of consistent dimensioned lumber, inexpensive steel nails and the railroads to transport them from where they were made to where they were needed.

Variously called "Folk Victorian", "Prairie Gothic", "Frontier Victorian" or "Carpenter Gothic" and derived largely from the Gothic Revival style, they became common in in the late nineteenth century as middle class and rural residences. Victorian elements such as pointed arches, steep gables, and towers were added to traditional American frame construction. The style received considerable impetus from the publication of detailed plans and elevations in pattern books, the most notable of which was the Architecture of Country Houses by Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852). Downing, a landscape designer, editor of the Horticulturist magazine and architect, is credited with the popularization of the large front porch as a necessary transition between the house and nature — which is the primary Victorian Houses - Tillman Folk Victorian house The Tillman-James House. Converted to apartments during WWII, the house is in process of being restored to its single-family glory, including an updated heating and cooling plan, insulation, an open-design kitchen and breakfast room (see "Victorian Kitchens" below), a new master bathroom, huge master closet, rebuilt main staircase and restored Victorian trim throughout. A pre-electricity, still-functioning voice tube connects the front door to the kitchen and 2nd floor landing, allowing visitors to announce themselves. The wrap-around porch was popularized by architect Andrew Jackson Downing as a necessary transition between home and nature in any properly designed house. reason American housing commonly features wide and even wrap-around porches, and European housing does not. As the redesigner of the Mall in Washington D.C. in concert with the building of the Smithsonian Institute, he became something of a minor celebrity, and his house plans very popular and influential. Country Houses not only provided house plans, but the details of building a house, including such arcana as how to make paint and stain from locally-available products, and how to build a fireplace so it draws well. The book is very interesting reading, even today.

Victorian Houses - Cross-Gable Victorian Farmhouse A classic two storey, cross-gable, clapboard-sided "Carpenter Gothic" farmhouse. Thousands of these houses dot the Great Plains. The style was hugely popular. A Carpenter Gothic house in Eldon, Iowa was the background for Grant Wood's famous painting "American Gothic". This house, outside Urbana, IL, has, unfortunately, been abandoned. Folk Victorian houses were characterized by a profusion of locally-made jig-saw detailing, some of it quite elaborate. The invention of the steam powered scroll saw and mass-produced wood moldings also allowed these structures to use factory-made detailing to mimic High Victorian houses made of stone and brick. But for the most part, Folk Victorian houses, especially rural houses, were relatively unadorned, retaining only the basic elements of tall narrow windows and steep gables and lacking the towers, bay windows and elaborate mouldings of classic Victorian styles. The most common siding was clapboard followed by board and batten.

There are at least five basic Folk Victorian sub-types in one- and two-story versions. Many were built out of kits supplied by Sears, Roebuck & Co. If you did not buy a kit, you used a plan from one of a number of plan suppliers.

Virtually all made some use of the ornamental trim being mass produced and distributed to all corners of the continent by rail. Many had spindles, gingerbread and details borrowed from the more ornate Victorian styles. And, if commercial trim was not in the budget, the houses were often adorned with flat, scroll work trim made locally by the builder in a variety of patterns — mostly on porches and eaves. How much ornate detail was added by the builder most likely depended on the budget. Behind the fancy trim, however, a Folk Victorian is a simple, work-a-day, house: solid, practical and long lasting. Very long lasting. Folk Victorians were still being built in this area in the 1940s, and some built in the late 19th century are still very much in use.

Victorian Interiors
Victorian loveseat A typical ornate Victorian loveseat. It is no more comfortable than it looks. Parlor seating like this was for show, not for comfort. Some parts of Victorian interiors were lush and ornate to match the era's exteriors. But some parts were plain. A Victorian house had three sections. Public rooms, family rooms and the service areas. Public rooms such as the drawing room or parlor were the show places of the house. They were sumptuous, design to awe and impress visitors with the wealth, status and taste of the homeowners. These were usually not living spaces. Day-to-day living Victorian Trim A bright, inviting sitting area. Mass-produced plate glass made large windows affordable and the Victorians used them with abandon to create bright, sun-lit, pleasant rooms. The finish is toned-down Victorian more suited to modern tastes. occurred in the family portion of the house and in the servants' areas. The family rooms were usually much less elaborately decorated although comfortable and attractive. Servants' areas, including the kitchen and servants' quarters were plain.

Public Areas
In public areas, decoration was extensive. There is no such thing as overdone in a Victorian formal parlor. Decorative plaster, elaborate mouldings and woodwork, and multi-hued bright colors were common. The Victorian era saw the first widespread availability of wallpaper, and it was used lavishly. Major public rooms were filled with all manner of furniture and display items until they could hold no more. Harriet Spofford, a successful writer of popular Gothic Romances, observed: "Provided there is space to move about, without knocking over the furniture, there is hardly likely to be too much in a room." A bare table or mantle was considered the height of poor taste. A Harper's Bazaar editorial dismissed the relatively sparsely furnished parlor of pre-Civil War America as "barren" and a "desert", compared to the 1880's parlor "crowded only with beauty". Objects were displayed on every available surface, and arranged and re-arranged until they were thought to be perfectly balanced. If you were one of those arrangement-deficient people, and lived in an urban area, you could hire a consultant to do the balancing for you. In the 1880s the new department stores that were springing up everywhere hired decorators to set up model rooms and advise customers on decoration. Naturally, their usual advice was to buy more stuff.

Photo: Bradbury & Bradbury. A victorian parlor Rich colors, sumptuous fabrics, ornate decoration and overstuffed furniture is typical of high-style Victorian urban interiors. This recreation features Bradbury & Bradbury Victorian collection fabrics and wall coverings. The largest furniture item was the obligatory overstuffed sofa. Typically they were deeply tufted and buttoned medallion and serpentine- or camel-backed Queen Anne or Sheraton setees. Overstuffed chairs provided the rest of the seating, supplemented by stools for any overflow crowds.

