The Queen Anne style contains varied, exuberant architectural elements. Details from many other styles are reinterpreted and captured in Queen Anne design. Queen Anne houses have irregular floor plans, large porches, and elaborate decoration on exterior surfaces. Roofs are steeply pitched, some with coverings of colored slate, patterned oversize asphalt shingles, or terra cotta tiles. Ornamental wood shingles, with a diamond, square or fishscale pattern, are often used on gables. Turned wood porch columns usually have trim of elaborately sawn wood, lacy spandrels, spindle work, beaded balusters, and ornamented attic vents or windows. Windows may be leaded and stained glass, and transoms and sidelights are often found. The expanding railroads helped to popularize it by making pre-cut architectural details widely available
Queen Anne Cottage: The Queen Anne Cottage grew out of the Queen Anne style. It probably was not designed by an architect, but was a builder form. One or one and one-half stories in height, it usually has a hip and gable roof, corbelled interior chimneys, and sawn wood ornamentation. The Queen Anne Cottage has a large front porch. The porch roof usually has wooden columns that may be turned, chamfered or rounded.
Sketch credit: Ken Sievert, Architect