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Adam Style: a style named after Robert Adam, an English architect in the 18th century who was a master in interior decorative motifs based on ancient Roman details
Adobe: a sun-dried, unfired brick of earth or clay mixed with straw; a structure made with such bricks
Arcade: a series of arches supported by columns or piers; a building or part of a building with a series of arches; or a roofed passageway.
Architrave: the lower part of a classical entablature, resting directly on the capital of a column; the molding around a window or door.
Arts and Crafts Movement: a style and movement that appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States, following the British movement of the same name. It promoted the rejection of historically based ornamentation.
Balustrade: balusters are upright, often vase-shaped, supports for a railing, commonly found around a balcony or porch, or just above the parapet of a building at the roof line. A series of balusters with a handrail and base rail forms a balustrade.
Battlement: a parapet built with indentations for defense or decoration.
Bay Window: a window with angled sides that project from a wall.
Beam: a horizontal, load-supporting structural member.
Belt Course: a narrow horizontal band projecting from the exterior walls of a building, usually defining the interior floor levels.
Board-and-batten: a method of siding in which vertical boards are nailed to the frame of a house and narrow boards (called "battens") are applied over the joints between the boards.
Box and Strip: see board-and batten.
Built Environment: the man-made or constructed portion of a locale; it may include landscaping features, paving, structures and buildings.
Buttress: a projecting structure of masonry or wood for supporting or giving stability to a wall or building.
Capital: the top decorative portion of a column or pilaster that crowns the shaft and supports the entablature. May be of simple design, such as the Doric order, or more elaborate like the Ionic and Corinthian orders.
Chevron: a V-shaped decoration generally used as a continuous molding.
Chimney Pots: a pipe placed on top of the chimney, usually of earthenware, that functions as a continuation of the flue and improves the draft.
Clapboard: a long, narrow board with one edge thicker than the other, overlapped to cover the outer walls of frame structures.
Classical: pertaining to the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome
Column: a vertical support of round or square section usually consisting of three parts: base, shaft, and capital. A series of columns forms a colonnade.
Composite Order: a combination of two or more styles of column capitals used in Renaissance architecture.
Corbel: a bracket of stone, wood, or metal projecting from the side of a wall and serving to support a cornice, the spring of an arch, a balustrade or other element.
Corinthian Order: the most ornate of the classical Greek orders of architecture, characterized by slender fluted column with a bell-shaped capital decorated with stylized acanthus leaves; variations of this order were extensively used by the Romans.
Cornice: the upper, projecting section of an entablature in classical architecture; or the projecting ornamental molding crowning the top of a building or wall.
Crockets: in Gothic architecture, carved projections in the shape of stylized leaves that decorate the edges of spires, gables, pinnacles.
Doric Order: the oldest and simplest of the classical Greek orders, characterized by heavy fluted columns with no base, plain saucer shaped capitals and bold simple cornice.
Dormer: a vertically set window on a sloping roof; the roofed structure housing such a window.
Double Hung Sash Window: a window with two sashes, one above the other, arranged to slide vertically past each other.
Eave: the projecting overhang at the lower edge of a roof.
Eclectic: composed of elements drawn from various sources.
Elliptical: a flattened circle shape or half a flattened circle shape.
Entablature: the upper part of an Order of architecture comprising architrave, frieze and cornice, supported by a colonnade (see column).
Facade: the face or elevation of a building, usually the front.
Fanlight: a semi-circular or fan-shaped window with radiating members or tracery set over a door or window.
Finial: an ornament at the top of a spire, gable or pinnacle.
Fluted: having regularly spaced vertical, parallel grooves, as on the shaft of a column, pilaster or other surface.
Gable: the vertical, pyramidal, or triangular-shaped wall segment enclosed by the ends of a ridged roof.
Gambrel: a ridged roof with two slopes on each side, the lower slope having a steeper pitch than the upper.
Georgian Style: A Classical English style prominent from about 1702 through 1830.
Half-timbering: wood timber wall construction in which the spaces between the exposed timber frame members is filled with brick, stone, or stucco (plaster).
Hipped-roof: a roof with four uniformly pitched sides and no gable ends.
Ionic Order: an order of classical Greek architecture characterized by a capital with two opposed volutes.
Lintel: a horizontal beam spanning an opening.
Molding: a continuous decorative band that is either carved into or applied to a surface.
Motif: an element in a composition, a principal repeated element in design.
Nave: the space where worshippers are seated in a church.
Order: any of several specific styles of classical and Renaissance architecture characterized by the type of column used. Classical orders include Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns. Renaissance orders include Composite and Tuscan.
Parapet: a low, solid, protective wall or railing along the edge of a roof.
Pediment: a triangular piece of wall above the entablature enclosed by ranking cornices; or a feature resembling one.
Pier: a vertical support for an arch or lintel.
Pilaster: a shallow pier or half column attached to a wall and not free-standing.
Pinnacle: a terminal decorative feature rising above a spire, lantern or so forth.
Porte Cochere: a large covered entrance porch through which vehicles can drive.
Portico: a covered porch, usually with a pedimented roof, supported by classical columns.
Preservation: the act or process of applying measures necessary to sustain the existing form, integrity, and materials of a historic property without new exterior additions. Work generally focuses upon the ongoing maintenance and repair of historic materials and features rather than extensive replacement and new construction.
Quoin: projecting units of stone or brick, often of alternating sizes, used to accentuate the corners of a building.
Rafter: a structural member supporting a roof deck. A rafter tail is the portion of a rafter that extends beyond the exterior wall.
Rehabilitation: the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair, alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its historical, cultural, or architectural values.
Remodel: to remake; to make over. Changing the appearance by removing original detail and altering spaces and installing new materials and forms.
Restoration: the act or process of accurately depicting the form, features, and character of a property as it appeared at a particular period of time by means of the removal of features from other periods in its history and reconstruction of missing features from the restoration period.
Ridge: the horizontal peak of a roof.
Sash: the frame in which the glass panes of a window are set.
Shaft: the main part of a column between the base and the capital.
Shed Roof: a low-pitched roof.
Sidelight: windows located on either side of a doorway.
Sill: the horizontal bottom member of a window or door frame.
Spandrel: the wall space immediately below an upper story window.
Spindle: a turned wooden element, often used in screens, stair railings and porch trim.
Spire: the tapering termination of a tower.
String Course: a thin projecting horizontal strip of masonry on the facade of a building.
Terra-cotta: a fine grained, brown-red, fired ceramic (clay) used for roofing tiles and ornamentation, sometimes glazed as on the Kress Building.
Tracery: the curved mullions of a stone-framed window; ornamental work of pierced patterns in or on a screen, window glass or panel.
Trellis: a frame of latticework.
Tudor Arch: a low, wide pointed arch common in the architecture of Tudor England.
Turret: a small, slender tower usually at the corner of a building, often containing a circular stair.
Tuscan Order: a classical order characterized by simplicity.
Verge Board: the board appearing at the gable edge of a roof, often with decorative patterns.
Weatherboard: wooden
siding, see clapboard.