Large windows were favored by Victorian architects. The technology needed to make large sheets of glass was new, and for the first time in history glass was relatively inexpensive. Tall windows, almost from floor to ceiling, were used to let in abundant light. Victorians then covered them up with heavy draperies, which may seem odd to us today, but don't forget that adequate weatherstripping was a technology in its infancy, and large windows leaked large amounts of cold air. Heavy drapes of sumptuous materials such as velvet and brocaded silk acted as insulation in winter, then were replaced with white muslin for Spring and Summer when cooling breezes were desired. Window treatments were changed during the semi-annual Spring and Fall cleanings. Folded and held back with ropes or scroll shaped fitments and embellished with tassels, ribbons and festoons. Scrolled, scalloped or gilded valences adorned the tops and were usually made of velvet or lace.

Outside of major cities painting was often done by itinerant painters. Most paint was still mixed from local materials rather than ordered from paint suppliers. This meant that the range of colors available locally was often determined by the minerals and plant colorings that were readily obtained, and the quality of the paint depended on the skill of the painter. Once commercial pigments became more common, a wider range of colors became available. But painting was still not to the level of a do-it-yourself project. Mixing dry pigments and liquid binders such as linseed oil was a tedious business, and if done incorrectly, the paint would not dry, and it it would dry, would not last.

Photo: Lincrusta Victorian Interiors - Painted Lincrusta Lincrusta made of embossed semi-solid linseed oil with a cloth backing, can be painted to emulate just about any material. In the first half of the Victorian Age, light color pigments and pastels were preferred for interior walls. Although this often depended on location. In urban areas where industrial pollution tended to soil light colors very quickly, a darker palette was often used. In the later years of the Age, Victorians, inspired by the writings of Owen Jones (The Grammar of Ornament 1856) became more uninhibited in their use of bold colors, elaborate ornamentation and deep, rich fabrics. Jones identified the need for a new style which would meet the requirements of the modern industrial world, rather than the continual re-cycling of historic styles such as in Greek and Roman revivals, but he also saw saw no reason to reject the lessons of the past, and felt they should be included in the new language of design. Influenced by youthful journeys to the middle east and India, Jones advocated elaborate Moorish, Byzantine and Eastern ornamental themes.

A main color surrounded by many supporting colors was a common decorating approach. Deep, rich colors were thought to enhance the importance of a room, and the status of the householder. Texture was often added to a room using wallpaper, stencils, and paint to mimic everything from elaborate woodwork to masonry. Favored wallpaper patterns featured scrolls, vines and birds and were usually small-figured and finely detailed. Plaster or wood ceiling mouldings were elaborately carved and painted in lighter tones taken from the color of the walls. Applied decorations were added to the ceiling, usually in the corners and around the chandelier.

Paint and wallpaper were not the only wall treatments available. Many architects tinted the final coat of plaster walls with calcimine. The rather flat color that resulted was then enlivened with wax or varnish. Lincrusta was another favorite. Invented by Frederick Walton (who also invented linoleum), it was embossed linseed oil on canvas that was applied like wallpaper. Heated, it became soft and pliable and could be easily moulded around corners. Once installed it was usually painted. Anaglypta was a less expensive alternative to Lincrusta. Invented in 1887, it was a heavy weight paper that got its strength from its thickness and high cotton content. It was embossed in many designs and could be painted just like Lincrusta, but unlike Lincrusta, would not hold up to battering without crushing. Consequently, it was most often used where it was out of reach, such as high on walls or on ceilings. Genuine Lincrusta is still being made in England and is available from Lincrusta. And, of course, there are many plastic and vinyl imitations.

A home-made alternative to embossed wall coverings was fabric-backed plaster. Coarse canvas or burlap soaked in a lime plaster slurry, was applied to a wall in a manner similar to wallpaper, often over a skim coat of more lime plaster. Once dry, it was painted just like any other plaster wall. The fabric texture shows through the plaster, providing an interesting contrast with the smooth plaster walls elsewhere in the room. This also a good wall covering for damaged walls, especially those with multiple hair-line cracks. The canvas strengthens the plaster. (For more on repairing old plaster, see How to Fix Loose Plaster.)

The three-part or tri-partite wall treatment was very popular. Eastlake introduced this elaborate wall treatment in 1877, and it remained in vogue throughout the remainder of the Victorian Era and well into the Arts & Crafts period. A wainscot or dado from the base of the wall to about 36", a frieze at the top of the wall, and a field between the two in the center of the wall comprised the tri-partite wall. (For more information, see Arts & Crafts Interiors.) Each section was decorated in coordinating colors and patterns, commonly using wallpapers, with borders or wood mouldings separating the sections.

William Morris Decoration was influenced by any number of extremely gifted artists and designers of the period. One of the most Photo: Bradbury & Bradbury. Victorian Interiors - A Victorian bedroom in the Morris tradition The combined influences of William Morris and Walter Crane can be seen in this refined Victorian bedroom using silk-screened wall- and ceiling-paper from the Bradbury & Bradbury Victorian collection. Bedrooms, part of the family section of the house, were often not as sumptuously decorated as public rooms such as parlors and dining rooms. Compare this relatively muted bedroom to the Heater Brothers dining room below. important was William Morris (1834-1896). Morris made his living as a wallpaper and fabric designer, but believed his true calling was to be a social reformer, and he saw his design efforts as part of the process of social improvement. Refined surroundings, he believed, result in refined populations. His almost mathematically perfect designs carefully balanced stylized, complex floral and foliage patterns in muted, earth-tone colors. Primary colors, when used, were used sparingly and often reduced to pastels. His company, Wm. Morris & Co., flourished right through the turn of the 20th century and, under Morris' successors, continued to influence both English and American interior design right up the start of the Second World War.

In the U.K. Morris is considered a Victorian designer (The Arts & Crafts influence in Britain is generally considered a Victorian offshoot rather than a whole new design genre). In the U.S, by contrast, he is most often regarded as one of the moving forces of the Arts & Crafts movement that supplanted Victorian design in the U.S. by 1910. The truth is, he was clearly both. Morris and Walter Crane, another brilliant designer, founded the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society in 1888, which generally viewed as the start of the Arts & Crafts Movement that swept the world is less than 10 years, but did most of their important work during the height of Victorian design. Morris' designs fit comfortably in either period. His body of work forms one of the major, long-term, aesthetic trends of the eighty years between 1860 and 1940 — continuing even today to affect the visual themes of our interior decoration. Many of his fabric and wallpaper designs are as topical in 2012 as they were in 1912. And, although not as famous for his furniture designs, Morris designed one of the furniture icons of the Arts & Crafts period: the Morris Chair. The interesting thing is that when he designed the chair, around 1866, the Arts & Crafts period did not yet exist, and was not to exist for another quarter century.

