Spanish Revival Style

Minneapolis Spanish House Styles

It’s Minna again, and this time I am blogging about my absolute favorite style of house–Spanish Mission.  Well, to be more precise, I will be blogging about the Spanish Revival Style as we do not have many Missions in Minnesota.  Spanish Missions are mainly in California, but we do have some impressive Spanish Colonials and Mediterraneans in Minneapolis.

Common Characteristics of Spanish Style Houses

How do you recognize a Spanish-flavored house?  First of all, the red clay roof is a dead giveaway.  Sometimes the roof is blue or another color, but it is most often a distinctive red.  The Spanish Colonial is an ornate house that has the structure of a Colonial with arched doorways and windows, wrought-iron railings on balconies that overlook the Mediter–er, Lake Harriet, and stately columns that may support an arched entryway.

The Mediterranean, on the other hand, is much less ostentatious, but similarly evocative of romance and European je ne sais quois.  A Mediterranean sports the ubiquitous red clay roof and also incorporates wrought-iron railings, but in a more elegant manner.  Both may have a bell tower or a suggestion of a bell tower as well.

Visit Houses Of Minneapolis .com

If you would like to learn more about the Spanish Revival Style, visit www.HousesofMinneapolis.com where there is plenty of information about this style as well as other character styles.  Hope to see you there.

Frank Lloyd Wright….Service Station?

Hi, I’m Minna, and I’ll be your guest blogger for the day–I hope you enjoy your stay. 

Today’s topic is Frank Lloyd Wright’s service station, also called the Lindholm Service Station because it was built for the Lindholm Oil Co., in Cloquet because it’s celebrating its 50^th anniversary, and I heard it being discussed on MPR on the way to work. 

It seems funny to be talking about a Frank Lloyd Wright service station as a gas station doesn’t seem compatible with the man who invented the Prairie School Style of architecture.  I mean, what would such a structure look like?  Actually, the service station does have typical Prairie School features such as a cantilevered roof, lots of windows, and projecting eaves.  It was Wright’s vision of Utopia and what he dreamed America could one day be.

Here is a slideshow on MPR of the gas station:

Frank Lloyd Wright Gas Station

For the celebration, anyone driving a classic car will get gas at fifties’ prices, and the attendants will be wearing fifties’ uniforms.  There are a whole array of events which are listed here (HTML rather than PDF):

Frank Lloyd Wright Gala

I wish I had known about this earlier so I could have blogged about it before the day it happened, but if you have a few hours free today, you might want to attend.  Make a comment below if you do go-we’d love to hear about it.

Character Homes

We’ve got some character-filled homes in Minneapolis, so much so that I’ve dedicated a website entirely to the subject. I’ll be writing more about these old-style houses on this blog as well. But for now, please visit http://www.HousesOfMinneapolis.com and be sure to leave a comment!

On that website, Houses of Minneapolis, we refer to older character houses as being built prior to 1960. Minneapolis was incorporated in the 1850′s and many houses were built to reflect the various contemporary design of the respective eras. Much of Minneapolis was built out in the 1900′s through the 1960′s. After that, Minneapolis was mostly fully developed. There are pockets of houses built more recently, as well as the occasional in-fill house, too.

Come and explore the various styles that you’ll find around Minneapolis, including victorian, craftsman, prairie, colonial, mission, and more.