"Georgian" is often used to describe houses built during the reign of the Georges in England. This house has many typical features of the eighteenth-century New England house: wood frame construction, large chimneys, narrow clapboards, and small-paned sash windows. Symmetry was the rule during this period, and the characteristic facade has a central entrance with two windows on either side. The square, heavy proportions of these buildings often give an effect of massiveness. The gable, dormers, portico and shutters on this example are not original.

The rediscovery and renewed interest in the ruins of ancient Greek architecture inspired this style. More elaborate homes often freely copied the columned porticos of classical Greek temples. In this example the classical details are more subtle, but characteristically represented by the supporting pilasters at the corners, the wide entablature under the eaves and the triangular pediment. The size and symmetrical placement of the windows and the recessed entrance emphasize the bold classical scale of the building.

This picturesque style was based on real and imagined concepts of Italian country homes built during the Renaissance. Classical details featured here are arched and balconied windows, a bracketed cornice and an arcaded porch. The grouping of masses in an L-shape around a central tower is also typical and allowed for flexibility in the arrangement of generous interior spaces.

Italianate refers to a simpler style of building than Italian Villa, but with similar classical detailing. Italianate houses are usually compact square blocks with wide eaves, tail windows and formal, symmetrical facades. This two-and-a-half story double house is a common type in Hartford, with its pedimented entrance portico, ornamental window hoods, and brick string course at the top story suggesting a classical frieze. Red brick with brownstone lintels, sills and foundations were the materials most often used.

Interest in the romance of the Middle Ages gave the initial impetus for the fanciful reinterpretations of Gothic architecture which spanned the nineteenth century. This style can be identified by steeply pitched roofs, wall dormers and asymmetrical masses. The tall windows and the narrow width of the front of this "Carpenter Gothic" example emphasize its characteristic verticality. Decorative accents include patterned woodwork in the dormers and pointed arches with jig-sawn "gingerbread" at the porch.

A high mansard roof pierced with dormers is the hallmark of the Second Empire style, named after the monumental architecture of Paris during the reign of Napoleon III. The tall narrow proportions, central tower and rich ornamentation in this South End house also characterize the style. Typical features are the arched windows, molded window caps, bracketed cornice and the ornate cast-iron cresting rail crowning the roof line.

This style, named for the English monarch, was coined to describe buildings inspired by pre-Georgian English architecture. An exuberant variety of forms, textures, materials and colors is characteristic of the style. The complex massing is enriched by the addition of towers, projecting pavilions, porches and encircling verandahs. Decorative details include stained glass, textured brickwork, elaborate woodwork, molded terra cotta panels and rusticated brownstone foundations. Hartford has numerous vernacular examples which repeat this basic form in brick or frame, though with somewhat simpler detail.

Architecture with classical or even colonial embellishments which adapted rather than followed historic precedent were typical of the turn of the century Classical Revival. Imaginative houses of this period, really variations of the Queen Anne type, abound in Hartford. An asymmetrical floor plan and intersecting gable and hip roofs, a wide porch, bay windows and a second or third story overhang are common features. A Palladian window, double rows of shingles, balustrades and ornamentation in the style of the English Adam brothers are a few more of the wide variety of details that can be found in houses of this type.

Also known as Jacobethan, this style takes its name and appearance from late medieval English architecture which features the well known brick first story and upper stories of half-timber and stucco. Period detailing includes tall molded chimneys, large windows with leaded panes, heavy buttresses, Tudor-arched doorways, multiple gable roofs, and the use of contrasting stone for sills, lintels, mullions and keystones.

The name of this style comes from a Hindustani word applied by the British in nineteenth century India to a low house surrounded by a verandah. The "true" bungalow has one story under a broad, gently pitched roof. In keeping with the functional simplicity of the style, this example is of modest size, uses rough fieldstone for foundations, fireplace and porch piers, and keeps detailing to a minimum. Characteristic accents include casement windows on either side of the chimney stack, exposed rafters extending beyond the roof, and in this instance, an eyebrow window relieving the gradual slope of the overhanging roof.

The Colonial Revival exemplifies an early twentieth-century concept that architecture and decoration should conform to one historical style. The mass, most typically a solid block with a hipped or gabled roof, is relieved here by a side porch addition and a projecting portico. Detailing is simplified and limited to a few well-chosen features: classical Doric columns and entablature on the portico, Flemish bond brickwork on the facade, and a fanlight and sidelights framing the door. While the entrance portico may be set off-center, as in this example, the balanced window and dormer arrangement give these houses an overall symmetry.

The flat landscape of the midwest, where this style originated, gave the Prairie School its name. Design and massing were dependent upon the landscape and would vary with each site. The compact regular mass of this city example can be compared to its more sprawling midwestern prototypes. Common features such as the low hipped roof with projecting eaves, horizontally grouped windows, wood stripping carried around the corner of the house, and double rows of shingles reinforce the horizontal characteristics in this style. Its influence can be readily seen in many ranch-style homes of today.