Neo-Classical Interiors Photo: Bradbury & Bradbury. Victorian Interiors - A Victorian interior in Neo-Clasic style. Neo-Classic interiors were usually painted and stenciled. This recreation by Bradbury & Bradbury is done with silk-screened wallpaper. Such elaborate painting would be prohibitively expensive today. By comparison with later Victorian decoration styles, Neo-Classic interiors were restrained and refined. Dominating the 1860s, Neo-Classical interiors borrowed freely from the Greek and Roman design and often included elaborately carved furnishings and extravagantly draped windows beneath ornamented ceilings. The restrained elegance of classic Greek ornament inspired decorative artists such as prominent architects George and Maurice Ashdown Audsley of London and New York and Walter Crane a well-established fabric and wallpaper designer of the time.

Much of the Neo-Classical interior design was painted by itinerant painters, often German and Italian immigrants, who stenciled and painted elaborate designs in the homes of newly wealthy industrialists and merchants. Wallpaper was still very expensive in the 1860s, unlike twenty years later when giant roller presses reduce the price of colorful and elaborate wallpapers to within reach of most of the middle class. Stencils, however, were cheap, as was the labor to lavishly decorate with paint. The very latest stencils could be mail-ordered from Europe through subscriptions that ensured a continuous flow of the latest designs.

Photo: Bradbury & Bradbury. Victorian Interiors - A Victorian parlor in the Aesthetic style. This elaborately decorated parlor in the Aesthetic tradition combines Greek and oriental motifs with Eastlake-style designs in the borders, multiple layers of oriental rugs, stylized cherry blossoms in the ceiling paper and refined mouldings. This is a recreation by Bradbury & Bradbury to fit contemporary tastes in color and pattern. Original decoration schemes inspired by Aestheticism were much more garish, especially in the British Isles. The decoration was restrained. Stenciling and painting took a lot of time, so less was more. Classical detailing using Greek and Roman designs was the dominant motif, and colors were muted compared to the explosive palette of the later Aesthetic Movement.

The Aesthetic Movement If the elaborate Eastlake-style was the height of Victorian excess on the exterior of the house, the Aesthetic Movement was its counterpart inside. The predominant theme of the movement, <l'art pour l'art (art for the sake of art) led to the abandonment of all pretense of restraint. Combining Gothic designs with Japanese motifs, much of it was truly over the top in form and color, and just the shear, ponderous weight of ornamentation.

Aestheticists believe that the beauty of art is its own purpose. It does not need a moral or ethical underpinning, nor does it need be useful or have any utilitarian purpose at all other than merely being beautiful. In this they rejected much of the underpinning of Victorian philosophy espoused by the likes of John Ruskin and Matthew Arnold which held that the purpose of art and design is to improve the social and moral condition.

Aestheticism as a philosophy did not gain much footing in the decorative arts, but did introduce decorative elements that greatly influenced late Victorian decor. Chief among these was the oriental influence expressed in ebonized wood with gilt highlights, blue and white porcelain and the extensive used of nature themes, especially flowers, birds and foliage in decoration. These influences can be seen in many of the later Morris designs, and were given impetus by Christopher Dresser, a professor at the Government Schools of Design in London, whose books the Art of Decorative Design (1862) and <Principles of Design (1873) introduced and emphasized oriental motifs.

Anglo-Japanese Ornamentation Photo: Bradbury & Bradbury. Victorian Interiors - A Victorian bedroom in the Angle-Japanese style. A bedroom in the Anglo-Japanese Aesthetic style as recreated by Bradbury & Bradbury. In fact, most bedrooms, being in the family and not the public area of the house, we not so richly decorated. The casework and bed are good examples of American Gothic furnishings of the Victorian era. In 1853 Admiral William C. Perry sailed four steam-assisted American gunships into Uraga harbor (now Yokosuka) Japan and invited that the Shogun government, at gun point, to end Japanese isolationism and enter into a trade treaty with the United States. America quickly became fascinated with all things Japanese. But it was a very schizophrenic interest. Japanese were considered dangerous and warlike, with a thousand-year militaristic Samurai tradition; but also slight, slender and bespeckle, no match for robust Americans. They were refined and artistic, creating beautiful things from the most common of materials, but they were also brutish, bombastic and barbaric, lacking the civilized refinements of genuinely advanced societies. The ugly side of this stereotype resulted in the reprehensible internment of thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent in concentration camps during World War II. The admiring side spurred the wide-spread adoption of Japanese ornamentation; and both the physical form and underlying principles of Japanese residential architecture — particularly evident during the Arts & Crafts period.

The American fascination with Japan crossed the ocean to Britain where it was turned into decorative ornamentation using Japanese motifs. Re-crossing the Atlantic, Anglo-Japanese design became one of the dominant themes of the Aesthetic movement in the last two decades of the 19th century. The ebony wood finishes favored by Aestheticists were an adoption of Japanese wood treatments, as were stylized wallpaper and stencil patterns featuring motifs such as the stylized Imperial chrysanthemum, lily and sunflower taken from traditional Japanese wood block prints.

Christian Herter On this side of the Atlantic, one of the primary influences on Victorian design was Christian Herter (1839-1859), a proprietor (with brother Gustav) of Herter Bros., a prestigious New York furniture-making and interior decorating firm. New York cabinetmaking at the time was dominated by German immigrants, and the Teutonic influence in Herter's works is quite evident. The magnificent Gothic Revival furnishings produced by the firm graced upscale American homes all over the country, and today command almost unbelievable prices on the antiques market.

