Need an expert on historical house styles to weigh in

[mtnester]

We have a slight disagreement in the family on the original family house. It still stands today, and we are working on a presentation (humongous one) we are putting together to see if the This Old House folks will want to participate when we restore the house. We know for a fact that the house was completed prior to 1844. We believe, based upon the style of the front door, that this is a Federal style house, rather than a Georgian Federal. However, there is some disagreement as to whether it is Georgian Revival. I have attached a picture of the house as it stood in the 1890's.

Anyone want to weigh in? I am not really convinced that is is Georgian Revival, as the time frame on building the thing seems to be wrong.

Here is the house as it was in the 1890's(my great grandfather is sitting in front of the porch, my great great grandmother is standing, and the older gentleman in the chair is Alexis Jeffries, the father of boxer Jim Jeffries (which is my great great grandmother's nephew, and a cousin to myself)



Thanks to all who weigh in!

[KingofNewOrleans]

1. That front porch is bugging me

really doesn't fit with either Federal or Georgian style. Was it added later? Really Federal and Georgian style are extremely similar and they had similar time frames too. If the door seems Federal style go with Federal.

[mtnester]

2. I agree with you on the front porch, it is ostentatious

compared to the rest of the house, and leads me toward a Victorian add-on (2which would be the time line this picture was taken in)

The transom over the door says Georgian, but the roof line work says Federal, as does the hip roof and side chimney. You would not believe the staircase just inside that front door.

We will probably end up taking this to an architectural historian to confirm.

To the left in that picture and out of site is the original log cabin of the first settler of that land built somewhere give or take 5 years either direction of 1796. Those logs were then used to build part of the big barn, then when the big barn was torn down in the early 1980's, a log cabin was rebuilt by my father and grandfather which was a duplicate of the original log cabin.

Whew....and thanks!