Stick Style

Herman C. Timm House, a stick style house in New Holstein, Wisconsin.	Galveston, Texas.
Stick Style The Stick style sought to bring a translation of the balloon framing used in houses in the era by alluding to them through plain trim boards, soffits, aprons, and other decorative features, while eliminating overtly ornate features such as rounded towers and gingerbread trim. Maximum picturesque value could be achieved within the means of a house-carpenter equipped with a woodturning lathe. Recognizably “Queen Anne” details: interpenetrating roof planes with bold panelled brick chimneys, the embedded corner tower (rendered as an octagon) with its conical roof, the wrap-around porch, spindle detailing, the “panelled” sectioning of blank wall, crown detailing along the roof peaks, radiating spindle details at the gable peaks. The home of President Warren G. Harding (not illustrated) in Marion, Ohio, is another example of stick style architecture; however the porch (which is best known as the home of the Front Porch Campaign of 1920) designed by architect Frank Packard and built onto the house is neo-classical in style, while influenced by the Queen Anne era in that it wraps around the house. Highly stylized and decorative versions of the Stick style are often referred to as Eastlake.
The decorative possibilities inherent in machine-manufactured wood were promoted by late 19th-century architects working in the Eastlake/Stick style. The name refers to both Charles Eastlake, an English architect who advocated the use of wooden decoration, and the use of wooden “stick work”. Stick style houses do not use ornamentation, but rather use the patterns, and lines created by half- timbering. Because the decorative details are flat, they are often covered over when homeowners later remodel. The Stick style was short lived because it couldn’t compete with the fancier Queen Annes. Since few were built, and many of those have been lost, or covered over, very few authentic Stick style homes remain intact. Stick style homes usually have many of these features: Decorative half-timbering that interrupts the surface of the building Decorative trusses, braces and brackets Rectangular shapes Wood siding/wall cladding Steep, gabled roofs; usually with cross gables that show decorative trusses at the apex Overhanging eaves with exposed rafter ends Ornamental trusses (gable braces) One-story porches with diagonal or curved braces -wood construction -decorative wooden planks (or “stick work”) which outline the underlying wood frame structure -intricate wooden details, such as lathe-turned spindles and jigsaw-cut brackets.