Victorian Interiors - Herter Dining Room An elaborate Victorian dining room decorated in the Herter Bros. tradition, created by Bradbury & Bradbury. But, Herter's enduring influence is not his furniture, but his decorating vision. One of the leading champions of the Aesthetic Movement in the U.S., Herter employed as many as 600 designers and craftsmen and designed and built the interiors of such Gilded Age luminaries as Vanderbilt, Morgan, Gould and Stanford, including original wallpaper Victorian Interiors - Inlaid Herer Cabinet An inlaid ebonized Herter Bros. cabinet with gilded decoration. Because New York furniture making was dominated by immigrant German cabinetmakers, American Victorian furniture was often rendered in a vaguely Teutonic style now called Gothic Revival or American Gothic combined with the oriental design elements that Aestheticists preferred. This is a purely American development with no English counterpart. designs, 14 of which he patented in 1879. Many of the houses he decorated were destroyed in a number of natural calamities, such as the San Francisco Earthquake and fire, but a few survive to give us an idea of the rich legacy of the Herter Bros. enterprise.

Outside of Belle Epoch mansions, the Gothic influence was expanded by itinerant German carpenters who roamed the country, tools on their backs, seeking commissions1. For a few month's room and board in the servants' quarters, and some silver dollars, a skilled carpenter would build furniture, paneling, mouldings, doors, staircases — whatever needed building; even a whole house. Some barely spoke English, but as the language of design is pretty universal, it seldom mattered. These pieces are usually not as refined as the works of Herter and similar high-end cabinetmakers such as Daniel Pabst, and seldom include oriental flourishes. They were the of the style learned at the apprentice bench in Schwabing, and Hertzberg, Berlin and Oberamergau, toned down a little for American tastes, but overwhelmingly Teutonic. Antique shops in the Mid-West are full of them.

The homeowner provided the materials and hardware, the carpenter provided the skill and labor. When he was done, he moved on to another block or another town, and another commission. This is how my great-grandfather got his front parlor furniture of beautiful Arkansas walnut heartwood — ebonized, curved, carved and embellished — and easily the most horridly uncomfortable furniture any kid ever had to sit still on during mandatory Sunday tea with the Great Aunts.

Family Areas
Outside of the public rooms decoration and display was typically much more restrained. This was the area in which actual living took place, and extensive displays tended to get in the way of daily life. These were by no means spartan rooms, but the display and ornamentation were muted.

Victorian family areas embodied a number of themes that developed fully as the Victorian Age progressed, and which had a major impact on how houses were planned, built and decorated.

Privacy While public rooms were often fairly large, family rooms were not. There was no such thing as an "open" house plan in Victorian times. In part it was just practical. Heating was by burning wood or coal in fireplaces or stoves. It took a lot of work. A study in 1899 by Boston's School of Housekeeping found that operating a coal stove took a minimum of three hours per week and included carrying almost 300 lbs. of coal and removing 27 lbs. of ashes. Four tons of coal was used for heating an eight-room house in a typical year. It was much less work to heat a small room than a large one. But, small rooms were also a matter of preference. Small rooms gave Victorians the feeling of privacy and coziness that they prized. Privacy was a central theme of period design and the Victorian era saw a vast expansion of personal privacy.

Photo: Wikipedia Commons Victorian Interiors - Victorian Bedroom Rooms in the family area of a Victorian house were usually small. A bedroom might be just large enough for a bed, chest and washstand, and even with this minimum of furnishing, would be crowded. Decoration was spare and plain as befits a room in daily use by the family. Before the Victorian age privacy was had to come by. Separate rooms for sleeping were uncommon. Beds were usually pallets brought out every evening nd placed by the fireplace for sleeping. In well-to-do houses, only parents might have a separate sleeping room. But, by the 1880s it had become common for everyone in even modestly well-to-do families to have their own individual bedrooms. And, it was more than just large enough for a bed with some hooks on the wall for clothing. There was space for a small sitting area with dressers, armoires, and even a small desk. Still small by modern standards, and often oddly shaped, bedrooms were becoming personal retreats that, with a closed door, afforded an unheard-of degree of privacy. But even this level of privacy was often not enough. Folding screens in corners hid dressing and undressing, and beds were often fitted into alcoves for visual separation from the rest of the room.

Single Use Rooms The Victorian Age was also the period in which single use rooms became common in American homes. In prior periods, houses were generally small with just a few rooms. Most rooms had multiple uses. During the day a room could be a combination gathering room and kitchen, at night a dormitory. In many cultures, this is still the dominant arrangement. Rooms in Japanese houses, for example, are designed with multiple uses in mind. But, during the Victorian Age, houses began to be planned with rooms dedicated to a single purpose. Bedrooms were bedrooms and identified as such in house plans. They had no other function. Dining rooms were for eating, and when no dining was going on, they would be empty. Dedicated kitchens became common. The combination kitchen-dining-gathering room disappeared, at least until the 1970s when so-called farm kitchens that combined meal preparation and dining began to reappear.

Single uses allowed rooms to be furnished and decorated to facilitate the use to which they were dedicated. Dining rooms, furnished for dining, contained tables, chairs, and storage/serving furniture. Bedrooms began to be furnished with permanent raised beds, an innovation that placed the bed out of the drafts typical in period homes, and away from most crawling insects. The houses of wealthier citizens often had dedicated rooms not common in more middle-class homes: game rooms, for example furnished for board and card games, and even a billiard room — although billiards was considered a bit risqué in the Victorian Age. Nurseries became common, initially attached to the parents' bedroom, but later a separate room furnished for the needs of the infant of the household, of which there would usually be several in succession.

Hygiene and Sanitation The Victorian Age saw major advancements in understanding how disease was transmitted with the development and validation of the germ theory of disease. This better understanding of disease led to a movement that continued for three decades for better hygiene and sanitation. Later Victorians were concerned with health above almost all other issues of the day.

The early 1800s saw frequent outbreaks of epidemics: the familiar typhus and typhoid fever, but also new and frightening diseases imported from Asia: influenza, and Asiatic cholera. No one understood how these diseases arose or how to control them. Sickness had been long thought to be caused by unhealthy air or miasma. But, in 1854 John Snow, traced the source of a cholera outbreak in London to a single contaminated public water well. Later investigators such as Louis Pasteur and surgeon Joseph Lister theorized that microscopic particles, called "germs" were the means by which disease was transmitted.

