Home > Context > Property Types > Residential Architecture > Description > Single-Family Houses > Victorian Styles Single-Family Houses (2.1.1.1)Late Nineteenth Century Victorian Styles (2.1.1.1.4)Most of Elizabeth City's late nineteenth and some of its early twentieth century dwellings exhibit elements of the eclectic styles then in national fashion. These houses utilize the basic forms of the gable-front double-pile, the single-pile, and the L- and T- plan, or more complicated forms which are often an elaboration of the T-plan or double-pile form. The most popular style was the Queen Anne, which was employed for dozens of houses of large and medium size. Many more dwellings, particularly those of traditional form and modest size, were finished simply with turned and sawn millwork--much of it manufactured locally--which was applied to provide a measure of stylistic decoration. Other late nineteenth century styles, such as the Gothic Revival, Stick, Shingle, and Richardsonion Romanesque, appear only as secondary motifs. The only Italianate style residence is the Haycock-Spellman House (301 Speed Street, ca. 1870), a distinctive two-story double-pile, side-hall-plan structure that combines a shallow hip roof, carved mock-rafters, and four round-arched bays in an unusual picturesque dwelling. While wood shingles are commonly used as gable accents on period houses throughout the city, and as exterior siding for a limited selection of Traditional, Colonial Revival, American Foursquare, and Bungalow houses, no examples of the Shingle Style are known to have been built in Elizabeth City. Likewise, framed panels containing sheathed tongue-and-groove boards, a common element of the Stick Style, are often seen on Queen Anne residences. All three of the city's nineteenth century Second Empire style houses were razed between 1938 and the 1960s. About the turn of the twentieth century, the growing popularity of neoclassical elements, along with more rectilinear forms, began to appear in predominantly Queen Anne style designs as the Colonial Revival and Neo-Classical Revival styles became increasingly popular.
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