The American Foursquare house, as featured on Marquette's Champion Street.
This housing style was popular from the mid-1890s on until around 1940. It is typified by a boxy design, a front-facing dormer window, and a hipped roof (in the Upper Peninsula, the roof is pitched much more steeply due to the snowy climate). The square design maximizes the use of a small city lot.
Many of these houses could be ordered by mail from catalogues such as Sears and Roebucks. They were delivered by train and came ready to build, for a cheap price.
1 comment:
Thanks so much for posting this!! I'm working on a lengthy project (lengthy because it takes me forever to get back to it) about the American Foursquare in the Midwest, and this is an excellent collection. I lived in Marquette for years, and foolishly, I never noticed these houses and they are classic examples of the "prairie box!"
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