Even before researchers had developed much in the way of proof of this new theory of disease, it had become widely publicized in popular journals and largely accepted by the American public. Epidemiologists began to figure out how diseases were communicated, and massive sanitation measures followed. Major efforts to clean up American cities and install safe water and sewer systems were soon under way — so quickly, in fact, that most American cities and towns had sanitary sewer systems and treated water by 1920. The size and scope of this effort can harly be appreciated by us today. But, think about rerbuilding the Interstate Highway system - ten times. Researchers discovered that vaccination was an effective way to prevent small pox, and vaccinations for other communicable diseases were being eagerly sought. As vacinations for various diseases were developed, a national effort to vaccinate all school children ensued, and is still going on today.

All of these efforts were very successful. The last major cholera outbreak in the U.S. was in 1910.

Articles on household hygiene regularly appeared in popular magazines such as the widely read Ladies Home Journal and Popular Science Monthly which carried frequent articles on sanitary plumbing and disinfection. Local health departments circulated pamphlets on disease prevention, and often printed them in newspapers. Domestic guides included instructions for testing and purifying household water, warning that appearance, smell and taste were not enough to determine water's safety. Every homeowner was urged to be on guard against the accumulation of dust and dirt as these were breeding grounds for germs. The regular and generous use of disinfectants was encouraged as one of the most effective measures of disease prevention.

Photo: Gracewood Design Victorian Interiors - Victorian Floorcloth Floorcloths, canvas backing painted in bright designs and colors, began to replace rugs and carpets. The washable floorcloths were considered more sanitary. This is a custom floorcloth in a Victorian motif for a house in Baltimore, MD by Gracewood Design. Dust became the mortal enemy. And, there was plenty of it. Coal was the principal heating fuel and it produced abundant dust and soot. The primary means of travel was by horse-drawn conveyance, and horses produced plenty of waste which, when dry, turned to powder that permeated everything. Add to all this the pervasive factory smoke that clouded Victorian cities, and there was plenty of dust to go around. Live plants in pots were kept in windows to help trap dust coming in from outside. Muslin was often draped across windows for the same purpose. Still the Victorian home was very dusty. Daily dusting and sometimes waxing of furnishings became a ritual. Rugs were swept several times a week, often with the new carpet sweepers introduced by companies like Bissel. But even this was not enough, so several times a year carpets were taken outside and beaten to remove accumulated dust and dirt.

Sanitation and hygiene issues began to influence house design and furnishing. Easily cleaned, sanitary surfaces were introduced into kitchens, and later bathrooms. In most kitchens, carpets or bare wood floors were replaced with a new material, "oil cloth" which we now call linoleum, which was seamless and considered very sanitary. Carpets in many areas were replaced by "floorcloths" a painted canvas that was decorative, but washable. Working tables were topped with zinc or porcelainized steel. Wallpaper or bare plaster walls in kitchens and baths gave way to washable paints, renewed yearly. Where wood floors were retained they were painted or varnished to protect them against germs and make cleaning easier. Heavy drapes, thought to harbor germs, were replaced by lighter window treatments.

Early bath fixtures of wood with a metal lining gave way to less ostentatiously decorated but more sanitary porcelain fixtures. Plumbing, however, was in its infancy, and there was no training or licensing process for plumbers. Many home plumbing systems were improperly installed. Leaks were common. Plumbing was often installed with exposed pipes. Not only was it quicker and less expensive than breaking apart existing plaster walls to install piping, but exposed pipes meant that they could be cleaned and regularly inspected for leaks.

Decoration Despite the impression created by many modern decorators, family area rooms were seldom richly decorated. They were, as Eastlake described them, "withdrawing rooms" where the family removed itself from public view. They were comfortable, as befits areas where most daily living was done, but rarely opulent. Contemporary illustrations almost uniformly show very plain rooms. Plaster walls might be painted or papered, but seldom with the elaborate, many-parted themes of the public rooms. Furniture consisted of some bought pieces, but often it was hand-me-downs — items no longer good enough to display in the public rooms. Carpets were treated the same way. A carpet showing wear was moved to the family parlor. A little more wear relegated it to a child bedroom, and then to the servants' quarters. Photo: Preservation Directory Victorian Interiors - Victorian Family Parlor The parlor in the Foster-Wolfe house, Tuscaloosa, AL. This (by Victorian standards) sparsely decorated parlor is close to what a family parlor would have looked like in 1985 when this house was built. Compare this to the elaborate decoration of a typical public parlor as shown in images above.

Bedrooms were not in any sense public rooms. Even children were often banned once separate bedrooms for children became common. The bed might be a four-poster with side curtains. The curtains were less decoration than needed to keep out drafts. In the later years of the period, once hygiene became an obsession, heavy curtains, suspected of harboring disease germs, were discarded or made of lighter materials. Seating, a chest of drawers or two, trunks, a wash stand and screens rounded out bedroom furnishings. In these small rooms, even this minimum of furnishing made the room extremely crowded. Clothes were stored folded or on hooks. Even heavy coats and voluminous dresses were folded for storage. The idea of hanging clothing on hangers (or what were then called "shoulders') did not develop until very late in the period when "airing" clothing was encouraged to promote better health. Armoires were rare. Closets did not exist until the turn of the century. They were not even included in house plans until the last years of the Victorian period, and then they were tiny.

Electricity for lighting, except in major urban areas like New York, was still decades in the future for most Americans. Lighting was by natural gas, dangerous at the time because it was odorless so leaking gas could not be detected. It was seldom used on the second floor in bedroom areas because it could asphyxiate occupants in their sleep. The old tried and true candle was used instead. After electrification old gaslight fixtures were often converted to use electric light bulbs. Many of these old fixtures are still available from architectural salvagers, such as Conner's Architectural Antiques. They are also widely reproduced by lighting companies such as Rejuvenation.

In the early 19th century flooring was untreated, random-width pine planks. Toward mid-century floors were starting to be painted and by the later decades oak, parquet and marquetry floors were coming into widespread use. Tile and stone were common in entries, kitchens, and late in the century, bathrooms. Oil cloth, what we now call linoleum, appeared in the 1870's and was in wide use by the turn of the century.

The Victorian Kitchen
Victorian Door Styles Typical Victorian cabinet door and drawer styles. For many more examples see Cabinet Door Styles. Replace the huge wood-burning iron stove with a modern range and a Victorian kitchen would look familiar to all of us over 50. Some of the implements would be strange: the lark spit, sugar nippers, spice tin and marmalade cutter might be a little mysterious, but the iron skillets, brass pots, steel cutlery and chinaware would be old friends.

There were cupboards and working tables, but no built-in cabinets, and probably a sink or two after piped water became common. There might have been a new Hoosier cabinet after the turn of the century.

Photo Villa Louis Estate Victorian Kitchen Recreation This restored Victorian kitchen at the Villa Louis Estate, Prairie Du Chien, WI is an example of a very well equipped kitchen of the era. The iron stove, table mounted sink and central work-table are all typical. For those interested, the Estate offers culinary tours and hand-on workshops on the preparation of a Victorian meal. By reservation only..

When you think Victorian kitchen, think rustic and primitive. That's what they were more often than not. Indoor plumbing was introduced into the cities of the Victorian era, and some helpful appliances were introduced, ice-boxes, for example, to keep food cold (not refrigerators, which came later, but insulated boxes that held blocks of ice), and wood or coal burning stoves to replace the venerable hearth. but for the most part the kitchen was virtually the same kitchen that had existed for 200 years.

Victorian Kitchens - Reproduction Antique Stove The gas stoves of the late Victorian age were so well made that thousands of them still exist, as do companies that restore them. An alternative is a modern range made to look like an antique stove like this one from Elmira Stove Works modeled on an 1850s wood stove. Our perception of the Victorian period is that anyone well-off enough to afford to own a house was probably also able to afford a cook. Cooking was, indeed, sometimes done by servants. But, the actual fact is that barely 25% of Victorian middle-class homes had servants, and most of these were part time. Cooking was usually the responsibility of the housewife and daughters in most households. It took on average 44 hours a week to prepare, serve and clean up after meals. Add to that the average 27 hours per week spent in housecleaning and laundry, and it is clear that the Victorian housewife was a very busy person.

The primitive design of kitchens of the period did not help. The notion of scientific kitchen design was many years in the future. Dedicated task stations in distinct work zones, and even the kitchen triangle, were concepts that would not exist for few more decades. Only late in the period did natural gas ranges become available in cities. And very late in the age, electricity started to become available in a few major cities. But there were no electric appliances to speak of. It was used mostly for lighting. Storage was primitive. A Victorian kitchen would have a lot of overhead racks for pots and pans, and hooks and open shelving for cookware and dishes.

Planning a Victorian-ear kitchen to look authentic yet include modern functionality and convenience is a major design challenge. One the one hand, we do not want to do without dishwashers, refrigerators and modern ranges, and we want to include the design efficiencies of a modern kitchen — but we don't want it to look modern. We want it to look Victorian. But, Victorian kitchens did not have refrigerators, dishwashers, range ventilation or modern cooking equipment. So, how to reach a balance?

Whatever solution we come up with has to meet the basic rules for kitchen design, or the kitchen will not be acceptably functional, and it has to include a necessary feature that Victorians did not have — electricity. All of this can create quite the design challenge.

Cabinets and Storage: A Victorian kitchen should never look built in. Built-in cabinets came much later to American kitchens — not becoming common until after 1945. Use as few built-in cabinets as possible in a Victorian kitchen, and make the few that are included look more like furniture. Built-ins are inevitable, but should not look built in.

The principal work surface should not be a countertop but a large work table, countertop height, located, if space exists, in the middle of the kitchen. The Victorians invented the original kitchen island, and it was a table. The table should be, and look, massive, with wide turned legs and a thick, preferably wood — chopping-block style — top. the table should have drawers on both long sides for convenient storage of small utensils. When not in use for food preparation, with the addition of some counter-height stools, it can become an informal dining table.

Victorian Kitchens - Victorian Kitchen Work Table One of our Victorian Kitchen work tables — in Blue Marigold with a dense maple work surface. A large, heavy counter-height worktable should be the focal point of a reproduction Victorian kitchen. This is where the work in a Victorian kitchen was done, and is the main working surface in our reproduction kitchen. But, now we need to add something the Victorians did not have — electricity. Today's cook is not going to do without the chopper, mixer, blender and processor essential to modern cooking. To get electricity to the table, we drill straight through one leg and run an electrical line from under the floor. This is connected to outlets in the side (or "apron") of the table (visible, but convenient), or even underneath the table top on all four sides (out of sight, but less convenient).

Victorian Kitchen A Victorian kitchen was often located in the basement or an outbuilding to keep cooking grease and odors from permeating the house — and to reduce the fire hazard. Most pots, pans and utensils were hung from the walls and ceiling. If there were any cabinets, they were just movable cupboards and sideboards. Food preparation and baking competed for space at the large central island table that doubled as the servants dining table. Cooking was done in a fireplace or, in the late Victorian, on a wood- or coal-burning iron stove. Base cabinets are inevitable, if only to provide a place to install a dishwasher. They should have legs, particularly turned legs, to give more of a furniture effect. Cabinet depths should vary, some shallow and some deep. The furniture effect is enhanced if the cabinetry is given more than one finish, some stained, but most painted. As long as the colors complement each other, even three or four different finishes can be used.

Wall cabinets should be avoided, but if used, the doors should be glazed to make them appear more open. We have also used pierced tin panels to good effect. The preferred storage is open shelves. Put boxes and baskets on the shelves to store things. In many ways these portable containers are more convenient cabinet shelves because they can be carried right to the place where their contents will be used. Hooks and pegs for storing utensils have a big place in a Victorian kitchen. Hooks over the center worktable can hold pots and plan, hooks on the side of the table can hold frequently used utensils. Victorian Kitchens - Victorian Kitchen by Steve Austin. Click to enlarge.
Click to Enlarge

 When hurricane Ike destroyed the renovated kitchen in his Victorian house, Galveston resident Steve Austin spent his months as a guest of FEMA figuring out how to restore it to its original Victorian style. Then he wrote about his experiences for Old-House Online. This is how a reproduction Victorian kitchen should look. The combination of Hoosier-style cabinets, storage built into the wainscot, shelves and hooks give the kitchen all the storage of modern fitted cabinets.

Painted cabinets rule in Victorian kitchens. Stained wood can be used, but should be used sparingly. Door styles and finishes should be mixed and matched for the desired effect of making the cabinetry appear free-standing. Tall wall cabinets (called "dressers" in a Victorian kitchen) should go all the way to a standard 8-foot ceiling (which ideally would be pressed tin) or to at least the 8-foot level of a higher ceiling. The upper shelves are used to store rarely used items. There are no soffits in a Victorian kitchen. Soffits are a post-war innovation, never seen in a Victorian era kitchen.

The one cabinet that does look completely at home is a Hoosier-style tep-back cabinet combining base and wall cabinet in one integrated (or apparently integrated) unit. In addition to being stylistically authentic, these cabinets provide scads of useful storage. A Kitchen in a Box — The Hoosier Kitchen Cabinet
Around 1899 J. S. McGuinn of Indiana got an idea for a self-contained food preparation center by taking a baker's cabinet and compacting it into a practical work center. He founded the Hoosier Manufacturing Company to make them, and by 1920 his hoosier cabinets were in millions of American homes. Sold as time- and step-savers for mom, but also, more importantly, sold on an early form of installment plan: $1.00 down and $1.00 a week, they were the kitchen revolution of a time when few homes had cabinets.

Hoosier Cabniets

Four to five feet wide, with built in sugar and flour bins (including a shifter at the bottom), numerous drawers and shelves, spice jars, racks for pots, pans and bowls, and a zinc-lined bread box, the Hoosier cabinet was virtually a compact kitchen in a box in which all of the clutter could be hidden behind attractive cabinet doors.

It captured the trend current at the time for a well-organized life ("a place for everything, and everything in its place") that also gave rise to the self-contained office, the Wooten Patented Cabinet Office Secretary. The original Hoosier spawned many initiators, some of whom were true innovators, including McDougall, Sellers, Napanee, and Castle — any of which, if in good shape, bring many, many dollars at antique sales today.

But, if you can't find a perfect match for your kitchen at the antique store, don't worry, we can build one for you to your precise specifications — and for quite a bit less money. Just contact us for more information.

Countertops and Working Surfaces Victorian working surfaces were slate, soapstone, wood or zinc. Individual worktables or Hoosier cabinets might have enameled steel tops. In fact zinc and "porceliron", a type of enamel steel similar to that used on modern cooking ranges, are more or less the defining work-surface treatments of the era. Manufactured stone or stone-look laminates would also work if they look like slate or soapstone. Tile and Corian®-type solid surfacing are not appropriate.

Mix and match countertops and other work surfaces, some zinc, some stone, some wood to give more of a furniture feel. A mass of countertop in the same material extending the length of the cabinetry is not the effect we are looking for. We have also seen concrete countertops used to good effect in Victorian-style kitchens. But you have to be careful with this material. If it looks too much like concrete, it seems out of place.

Kitchen Flooring For flooring, random-width plank wood, or true linoleum are the first choices. Most likely in 1890, linoleum would have been the first choice. Wood finishes of the time were not up to the rugged use to which a kitchen floor is exposed. Christine Frederick, a pioneer home economist of the time wrote…
The floor covering of a kitchen should allow complete and easy washing, the surface should not be covered with any porous material which will absorb or stain with grease. Linoleum, tile and a new cork material very restful to the fee are the best coverings; wood is too porous and turns dark and ugly with washing…
Christine Frederic,The New HouseKeeping New York, Doubleday, Page & Co., 1913
Early wood floors were unfinished, oiled or waxed, and did turn gray with frequent washing. Painted floors became more common once durable enamel paints were available. Only very late in the Victorian age did stained and varnished floors appear. The preferred wood is wide-plank pine, but oak, ash and fir are also suitable. Ceramic and stone are okay, if not strictly to period. Vinyl sheet flooring can simulate linoleum and laminate can mimic the look of planked wood. Cork is also a suitable material. It was just becoming available as flooring at the end of the Victorian era.

Mouldings We commonly see ornate compound crown moldings in recreated Victorian kitchens. Actual period kitchens rarely had them. The idea has been imported by kitchen designers from more public rooms where ornate moulding were almost required. This heavy crown treatment also assumes you have a typical 9 or 10-foot Victorian ceiling. If not, then some aesthetic adjustment must be made. Base molding should be deep, at least 6", and at least 3/4" thick. By contrast, modern base molding is usually just 3/8" thick and not more than 3-1/4" deep. Chair rails are rare (unless incorporated into wainscot), but picture molding, usually incorporated into shelving, can be used to hang pans and other kitchen implements at eye level.

Appliances Modern appliances tend to look out of place in a Victorian kitchen — more so than is the case with any other kitchen style. We cannot do without them, so special efforts need to be made to make them fit in.

Victorian Kitchens - Magic Chef 1000 Range You want features? How about the four burners, 2 ovens, broiler, bread warmer and utensil drawer in this Magic Chef 1000 range. And, this was Magic Chef's compact range. The company also made larger six and eight burner units. Modern appliances with a Victorian look are available. Elmira Stove Works makes a line of ranges, refrigerators, even dishwasher panels designed to resemble appliances of the period. The range is very convincing, but the refrigerator is less so. Essentially a modern side-by-side refrigerator with a door style that resembles a Victorian oven door. The wall oven is even less convincing. For a restored antique Victorian stove, try Antique Stoves.

Photo: The Mount Victorian Kitchens - Butler Pantry Butler pantry in the restored Edith Wharton house. Modern dishwashers can be hidden behind panels that match the cabinetry. Many dishwashers are designed to accept a wood panel insert to match the cabinetry. Refrigerators are more of a problem. Our preferred solution is to move them out of the kitchen into an adjoining pantry or porch. But if this is not possible, they should be wrapped with cabinet wood both to minimize their bulk and to disguise their modernity as much as possible. For more information on wrapping refrigerators, see Kitchen Remodeling on the Cheap . We have also resorted to building them into a closet. A closet door hides the refrigerator.

Most Requested Feature A separate butler's pantry is the most requested Victorian kitchen feature. In the original Victorian house, the butler's pantry was a transition room between the hot, bustling and noisy kitchen and the quiet, cool dining room where the family and guests gathered for dinner. It stored dinner- and servingware and often doubled as a wet bar after dinner where gentlemen guests gathered. In its modern incarnation, the butler's pantry often contains a sink and dishwasher for quick after-dinner cleanup, and the liquor and wines. An undercabinet refrigerator is also convenient. It replaces the sideboard for storing dinner ware and serving pieces, linens and silverware.

The Victorian Bathroom
The Victorians invented the modern bath with running water, porcelain fixtures and a flushing toilet. And to celebrate their inventiveness, proceeded to add as much fuss and detail as they could to the room. Victorian bathrooms, especially in England and the Northeast United States were elaborate fanciful rooms. Photo: Thomas J. Crapper & Co., Ltd. Decorated Victorian Toilet An original, highly decorated Victorian toilet. Rare and expensive at the time, these were often shown off to guests.

The Clawfoot Tub: The defining characteristic of a Victorian bath is a large clawfoot tub. Photo: Extra Special Tile Company. Victorian Bath A reproduced Victorian bath featuring period tile from the Victoria & Albert Collection of the Extra Special Tile Company. The tub, connected to running water, was an innovation that sparked a change in the hygiene habits of American. Prior to the Victorian Age, a bath once of twice a year was the norm. More frequent bathing was considered somehow unmanly and even dangerous to the health. The Victorians changed that. A whole raft of organizations and societies trumpeted the benefits of frequent bathing — with soap, mind you — and by the turn of the 20th century, weekly bathing was the rule, at least in the cities.

If you are lucky, your Victorian bathroom already has a clawfoot tub, so all we need to do it get it cleaned up or refinished. Most of these tubs have a thick coat of porcelain enamel, so thick that it can be refinished several times. So if your tub is not rusting away (and sometimes even if it is), it can be restored to nearly new condition in about a day. If you don't have a tub, or it's in just in too cruddy a condition to save, there are plenty of local and national sources of new and refurbished tubs. New tubs have some nice features, including compatibility with modern plumbing fixtures, and can include a whirlpool or Jacuzzi. Thomas Crapper Toilet An original Thomas Crapper toilet with wall-hung 3-gallon "high" tank. Despite the name, and common belief, Crapper probably did not invent the siphoning toilet, but was one of its first industrial manufacturers. Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd. has been producing bathroom fixtures continuously since 1861.

Unfortunately, if you do have the original clawfoot tub, you probably also have the original plumbing. Plan on replacing most of this. It may be lead pipe, or more probably in this part of the country, galvanized steel. But in either case it is well beyond its useful life and needs to go. The faucets that work with clawfoot tubs are special. The most compatible with modern bathing are the "telephone" style arrangements with separate hand shower. (See: Sources of Supply: Faucets for detailed information on faucet features and manufacturers). Victorian faucet A modern version of a Victorian brass bathroom faucet and bowl. The finish never needs polishing, unlike early brass faucets that turned green overnight.

But if the clawfoot does not fit your room, any modern drop-in fixture will work provided the enclosure built to house the tub is Victorian in style.

The Flushing Toilet: The flushing toilet was actually invented in England in 1596, but it did not work very well and did not come into widespread use until the last half of the 19th century with the invention of the sanitary siphoning toilet. These worked so well that it is the same technology we use today in 99% of all toilets.

The signature feature of Victorian-era toilets is the placement of the tank several feet above the bowl. This is what is commonly thought of as the "high tank" toilet. The high tank was more a matter of function than style. These early toilets were very inefficient. Waste was removed from the bowl and through the trap below the bowl by water flowing out holes in the rim around the top of the bowl. For the water to have sufficient pressure to completely remove the waste, the tank had to be hung at least four feet above the bowl. Typical tanks released 3 gallons of water per flush, more than twice what a modern toilet uses, and made enough noise to wake up the entire house.

Toilets were often hand painted and highly decorated as befit a device that was both rare and expensive. Tanks were typically made of tin-lined wood, cast iron and vitreous china. Tanks were sometimes decorated, but not as elaborately as bowls.

After the introduction of the more efficient siphonic jet flush toilet in the 1890's, the high tank was no longer required as a matter of function but sanitaryware manufacturers continued to offer them as an option to low tanks. The high tank had become a design tradition of Victorian style and remained popular until the early 20th century when tastes changed to modern toilets that looked clean and functional.

Victorian vanity A rather restrained Victorian vanity. The Victorian Vanity: A Victorian vanity was not just a place to wash up, but also a place to display wealth and taste. It is almost impossible to get too garish. Original vanities would have been fine wood sideboards, commodes or dry sinks adopted to use as a vanity by the addition of a bowl and plumbing. Marble, especially white marble, was the typical top, but other stones and porcelain tiles were also used. Tile in small formats: 2" x 2" mosaics and smaller were favored.

Almost any faucet manufacturer makes faucets that are elaborate enough for use in a Victorian bathroom. Selecting a finish for your Victorian faucet is fairly easy. There are two, polished nickel and polished brass.

Brass was the original faucet finish. Its limitation was that it needed nearly daily polishing before modern finishes made it nearly tarnish-proof. Chrome actually did not come into widespread use until the 1920s. Before that, faucets were plated, if at all, with polished nickel.

Brass and nickel, then, are the authentic Victorian faucet finishes. You can, of course, go with hand-rubbed oiled bronze or some other more modern finish, but it will likely seem out of place.
1 The United States hardly had a monopoly on itinerant German workmen. Germany in 18th and 19th centuries was a land of frequent civil wars among the nobility in a country that had no effective central government. Germans fled in every direction. In the 1800s many settled along the Volga River in Russia at the invitation of Catherine the Great (herself a German). But in the late 19th century with increasing tensions between Germany and Russia, these settlements began to be looked on with suspicion by the Russian Czar, and many of the original rights granted to the German settlements were withdrawn. Many Volga Germans stayed, but just as many re-immigrated, several thousand to Lincoln, Nebraska where they found work on farms, in factories and with the many railroads running through the city. The "Russian Bottoms" neighborhoods were actually settle by Germans from Russia (also called Volga Germans or Volga Dutch), and not ethnic Russians (although we have those too), and for many years public schools in German areas were taught in both German and English, leading to an important civil rights case, Meyer v. Nebraska which overturned a 1919 Nebraska law prohibiting public school instruction in German.






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